Japanese Gulch Trail, Mukilteo

With one week away from The Last Chance Marathon I wanted my last long run to be on trails as I have limited experience off road.  So this run was not about mileage, but time in the trenches so to speak.  I have heard about the "Gulch" for a while among the ESNW Google Group emails.  So I decided to check it out.  The Japanese Gulch trail system has two parking entrance area.  The gulch is small wood plateau, with a road / Railroad track system to the north, houses to the south, industrial complexes to the east and over the railroad.  And the Puget Sound to the West.  Here is an overview of the trails (in white).

There is another Gulch trail system called the Big Gulch of Mukilteo blvd (I think).  I may check it out at some point but for now the focus is on the Japanese Gulch ...  I started at the 44th street entrance, in Mukilteo.  It's the top entrance.  Since I was unfamiliar with the area I looped around the top trail once.  That is, I kept right at all forks and at some point I realized I had looped back lol ... I did venture off a couple of times... but when the trails off looked like they go back and down towards the the railroad road I got back on what I though was the "main" loop.  I could still see the Sound not so far out trough the leave-less trees ... I stopped a moment to enjoyed the view:

Once I completed the first loop though I felt more confident to go off track.  I followed a trail down the side which lead me to this creek.  On the other side is the service road running parallel to railroad track on the background:

Once over the creek I headed downhill the towards the water:

About five minutes downhill the service road and the railroad track merged.  The road went over the track (bridge) so I decided to continue along the track towards the water ... I was heading under the bridge with anticipation, a reminder why I love to run:

It was another five minutes to near the Mulilteo waterfront.  Being back on a flat route if somewhat uneven I was able to pick the pace up.  I followed a path carved by previous runners and bikers in the surface ... The railroad finally crossed a road which I followed for another quarter mile.  In the background I could see the Whidbey Ferry, a "Mukilteo" railroad sign at the passenger station ... And the other direction I could see the large blue structure from the Everett port.  Cool sight!

I noticed a couple on the other side of the train station.  They were walking their dog towards the North.  So now I am wondering about running there some other time and see if I can make it back to Everett along the waterfront.  Well that's for some other time.  For now it was time to head back so I turned around and started the climb back to the Japanese Gulch ... On the way down I saw an elaborate bridge structure, I had decided I will cross into the Gulch on the structure.  Once up the service road I scanned the side for the bridge.  I recalled the bridge to be larger than it was really ... Never less here it was   ... 

And here I go ...

 

I crossed the bridge hoping the way up wouldn't be too painful ... cause it looked pretty steep and muddy lol ... And it was treacherous too.  Very muddy.  There were plank laid in the mud to help passage.  I walked the muddy parts.  That led to another bridge about one third the way.  The view looking down ... You can see the creek and the first bridge in the upper left corner of the picture ...

Upstream the bridge the trail was much steeper.  Getting to the top seemed to take forever.  Once I did though I was happy as I recognized the view I took the first picture of the Sound from so I was back on the loop.  Starting running the loop feeling pretty confident about myself yet pondering the overall pace of the run ... 15 - 16 min per miles.  That is worrying me a little for the marathon.  That's what, a 7 hours marathon?  

It was definitely a tough run.   Ten miles in under 2:30 hours is not the norm for me.  The only trail event I ran was the Steilacoom Half, in about 2:15 hours.  The Gulch are reminiscent of the terrain I encountered there so I was surprised I ran so slow.  However since I ran 8.32 miles yesterday and 7.41 miles the day before, and considering the steep descent to/ascent from the water I think a part of the slowness was just good ol' tiredness.  On the plus side I could say that DESPITE having ran 8.32 miles yesterday and 7.41 miles the day before, and considering the steep descent to/ascent from the water I still was able to run couple of hours around the Gulch (oh and yeah that fondue I ate for Christmas' Eve lol) ...

So ... It was sluggish run today ... but I enjoyed the run all the same.  Elevation change 1374 ft over 10.09 miles.  So a good elevation change over a (relatively) short run so i'd say not bad.  Taper week ahead leading to the Last Chance Marathon (and my first trail marathon).  New year's Eve: a stepping step to my trail running.  Happy running everyone :)

Route notes ...

Check out Norway Hill

Bellingham Bay Marathon (BBM) Trial Run

It's been a while since I posted ... Been busy running a lot LOL ... But that's it ... My last long training run before the marathon is tomorrow.  I plan 22 miles on the actual course.  SGF will drop me off at milepost 4.   I will run the course back to the finish.  The second half of the run has more slope ... 1 to 2%,  trails ... I am exited ...  Here the link to the 2011 BBM's map ...

A cool addition I found off the BBM website is a video of the 2010 marathon.  It's 

Ok ... Let's try to catch some zzz's now ... ta ta for now ! 

Burke-Gilman, 18 mile long run, 36 days to BBM

Runners are goal setters.  We reach a goal then we set a new one.  And so it goes for route selection.  I conquered the Snohomish County Centennial trail so I now set my sight on a new route.  I plan to run the Burke-Gilman trail from Kenmore to Fremont for my long run Sunday 8/21.   I have never run in the area but I know the landmarks along that trail so it will be fun sightseeing along this leasury run :)

Burke-Gilman Trail (King County)

The trail is under 15 miles long and ends at 11th ave NW in North Seattle.  But from there it's a couple of miles to the Sound.  Then a shorter leg of the trail along the waterfront that ends in the Golden Gardens park.  I have never been at the Golden Park ... 

Runners are explorers.  A part of the thrill of the run is the discovery along a new route, the unknown.  I want to continue towards the sound through Fremont and hopefully I will make it to Golden Garden parks at the end of the second trail portion ... I can't wait to explore the trail as I go, elevation and all.  I will run from a landmark to another, having been at several of these at times but never one at the time.  Finally I will make my way through the urban jungle to the shinning sea ...

Last minute update ...
Just found this PI article ... There is on-going construction along a 2 miles stretch of the northern end of the trail with a hilly, 7 miles long detour route along HWY 522 so I think my best bet is to start south of the detour, in Matthews Beach park instead (off Lake Washington waterfront).  The park is about half way the portion of the trail.  I can start a loop from Matthews Beach park to Golden gardens cutting accross I5 along 80th street (I hope it's pedestrian friendly ... Google says it is LOL).  That leg adds back 7.2 miles to the route.  That takes me to the Golden Garden park first instead, then looping  back to Matthews Beach Park along the trail.  It's the opposite direction I originally planned for a few days ago but I am glad that I found this article this morning else I would had been in for a not so welcome surprise a few miles in the run!

So here is the final planned route with checkpoint coordinates:

Start @ Matthews Beach park

@47.692707,-122.271805

Checkpoint 1 @ Golden Gardens (7.2 miles ETA +80 min)

@47.687908,-122.402249

Checkpoint 2 @ end of the shorter trail portion (2.0 miles ETA +22 min)

@47.667508,-122.39832

Checkpoint 3 @ beginning of south end of the longer trail portion (1.8 miles ETA +19.8 min)

@47.658970,-122.366150

End @ Matthews Beach park (7.5 miles ETA +82.5 min)

Updated route estimate is 18.5 miles, 3.4 hours @ 11 min/miles

This will be a slow pace run, targeting about 11 min/mile overall.  I read about a FB post  on Hal Higdon's training page yesterday that recommends a one minute walking break every mile to help manage pace so I will implement that and see how that works out for me.  I have to figure out a water situation as I usually run out by 15 miles with my belt.  An option is to carry my camel back but not sure it's a good idea because I won't carry the camel back on the actual marathon ...

Centennial Trail

A favorite amongst cyclist and runners alike.  This is a paved trail that runs from Arlington to Snohomish.  There is another paved section that runs North of Arlington to Bryant that I have never been on.  But I have run, in sections, the entire trail at one point or another.  My first ever "long run" was a ten miler on the trail between Machias and North Marysville.  This was about 2 years ago and I was so un-prepared for it physically I lost my toe nails as a results.  Well today I completed another check mark toward my training.  I ran the trail in its entirety, starting at the south end (Pine and Maple in Snohonish) and completed the run at the 67th avenue trailhead in North Arlington.  The trail is 17.37 miles according to my RunKeeper app.  This isn't the longest run as I completed 20.13 miles last week however about 2/3 incline.  The elevation change was 513 feet.  I feel the soreness in my legs, it's taken me a couple of hours to recover from this run ... So pretty sure I had a good workout !

At the start in Snohomish there were a lot of cyclist.  I wasn't very surprised as Snohomish is a great little city to bike through so there are always cyclists there but turns out that these cyclists were part of the RSVP (Ride from Seattle to Vancouver, BC and Party) ...

The greatest little surprise today was a lemonade stand at milepost 14 under the 108th Street bridge, manned by a couple of very enterprising young girls ... There lemonade was the perfect blend of sourness and sweetness to get me to the end of the run.  The had setup a sign about 500 feet away from the bridge on the northbound and southbound of the trail.

Centennial trail:

17.37 miles

2:58:11

10:15 min/miles

New Route: The Grinder ... 20 miles training run

Long run today.  I combined two exiting runs, south to downtown Everett plus .  I wanted to loop by the Marina so headed west on Everett ave to catch W Marine View drive.  My target distance for today was 15-20 miles so I finished at the upper range, but the last 3 miles were really tough ... So I called this route "The Grinder" LOL  The route could be as long as 27 miles by closing the loop home.

I found this great site to record routes at http://www.walkjogrun.net/.  The site has also an Iphone app that lets you look up routes by your location.  I logged The Grinder there, the first route I recorded.  The mapping functionality is easy to use and allows to adjust, undo pins.  The route can be "locked" and "unlocked" for editing and marked "private" if wanted.  Everyone has access to everyone's else routes.  The "public" routes can be googled, that's how I found this site in the first place.  The site allows one to log their time in, keep a journal and provides training plan several race distances.  The site is free and displays "ads" in the a smaller window unless you make a one time $1 donation.

There is also a capability to embed the route unfortunately the HTML code isn't working in this editor and I don't know how to fix it.  Here is a snap shot of the map ...

"The Grinder"
20.15 miles
3:42:12
11:02 min / miles

Mountain HWY Loop Run

There is only so many ways to make running in Marysville new and exiting, and this morning I just couldn't figure out a route long enough fun enough to feed on.  So ... we drove to the mountain loop HWY between Darrignton, WA and Granite Falls, WA ... I got dropped off at the south end of the compacted dirt road by SGF and started my way North to meet SGF at the end of the trail ... just because I am awesome like that LOL ...

The loop in is pink / red and the compact dirt trail part of it is in brown.  The entire  trail portion is 13.5 miles.

There is more information available on the Mountain Loop HWY at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Loop_Highway

 

Snapshot of the route I completed from the Hal Higdon Marathon training app.

Run stats: 13.54 miles; 02:13:22 hours; 09:50 min/mile.  The elevation change was 281 ft.  The base elevation for the run was around 1500 feet which for me is a change from the usual sea level runs.  I actually expected a more difficult run because of the altitude but in the end I just found myself regulating my breathing a little bit more but I was never out of breadth.

The route was downhill for the first few miles then I hit a pretty nice climb.  Some of the hills towards the north end were pretty steep though ...  Beautiful scenery.  Felt the fresh breeze blowing on my body as I ran pass waterfalls ... the warmth of the sun between the tree shades on the trail ... the rumbling of the white waters under the bridges ... at times it felt like the river was racing me along .... It was simply an amazing run.  SGF and I drove the loop on July 10 so I have a few pictures that I can share here with you ... 

The reasons I run have changed over the months but today I didn't care why I was running, I wasn't thinking about the marathon ... I felt blessed to be there,  to be able to interface with Mother Nature in the most basic form a man could ...

Langus Riverfront trail - Trail update

My last run on that trail I saw two runners crossing the bridge back from the lake and heading west.  I followed them, turning left instead of turning around.  There is a loop that goes between the treatment ponds.  The total distance of the loop is about 3.2 miles.

The loop goes west at the third purple pin.

The scenery consisted of PUD buildings and ponds and one can't help notice the smell ah ah but still,  Quick and easy 5k training run :)

Rien de Rien ...

I returned to the Langus trail for my first run after the Firecracker 5000 5k, to explore the south trail (remember last month I ran a trail heading north that ended about a mile out).  My target distance for tonight was about 6 miles.  The south route winds between the lake and the river across three or four pedestrian bridges, the same bridges I noticed the first time around.  The trail was wide and nicely groomed, soft in some places but never too difficult to manage.  it was exiting running this trail again, to the point that I think I should do more trails runs.  I ran past a rabbit that just stood there ...  From a technique standpoint the trail requires more attention as you have to keep an eye constantly where you step and avoid obstacles.  The softer ground requires more support so more likely than not I would need a different pair of shoes if I was to run trails regularly.  About three mile into the run i took a fork left toward the lake.  With spaces of water on either side of me, another encounter with the [wild?] ... A black cat was chilling on the side of the trail.  The cat turned its head and looked at me with its big yellows eyes, as if letting me know that he owned this territory and had allowed to cross over his bridge un-scaped ... The trail finally looped back and around 4-5 miles was heading back to the bridge.  The looped turned out to be not around the lake but rather between the south end of the lake and the river.    This was another great discovery run, a mix of runner rush with the fun and excitement of discovering this loop, even as I got lost and found my way back ...

Here is a snapshot of the final trail ...  distance 7.20 miles ...  avg pace 9:15 min/mile.

Discovery ...

Discovery of new routes is one of my favorite thing about running.  Sightseeing the route but also "feeling", "reacting" to the route, its pavement, its twists ... When I run a new route it's almost like making love to my girlfriend.   The route is unknown yet I anticipate the run as I have usually looked up the map to estimate elevation and mileage.  I plan a pace and start running along the pavement, turning with each twist like the running the back of my hand on her hip ... I follow the trail wherever it leads like following her spine along with a finger ... It talks to me and I stimulate its energy ... adjust my pace to the rhythm of the run ... And in return, the trail smiles back at me with its scenery ... 

Well this evening was no different as I headed down the Langus Riverfront trail.  There isn't much special about it.  I saw the trail head a few days ago and I figured it would be a nice change of scenery from my usual urban runs.  I looked up the area on Google maps earlier to see whether the trail head I saw would lead anywhere interesting to run.  The trail goes under the I5 overpass along the Snohomish river then starts snarling thru mashes:

I noticed a couple of small trail bridges across the marshes so I think there might be another route hidden there but no there isn't access to these bridges from the trail.  However, two miles later, I reached THIS bridge ...

I crossed the wooden span into an unknown ...  not sure what was on the other side ... I just knew there is an island of some sort in the area ... How exiting !  A sign on the other side of the bridge as the route splits northbound and southbound around what I think is Spencer Island ...

I headed northbound ... the southbound  looks like that's the loop that goes around the back area back to the Langus Riverfront Park and would be too long to run in the amount of time I had.

The northbound trail was short but  very scenic ...  Here are a couple more pictures:

This last picture is actually the end of the trail at 2.72 miles from the park !

Well the total run for 5.38 miles so a nice midrange run for the middle of the week.  I will be back here for sure and will check out the southbound fork :D

Happy Trails everyone !