From henceforth this race shall not be known as Sycamore Canyon, it shall be known as the First Annual Knee Socks Invitational.

If you have to ask why, there’s really no hope for you.

I looove running with friends, but different schedules/training goals/general laziness means that I do almost all of my runs and races solo. That’s why it was such a pleasure to run Sycamore Canyon with my friends Heather & Jane! We talked about it for months, but I must admit, I had my doubts that it would actually happen. But hey, dreams do come true—we all registered, trained, and made it to the start ready to run! And by “trained,” I mostly mean “coordinated our outfits down to matching shorts and socks.” Priorities, people.

A kiss for good luck at the start. Check out the scandalized dude behind us.

Truthfully I can’t write much of a race recap, because I wasn’t paying any attention! This was a few solid hours of chatting, singing, view-admiring, and absolute silliness. We were super goofy and had an absolute blast. I CAN say that the course is amazing. It runs through Point Mugu Park in Malibu, starting from Sycamore Canyon. For our race we ran about 5.5 miles down the Ray Miller trail to the La Jolla Canyon entrance, then turned around and retraced our steps. We ran through fields of wildflowers, over green mountains, and had an ocean view at least 75% of the time. It was glorious! They offer different distances, and I wouldn’t hesitate to do the 50k next year. How could you say no to THIS:

I meant the ocean view—but the sock view ain’t bad either!

We finished off with an oceanside brunch with our supportive spouses and kids. I hope Heather & Jane are ready for more running, because I am SO going to strong-arm them into doing more races with me.

Final Stats:
Date: Saturday, April 23, 2011
Distance: 18k (11.2 miles)
Elevation gain: 2,600 feet
Garmin time: 2 hrs 16 min
Official time: 2 hrs 24 min

I made a video of our trail shenanigans! You can check it out here.