To some people that is not a big surprise.  Like yesterday for example.  I met my friends Paul and Brian G. to run a route that I developed five or six years ago called the "Meet The Buddha Run".  I named it that due to the fact that the course is really demanding by the steepness of the hills up and around Mt. Finlayson in American Camp.  Mt. Finlayson is 295 feet high and not considered a true mountain, but the access to the top - from most directions - is very steep.

The "Meet The Buddha Run" name comes from my being Buddhist and when one runs this course one could meet whoever their beliefs lead them to.  The Buddha, Jesus, Mother Earth.  It's that challenging.  By the look that Paul gave me when we were done the name of the run should be changed to the "Go To Hell Clark Run".

I mentioned that I came up with this run five or six years ago.  My thinking is this, hills are a runners best friend.  You run enough hills and ones legs become stronger and leaner.  Running hills create a good aerobic workout.  Hills can get ones heart rate up without the legs taking a pounding.  So if hills are good for us, very steep hills would be excellent.  Right.  Makes sense to me.

The running course leaves the Jakle's Lagoon parking lot and takes the Lagoon Trail, though the trees, to the American Camp park boundary.  This part of the course is 1.5 miles long.  From the boundary one turns around and runs a very short distance to the beginning of the "Big Hill", a left hand turn and up this steep hill to the Ridge Trail.  This is where the Buddha could appear.  On the Ridge Trail one would turn right and follow it up and over Mt. Finlayson, through the S-curves to the "Little Hill" trail which slopes down to the Lagoon Trail.  Follow the Lagoon Trail back to the beginning of the "Big Hill".  This is known as one loop - beginning of the "Big Hill" back to the beginning of the "Big Hill".  To make this even more excellent one would repeat the loop numerous times.

Yesterday two of the loops took me close to 31 minutes, each.  My total trips up the "Big Hill" were three.  After the last climb I followed the Ridge Trail back to the parking lot, meeting Paul along the way.  And got the "look", plus another sign of affection.

I Still Believe that this is a good thing to do, even a day after the fact.