Cleansing by mud

After a week of running asphalt in downtown Tokyo, I am home and back on the trails. Yesterday I did a run over at Anthony Chabot Park starting from the Clyde Woolridge staging area. After two days of fairly heavy rain, there was a nice amount of mud on the trail. Actually, it was pretty much just right, not enough mud to be sloppy, but enough to make it soft and to christen my new Asics Gel-Trabuco trail shoes. My route took me down the Brandon Trail to Bort Meadows and then up and over the MacDonald Trail to the edge of Redwood Regional Park. I could only afford two hours on this day which was fine as I was still a little stiff from all the road running, plane sitting and jet lag. I had a little time left on the way back so I continued down the Cascade Trail to the start of the Columbine Trail before heading back up to the ridge and along the Goldenrod to my start location. The weather stayed dry and cool making it a perfect day amongst some of my favorite trails in the East Bay. Much of the route is along the path of the Firetrails 50 course that I did last October as my first 50 miler. It felt great to be back on the trail and especially slopping in some nice soft mud.