what's joe up to...

Anne and I ran the Holcomb Valley Trail Run 15 mile race today. There were around 120 15 mile runners in the race which started on the North side of Big Bear Lake (elv. 6,800ft) and followed Cougar Crest trail up to meet the Pacific Crest trail at 7,600ft. Cougar Crest trail is one tough trail to go up - nearly half of the 3.5 mile single track trail has you hopping your way through technical sections of sharp, off canter rocks which are just waiting to trip you. On the way up I had a good couple of people running with me (Heather and Roger) who kept me motivated to keep going. After getting onto the PCT for a short time, the trail meets 3N09 (jeep road) going downhill (mostly) to meet 3N16 and then onto 3N12 at about mile 6.5. At this junction was a picturesque open meadow with an old ranch and horses grazing (really nice to run by). From here, 3N12 climbs from 7,200ft to almost 8,000ft elevation meeting the PCT again with a little more elevation gain to hit the high point of the trail at 8,212ft. The PCT levels out here and it is mostly a easy run back to Cougar Crest trail (except for mile 11-11.75 which was uphill (~200ft gain) which really slowed me down. Upon meeting Cougar Crest trail, the course was all downhill back to the finish (same as the start), but now the rocky trail was in reverse and you had much more momentum! At about mile 13 (the steepest switchback section), there were no other runners around me and as I came around a steep corner there was a guy and his dog standing in the middle of the trail. I had too much momentum to stop, and in trying to pass him on the right, the side of the trail gave way and I tumbled off the side of the trail into the bushes! I got away lucky with only a few scrapes to my knee and a dirt covered back. I kept going down the trail to cross the finish line at 2hr 15min and obviously looking like I ate shit along the way. It was actually pretty funny, because I clearly wasn't the only one since there were a few others who were covered in dirt too! Overall it was a really good time and really nice people to run with.