This morning I set my alarm at 4am to run in the snow at Mt Baldy, an hour outside of Los Angeles. I got out of bed quietly without waking the rest of my family. All my running gear was ready on the kitchen table and the night before I had prepared a bag with my breakfast to eat in the car (3 baked eggs + banana + water).
At 4:30am sharp I left our house to drive an hour North East. This way I was able to beat LA traffic and arrive at the mountain by 5:30am, more than an hour before sunrise. Once I arrived at the mountain I realized I left my backpack with water, Gu gels and Salt / Electrolyte pills on our kitchen table at home.
I was bummed for a minute that I wasn’t able to run my planned 18 mile route starting at 4000 feet elevation to the top at 10064 feet. My new plan was to start at 4000 feet and run up until the snow would get pretty un-runnable, then head back. At about 5000 feet the rain turned into snow. Here is a little video from the snow conditions between 6000 and 7000 feet. Running downhill is definitely much easier than going up!
The last mile on the way down the road wasn’t slippery anymore, so I ran as fast as I could. Stoked to run a new downhill PR, 1 mile in 4:37. Can’t wait to go back with a full running pack and a few friends soon.
