January and new gear

Adding Gorge Waterfalls 100k at the end of March to my schedule maybe was a bit earlier than I anticipated in stepping up to a long run, but there generally seemed like a lack of 50-mile races in the spring for the Pacific Northwest. At least a few good friends also are signed up, which will help make the 4am start less of a zombie march.

Having a race in about seven weeks also means trying to put together some solid weeks of running a month earlier than I originally planned when I was only running Miwok in May.

Here's what I did over the first six weeks of the year:

Adam and I even got in a semi-proper hills workout over the weekend. Both Gorge and Miwok have many more miles of runnable terrain than I'm used to:

And what's a new year without some new gear? I grabbed a pair of Hoka Rapa Nui Trail 2 shoes. They are buttery smooth and very cushioned, but obviously feel quite large upon first wear. At some point I'll do a  thorough review of them, as well as a Salomon S-Lab 12L pack I got that I plan on using for longer adventures in the mountains.

Hoka One One Rapa Nui Trail 2 and my trusty Pearl Izumi Trail N2