Today Tom and I met up with about a dozen people from the SF running club to drive up Payson Canyon for a nice downhill training run. We dropped everyone else up about 20 miles then drove down 5 to start our run. We are trying to be a bit cautious with the steep downhill so I can try to avoid ITB issues this year.
The moon was just under being full and lit the way beautifuly for us. It was nice and quiet and still except for several cars going up for a hunt or something. We were actually glad to have a few cars to help keep the bears from coming out on the road to eat us up! Some of our friends spotted a momma and her 2 cubs in that canyon on Wednesday so we kept our eyes and ears on alert. (Not that that would have helped much if we would have actually encountered the bears.) But happy to say we only saw deer today.
My right knee was giving me a few warning signs here and there and started stiffening up pretty good in the last mile so I stopped running at 14.5 and walked the last half mile.
I'm starting to feel the excitement of doing another marathon. Only 5 more weeks. I hope I have made some good changes to my training that will make this my most enjoyable marathon to date. I'm looking more for enjoyable than a PR, but both would be even better. | 
