Today we arrived in Morro Bay to spend a few weeks of Debbie's spring break relaxing in one of my favorite places. Of course for me relaxing in Morro Bay means doing a lot of trail running. I have many favorite trails here, from Black Mtn right near the RV Park where we stay to Valencia Peak, Coon Creek and others in Montana de Oro State Park just a short distance away.
Since we got into town in the afternoon I decided to stay close and run Black Mtn. This is a 600' morro (a volcanic upheaval) that is part of Morro Bay State Park. Leaving Bay Pines I ran up Quintana Rd towards town. This is immediately uphill and remains that way for 1.2 miles. This is mostly pavement as I ran up Quintana Rd, took a left hand turn on Bella Vista Dr, another left onto Balboa and then a right on to LaLoma to the trail head. The trail continued uphill for a short distance until I got onto a fast .3 miles of down hill single track. I was able to really get up some speed here but then I was faced with the old axiom - what goes down has to go back up. At this point I was at about 65' elevation. Over the next segment of less than a mile I ascended to 600' to the top of Black Mtn. I had to walk a bit on some of the steeper portions which basically ruined my overall pace in the end. That is ok, the beauty and the challenge of this run up to the top was worth it all. From the top I chose to do a loop course. So instead of doubling back the way I came I went down the Black Mtn Rd through the golf course, down the golf course road to State Park Rd and then to South Bay Blvd and home. This final segment was 2.4 miles, mostly downhill with the last few tenths being level pavement. I was able to run much of it at around 8 minute/mile pace so that my final average pace was 12:13/mile. Not bad for an old man!
Yay! So glad you're back!!!!!!!!!
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