Since I returned from a short trip over my 40th birthday, family and friends have been asking, What did you do? What did you get? Did you have fun?

The answers take explaining — I ran through time. I got my life. I wouldn’t exactly call it fun, but I definitely had a good time — so I stick to pleasantries. It’s easier to chat about Mother’s Day, which came two days later and which Morgan and I celebrated with Pacific Coast Trail Runs’ event in Redwood Park. He did the 20K and I did the 50K, remarkable in part because it was unremarkable. It certainly was challenging, beautiful, invigorating, sociable — all the things that have hooked me on long-distance trail running — but the main surprise is that somehow, sometime not long ago but I can’t pinpoint when, I reached the point where running 31 extremely hilly miles doesn’t feel like a huge stretch.

My birthday run, on the other hand, was special. (more…)