If you’ve ever pushed previous San Quentin State Prison, The Q, you’ve in all probability been stunned to see it smack in the midst of a fantastic Marin County peninsula, ringed by a few of the world’s most costly actual property. Climb any peak within the surrounding redwood-shrouded coastal mountains and also you’ll see it under, a hard-edged compound wanting utterly misplaced within the verdant panorama.
That view is particularly pronounced on the high of Mount Tamalpais, Mount Tam, a 2,600-foot double-humped triangle that rises steeply from the west facet of San Francisco Bay. It’s the epicenter of Marin County’s strong mountain climbing and path operating scene and an emblem of the wildness of the world.
It’s additionally seen from the yards of San Quentin. Beckoning. Maddening.
Mount Tam rises within the distance from the close by Miwok Trail. Photo: Fabrice Florin/Flickr
Markelle Taylor spent fairly a little bit of time at The Q. He stared at Tam. At the paradise of redwood groves, elegant madrone bushes, towering stands of Douglas fir, outcrops of serpentine, and year-round streams draining into the bay and a watershed that flows northward into Point Reyes.
He promised himself he’d climb that utopia someday. It was a beacon of freedom, of life exterior the partitions, of a future he’d but to put in writing.
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The Dipsea Race started in 1905. It’s the oldest path operating race within the nation. It begins in tony Mill Valley, certainly one of Marin’s wealthiest enclaves, runs over the southern flank of Tam, and descends to the open ocean at Stinson Beach, on the western shore of Marin County. It’s 7.5 miles, options hundreds of toes of elevation achieve, slippery roots, rocks and muddy path, and a number of other sections of brutal stair climbing.
Taylor spent 18 years at San Quentin. He’s technically on parole for an additional couple of years. Taylor started operating at The Q, making lap after lap across the yards, ultimately finishing 4 marathons inside the grounds. He’s since competed within the Boston Marathon, and, after all, the Dipsea—twice.
“It helps keep me focused and on the right track, almost like a therapeutic guide,” Taylor advised the New York Times about operating. “It re-energizes my heart and mind. The mental and physical aspect is connected to life’s challenges and the different adversities we face. It keeps me humble.”
When Taylor runs the Dipsea, or another path in Marin, he’s surrounded by orthopedic surgeons, legal professionals, tech builders, and professors, folks for whom the staggering great thing about Tam appears like a birthright. For Taylor, it’s paradise earned.
When he accomplished his first Dipsea, he remarked of the course, “it was scary, dangerous and beautiful,” he stated. “Just how life is.”
The under movie from Alex Massey, “From the Shadow of a Mountain,” tells Taylor’s story. Just get able to lace up and hit the path if you’re completed.