My Coyote friends and I ran our last long run for Ray Miller on October 18, 2015. We decided to stay closer to home. Consuela mapped out a route for us from Westridge to Mulholland to Sullivan with a detour through Rustic Canyon and then back to Sullivan to Westridge.

Since we had to get in 5 hours (which for me means 5.5 hours as I’ve been doing 30 minutes more than whatever the schedule says), we started early. It was dark when we started.

It was also misty and a little drizzly.

We ran to the Nike Tower.

Hooray, restrooms!

Need to make a phone call?! 🙂

We stopped for a nutrition break, too. We have really been working on getting in all of our calories during training and practicing with eating the food that we’ll have on race day. We’ve all been into the Bacon Epic Bar! So good!

Cheers to our trail food!

The views were still amazingly gorgeous, even in the mist.

I cracked up when Consuela said it’s like a scene from “Gorillas in the Mist.” I said, “Hey, stop dating us!” (That’s Consuela, in the pink, making a face at me!)

I had to admit that I knew what she meant by the “Gorillas in the Mist” reference. Damnit.

We ran from over there! I love looking at the other side of the mountain to see how far we’ve come.

Before heading down Sullivan Ridge, we took a little detour to check out sights we hadn’t seen. This was part of Rustic Canyon. The area was said to be built by Nazi sympathizers.

We took the Rustic Stairs to check out the ruins of the Nazi sympathizer compound. Really cool.

The inside of the house.

A cell, inside the house!

We explored around the house.

We took more stairs and explored some more!

Up and over!

It was eerily cool. I want to find out more about this place.

This barn was at the end of our trail.

We headed back and I had a snack on the way. I’m loving Trail Butter!

Pretty sights on the trail!

We headed back to Sullivan Ridge. I used to be so scared at this point but I’m not anymore! It’s not like I’m flying down the ridge but I’m definitely not stalled or stuck on it like I was the first time.

We ran Sullivan Canyon where there’s a false incline. It doesn’t seem like you’re going up but you are. I felt really good on this run. I felt so strong the whole time and wasn’t struggling to keep up.

Photo by Laura M.

We saw a guy on a unicycle!

Laura pushed me on the way back and wouldn’t let me walk. Sigh. But I felt great. She made me climb to the top!

We headed back to Mulholland.

Our view at the top of Mulholland.

We ran back to the Nike Tower. Laura and I got there with time to spare so we explored the tower.

We learned it was used as a Nike missile defense site during the Cold War to detect and intersect Russian missiles directed at Los Angeles.

We climbed to the top to check out the view.

We saw our friends coming!

They got a photo of us at the top of the tower!

The park ranger was ready for Halloween! From this point, Laura and I ran to the finish. I tried to keep up with Laura but couldn’t. I did feel great though. Nothing hurt. I felt strong. I felt confident. I felt ready. I hope I can feel like this on race day. My friends were so proud of how well I did and I was so happy to make them proud of me!

We’ve been on this long journey together, to conquer our first 50k. I’m going to keep this run close to me on race day when I’m feeling tired and worn out. I’ll say, “Remember that 20 mile run. Remember how strong you felt that day! Remember how much fun it was!” This run was the farthest and longest I’d run on trails and I was so proud that I could do it! It was a special run because of the cool route we took and because we were together. Running friends really are the best and I’m so lucky to have these guys stick with me. Thank you, friends. You mean so much to me. 🙂

Your path, your pace, Tam