Well, I met Clay and Dave and I ran up in the mountains. The left knee was a little tight to start, but it never became bothersome. We ran from the Lake Hughes Community Center up to the saddle and went east on the fire road over to Grass Mountain. As we neared grass mountain we came upon Kyra, who had driven up there. We ran from there up to the top of the mountain. Near the top there is a shortcut. I was in the lead at this point so the rest of them took the short cut to the top and then cheered me in as I “finally” made it.  We stopped for a couple of pictures…

It is obvious from the picture that I had to work A LOT harder to get up there than they did…

From there we took the Pacific Coast Trail back to the saddle. At this point Kyra turned back toward her car. Dave and Clay took the road back to the trailhead. I, alone, headed west another 2.1 miles on the PCT towards Lake Hughes Road. The first 1.3 is the real nice almost flat part of the trail, but the last .8 was on the part dropping down toward the road. At this point I turned, climbed back up to the flat part and headed back to the saddle and over the hill and down to the car.

Total run – 18 miles in 2:56:40
Here is a link to the Training Peaks report

I am not sure about how ready I am for the Los Angeles Marathon in two short weeks. I know that I am not in PR condition. So, I am leaning towards making it a training run. Perhaps, I could go out at 8 minute pace, and if I held it I would qualify for Boston, but then I would need a long recovery. If I treat it like a training run, and if my knee behaves itself, it should be a good launching workout for 2 months of training for the Mountains 2 the Beach Marathon in May.