…trail, trail again!

That was the theme this past weekend as Hubby and I tried to squeeze in one last trail run before my 50K on May 31.

Our first attempt was on Saturday morning in Marin. We’d done the Tennessee Valley Trail once before, but ended up cutting off about two miles because A) navigating trails is never easy, and B) if there’s a way to get lost, I’ll find it.

So this time we were determined to hug the coastline and reclaim those lost miles. No matter what — even if it meant going down a single-track trail that slowly disappeared into thick brush.

Long story short? Some of that “brush” we were wading through turned out to be poison oak.

Combine that with four snake sightings, plus something hissing at me under a rock (my guess is snake no. five), and Hubby and I high-tailed it back to the car and called it a day after two miles.

But not before stopping to pick up the skin-saving miracle called Tecnu. We slathered ourselves in it head-to-toe, and so far so good…

Cut to trail attempt, take two, on Sunday where we decided that a 13-miler around Lake Chabot — the scene of my 30K this past February — might be a better option.

The poison oak and another snake sighting (yup, both are all over right now) turned out to be only minor annoyances, though, as compared to another factor that reared its ugly head: heat.

Our “summer” — i.e. foggy, barely 60-degree — days have definitely softened us. Despite drinking all the water in my vest, I was still super dehydrated by the time we finished (but my fueling was good, as you can see — thanks, Hubby, for catching me mid-mouthful).

Although we both spent the remainder of the day trying to re-hydrate — seriously, we couldn’t get enough water — it was a great reminder going into my race to drink more frequently.

In fact, experts say that performance is impaired when you’re dehydrated by as little as two percent of body weight…and we experienced that firsthand when we both started dragging in the later miles.

But working out the kinks aside, you can’t really complain too much when you’re running with these kinds of views.

After all, as one fellow trail runner said to us in passing, “It’s just another horrible day in paradise, isn’t it?”

Happy trails, friends!