Mission to Sunol and more(C2M training run 2)

Another terrific run with Padma and Vinod. The plan for the day was to start early and get a 8hr hilly run. We started out at 6am, surprisingly parking lot of pretty occupied, it was pretty chilly weather to start with so we all were quite overdressed. The forecast called for sunny but windy weather so made sure we had a good Windbreaker and new jacket from Firetrails 50M was very useful.

This time we took a straight trail up to mission peak, it felt much harder today.. I was conservative to most parts keeping in mind a long day. As we reached summit it was very windy out there, just hiking up straight was difficult. We were glad to take trail towards Sunol which bright and windless, it was a pleasant run down to Sunol. We regrouped and refueled for another 2 hr run on Ohlone wilderness trail, it was a good reconnaissance run on this trail for my Birthday run on Dec 18th.( I am planning to run abt 36 odd miles from Stanford entrance of Mission Peak to Rose Peak and back, would be a good 10+hr run)









Elevation profile Mission to Sunol(back)

We ran until Sunol backpacking area and decided to turn back to Sunol visitor center for final refueling. Padma had got sweet potatoes for us, that was pretty tasty. 5hrs into run we had 1 more big hill to climb, I was hoping to run some parts of 5mile section. I was happy to run same splits as last time in about 1:15hrs. As I was waiting for Padma and Vinod got 1 more repeat of Mission peak, which was much harder due to wind conditions, in some sections I didn't have to work up at all, but just align myself to wind direction .. it was both easy and tough to be in path of the wind which was almost 55 mph.

Finally caught up with Vinod and Padma on the way down, both braved it very well. Vinod had just come back from Europe so was jet lagged but was determined to get a good run, Padma had some issues initially but was persistent as usual. Finally we got about 24-46 mile run with about 7500ft elevation gain in 7:30hrs. A great day out there.

I was testing quite a few things on this run for C2M 100, my experience so far
i) Firetrails jacket: Is a great windbreaker, but not sure how good would it be during rain, so far v good.
ii) nutrition stuff worked great, I am sticking to my usual formula, clip2,ensure,gels.
iii) Sugoi tights were excellent, held up very well during windy conditions and were very comfy.
iv) Ultimate Direction Diablo and Waist belt combo worked very well, back isn't heavy and waist belt offloads some of the weight. A 3 hour worth water can be easily carried.
v) Diablo offers some additional room for a fleece layer.(not a whole LOT though, something to consider)