I’m officially in my “post-summer work” life right now (aka the “shoulder” season). I always look forward to these in-between times because they afford me plenty of downtime. However, once my schedule starts to lighten up around the second half of September I inevitably start to drift.

This fall has been no different.

I had every intention of ramping up my running mileage with the extra time before and after work (due to lesser work hours). However, I just couldn’t make it happen. So instead of running more, I actually ran less! Admittedly, it was disheartening to watch my weekly mileage taper off so quickly after being consistent all season.

That said, I made the most of my time by catching up on neglected tasks and fulfilling the commitments on my calendar.

I successfully guided my Mount Judah/Roller Pass hike for the Donner Summit Historical Society, as well as participating in the society’s pre and post event meetings in Truckee. My parents came to Tahoe for a week and we had a wonderful time hiking, taking mini-road trips, and eating a bunch of great food. I had a car appointment here, a doctor’s appointment there. And I was still running and working, albeit in a much lesser capacity through the first days of October.

Sunrise viewed from Echo Peak during my “run my age in (52) kilometers” on October 7, 2026 © Jared Manninen

The last big event I had scheduled was to do that run my age thing I mentioned last month.

Well, I ran it this past Wednesday!

That said, I even had to dial back that running experience. For example, I felt fantastic for the first dozen or so miles. But by mile 14 I started to realize that the day wasn’t going to go as I imagined. It was obvious to me, then, that I hadn’t eaten early and often enough to stave of the dreaded “bonking” that happens to many ill-prepared endurance athletes.

My ultra-runner friend, Dave, who was running with me saw and said the same thing. So, as I played catch-up with calories and carbs (which is a deep hole out of which to pull yourself), we were crunching the numbers and recalculating our route.

Fortunately, I baked into the route a handful of “just in case” options. So, we were able to cut short the distance yet still be able to accommodate a run your age in kilometers goal. But a 52km distance is just over 32 miles, so we had a bunch of miles yet to run!

Additionally, I had developed a minor case of tendonitis in my left knee, my quads were super sore and stiff, and I was still trying consume enough carbs. I was basically coming undone at the seams – ha!

We ultimately completed the run, and I agree that regardless of my performance it was still a respectable effort. Again, though, it just wasn’t what I had expected.

The gist of the experience boils down to the fact that I have a lot of work to do! But this is good because I now have a much clearer understanding of how I’ll train next season. And that’s really all this is about for me. That is, become better at a thing regardless of whether or not I ever do a race or competition.

I just want to keep working on becoming better than who I was yesterday 🙂

One project that got left on the table this past month was a new Tahoe Trail Guide article. So I’ll get back to it now that my run is finished and have it ready for you next month. And I actually captured a bunch of footage along the 52km run, so I’ll put together a video (along with a longer summer recap) in the coming weeks.

Although I haven’t made much of an effort to photograph wildlife this fall (yet!), I’m now finished with my summer job. So, I plan to travel around the region during the next couple of months to do some short, overnight backpacking and car camping trips. This will mostly be to get out and enjoy some sunrises and sunsets. But I’ll also be chasing birds and other wildlife!

In the meantime, here are some squirrels, chipmunks, and birds for you! Since I’ve mostly been looking for wildlife while traveling to and from work, the selection of subjects available to me has been fairly limited. So these are all common species of Lake Tahoe. However, there are a couple of runty looking juveniles in this batch which is always fun to look at 🙂