Lema Ranch and Churn Creek

Thursday’s run meandered through the trail networks of Lema Ranch and the Churn Creek Open Space in Redding. Up and down on the little hills, I constantly shifted between braking and speeding up.  Splashes of fall color met us along the run, but mostly the landscape was dry from a rainless summer. 

At each intersection, we debated where to go next.  Eventually, we found a couple of female runners ahead of us.  They were going about our pace, so we followed them for a little while.  They seemed a little bit worried about us trailing them and eventually let us pass, only for us to turn off onto one of many dead end paths.  Come back, runner guides!!

Our trail cheerleaders Cottonball an Q-Tip.

The first few miles were difficult to catch my breath.  As the air turned cooler and I warmed up more, I felt better. Eventually, I caught my stride and things went well.  This trip to Redding was largely an experiment to see how I would do with drier air.  It seemed to be helping.  With just half a day away from the coast, we both noticed an improvement in our allergies.  We arrived back at the car seven miles later, dropped off our water and camera and took one more lap around the park for a total of ten.  I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I was a little bit when I realized how much faster I run without a camera.  I’m not constantly setting up the shot in my head or stopping to take the photo.  

 
The final three miles, we raced the lowering orange light in the sky.  The park gate closed at dusk, motivating us to push the pace to the end.  The final two miles were under an 8:00/mi pace. 

Every time we visit in the winter, I find myself in love with Redding.  The city is in a valley, surrounded by mountains in most every direction.  The city has trees that change color.  It occasionally gets snow.  But then, I remember what summertime is like and reality sets in.  I wouldn’t really like it here after all, although it is nice in the winter.

Mt. Shasta is wearing a Lenticular cloud hat today.

We just beat the rain.  See it off behind Shasta Bally?

Matt and I later went out for a nice dinner and did some shopping.  It felt nice to get away from our (these last couple weeks have been enough to flare Matt’s usually non-existent symptoms!) allergies.  If possible, we’d like to try going inland a few days before CIM to dry out our sinuses.  Hopefully that will be enough.