Annadel State Park

~82-83 mins.
10.68 miles (says Mr. Garmin)

For my first run in Santa Rosa, Jordan wanted to take me to Annadel State Park. This is where he put it almost all of his runs throughout high school and when he was home from college, and he was excited to show me his old stomping grounds.

When we pulled up to the main parking lot, we were greeted by cool temperatures and a light mist. Apparently this is pretty typical Northern California winter weather (as I would learn over the next few days) and we were both dressed in long sleeves with a jacket or vest on top. We immediately headed out into the trails for what Jordan thought was a ten-mile loop. While it was muddy in some places, overall the ground was in pretty decent shape. What was more challenging for me was a) the rocks and 2) the hills. Both were in abundance, both slowed the pace, and both kept me focused on the ground in front of me at all times. Once we crested a particularly steep hill, we turned back and then had a downhill reprieve for most of the way back. While our overall pace was unremarkable, the effort (at least for me) was constant throughout.

Oh, and one more item of note: apparently at some point in the run my left nostril decided to go ahead and start bleeding. No idea why. It took me almost twenty minutes to realize that it wasn't just the usual outpouring of snot, and when I finally looked down at my hands and saw they were covered in blood I knew something was amiss. I also knew that I was really, really hardcore.