I’m just a little more than five months past rotator-cuff surgery and the overall fitness rebuild has been steady and up and to the right. I used to run largely by feel and never had a heart rate monitor. But my new upgrade, the Suunto Race 2, has been super helpful in relearning when to push, when to rest, when to back off and continue to regain my pre-surgery fitness. While the Sonoma CFC 55K that I ran a month or so ago was more of a comeback run with very little training, I felt like I was a lot better trained to run the Double Dipsea. And what better excuse than to show up to cheer for so many of my friends that were running the Quad! Here’s my Strava activity:

Quad Dipsea

Showed up early to meet up with John & Makiko, the latter running the quad. I haven’t seen them in ages and it was good to catch up. Also saw Will, Brian, Jack and Ethan, many of us starting on the ultra journey 14+ years ago. It just felt incredible to be back in such a positive, supporting community of ultra running.

John and I waited for the runners to leave and we headed out leisurely. Plan was for him to make it up to Cardiac, while I continue to Stinson Beach and turn around. So fun to catch up with him, his upcoming book, advances in medical science as it relates to endurance athletics. And once I mentioned to him that I’m planning to run the inaugural Bay Area 100M, he had an entire race plan he was ready to share!

After the 50 ultras in one year, followed by Boston qualifier and the shoulder niggles, I feel like I’ve been holding back, little burned out, little careful of busting my shoulder. On this run, I could feel that my joy of running was fully back – being amongst other runners, supporting each other and just soaking up the single tracks and the spectacular views. And I could see the methodical buildup working, running up large sections of Cardiac and the Dispsea trails.

As I descended down Dipsea towards Stinson Beach, saw Will, Makiko, Brian, Jack and Ethan all headed up. They would all finish with amazing times – 9K vertical over 28 miles is something you learn to respect pretty quickly.

As I headed back up to Cardiac, saw Errol “Rocket” Jones working his way up the slippery steps. I was like, “amazing job!”, to which he replies, “it’s still early” 🙂 True that. It reminded of the sign at mile 5ish at Lake Sonoma 50M that said “you are NOT almost there!”.

The highlight of this entire day though? Having cookies and chatting with Ann Trason. John knew her and introduced her to me. After a long hiatus, she’s back in the ultra running community, as a coach, mentor, supporter, cheerleader, etc. The fanboy in me wanted to talk about her 14 stunning wins at Western States 100M or her world record of 5:40:18 in the 50M distance, etc. Yet, she was enjoying a butter cookie and talking about how amazing it was. Talking about aid station food made perfect sense in the moment. I was incredibly happy to meet her and chat with her. So unassuming, humble with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. To refresh my memory on her running journey, I searched around and found this beautifully written article by a fellow runner Sarah Lavender Smith, from a while back. It perfectly captures the spirit of Ann Trason.

This is such an amazing community and I’m happy to return back to it, with that joyful spirit and no nagging injuries.