Mt Tam Scramble

You can't really say I ran the Mt Tam Scramble. Yes, I paid my entry fee. Yes, I laced up my running shoes. Yes, I made it to the starting line and took off when the guy shouted, "Go!" But what happened after that couldn't really be called "running."

The 28th annual Roger Gordon's Famous Labor Day Trail Run Hill Climb (aka the "Mt Tam Scramble") is a footrace like no other. You start early in the morning in the lazy town of Mill Valley, and head to the top of Mt Tamalpais by any and all routes available. Marked, signed trails are the slowest way to go. Runners scramble over rocks, brambles, bushes, poison oak, rubble slides, and dirt like powdered sugar to get to the tip top of East Peak. At many points (okay, at most points), the trail is too steep to run. You're either hiking and breathing like a freight train, or on all fours, scrambling like a Neanderthal and collecting scrapes and bruises. Touching the old wooden door of the fire lookout tower (built in 1937) constitutes the "finish line." There are no aid stations on this 2,500' +/- climb. The race isn't really sanctioned. You show up, pay your entry fee, sign your name in a notebook, and check your name off that same notebook once you get to the top. Your "racing bib" is a popsicle stick with a your place number written on it, which you're handed upon touching the old wooden door. There's no real route, so winning times mean nothing. Nobody's certain exactly how far they went, just that it approximates 3 miles. And since it's a non-sanctioned race, once you're at the top, well, you gotta find your own way down. Most runners either run to the bottom (on an eaiser route, of course), or run west to Portrero Meadows, where the after party commences.

It was the silliest, funnest, most random, most rewarding race I've ever done. :) Congrats to J and A who ran it with me, and congrats to whoever earned bragging rights this year.

- Steph