With apologies to Neil Diamond's "Forever in Blue Jeans."

This weekend I made a huge mistake hurling myself against Iron Mountain on Saturday. Not that it is an especially difficult trail (nice single track and modest elevations and gradients). Not that it was under especially difficult conditions (crisp blue skies, temps in the upper 40s to start, 50s at the finish). No, the mistake was going in the first place. You see, Spencer had his first-ever wrestling match, and I stupidly, selfishly missed it. And he even won. Double stupid, and double the you're-a-bad-dad feeling. M

Maybe that contributed to the overall SuckoMeter™ reading of 50. 

The first portion of the run was actually pretty good, with a SuckoMeter reading of about 2. Doesn't get better than that. I wasn't fast, I wasn't in great shape, but the run was fun; just me and a Golden Eagle. Not even a vulture circling yet. I should have stopped. I don't listen to myself.

The second part of the run, my body insisted that I listen. Both freakin' knees started to hurt to the point of no more running. The vultures appeared. The nagging voices in my head showed up.  Aaaannd, I ended up doing the Loser's Walk of Shame to the car. That sucked. As a result, the SuckoMeter™ for the second portion was a respectable 80, resulting in a weighted overall score of 50.

My main camera battery died as I turned it on to snap the eagle, so pardon the shots, they came from my phone cam.

Despite the rain and snow for a couple of days during the week, the trail conditions were excellent. That is probably due to its distance to the east from the main spine of the Sierra. I would be willing to wager the area didn't experience much more than a dampening event. My only complaint about the trail is that since the last time I was out there, motorcycle morons have found it and, as is their wont, dug up some curves and had a hard time actually staying on the trail. 

I don't understand the mentality of the people who do this. There are miles and miles and miles of 4x4 roads and motorcycle tracks. They find a track that is obviously solely intended for foot/bicycle/horse traffic, and feel the need to abuse it with a motorcycle. 

As I said, both knees are hurting at the end of runs, and I'm not sure if it is a case of dual IT band issues, or just getting old. I'm almost convinced of the latter, though either way it slows me down even further than my genetics predispose me to. Sigh.

When I run, I don't wear headphones (a dog attack several years ago cured me of that), but I am a person that likes music. Usually, I get something well known - at least to me - have it rattling about in my head, then change the lyrics to suit whatever is happening. Some highlights from this weekend's activities:
Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill"  Didn't have to change much of it, except I did substitute "Walking" for "Running" most of the time.
The Beatles' "Hard Day's Night" This one got mangled as follows:

"It was a long downhill, and my IT hurts like hell.
It was a long downhill, and my IT hurts like hell.
But when I get to my car, 
I'll know in my heart,
It really wasn't that far."

That one popped to mind when I was coming off an exploratory activity, looking for a way up to McTarnahan from the west. I did find a route that isn't too bad. The problem for me was on the planned route down, I missed a turn and ended up slogging cross-country, cross-slope, timber bashing through the snow to get to where I thought I was supposed to be. I guess that's what I get for trying to memorize the route and not take a map along. 
The route up was a bit sandy:

On Sunday, I marked a route far too long for me to run for others to do. I did do a down and back in Sullivan Canyon to mark the turn from Eldorado Canyon, since I couldn't drive it. While descending the canyon early, it was a bit chilly and my nose was running more than usual. That, of course, brought to mind the Bellamy Brothers' classic "Let Your Love Flow" but with the lyrics "Let your snot flow" instead. Fitting.
The rest of the route, I drove to mark. Still, I barely finished ahead of the runners. Fast bunch.