My El Moro Marathon

In my humble opinion, some of the most beautiful trails in Orange County are the closest ones to me in El Moro and Laguna Canyons. The park is right off PCH in Laguna and a group of us run there almost every Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
With the July 4th weekend, I decided to take Thursday off as well, making it a 4-day weekend for myself. And what does a girl like me do with a little extra free time?

Run a marathon, of course!

It actually wasn't intentional. I just wanted to run about 25 miles that day. So when I began mapping out my route, I decided on a 10 mile loop, a 8.7 mile loop, and a 7.5 mile loop. When I did the math, it came out to exactly 26.2 miles! So, it became a marathon.
I posted the run on the SCTHz private website, hoping to have different people meet me at different times, so that I would always have at least one other runner with me. I wanted to mimic an actual race, so I brought a cooler with "aid station" food and beverages so that I could refuel between loops.
The run started out at about 5:45 a.m. I enjoyed the company of Greg, Pete K., Mike K., E-Rod, Corrinne, and Molly. We did the 10-mile ranger station loop in the fog. So the run started out with nice, cool weather.
Only Corrinne stayed with me for the second loop. (Everyone else had to go to work.) She's going to run the Tahoe Rim 50K in a couple weeks, so she wanted one last, long run before the race. During that loop, the fog suddenly cleared up and the sun began to warm the air--just as we began the steep climb up Big Bend. I think it hit both of us. We were both really tired. But, as ultrarunners do, we just kept moving, never stopping. Corrinne is going to do great at Tahoe! She is also a recent convert to ultrarunning!
So after Corrinne got her 18.7 miles in, I was left to do the last 7.5 miles on my own. It's been over a year since I last went trail running alone. I usually discourage it, because you never know what could happen out there. But I felt optimistic. I changed my route so that I would stay on the fire roads. There also happened to be lots of people out that day--runners, hikers, and mountain bikers, so I figured I'd be okay. It was actually quite refreshing to have some alone time. The scenery was beautiful. The air was warm. I was able to go at my own relaxing pace.
I finished the run around 12:00. There was 5 hours 15 minutes of running with about an hour of stops and breaks at my "aid station." I'm training for the Mt. Disappointment 50 Miler in August, so I was so glad I did this run. The next day, I felt great! My legs would never have known they had just ran a marathon on some hilly trails. It feels so good to see that all my training seems to be paying off!