A Hill and a Beach

Arizona Runners value a hill. If we come across such a treasure, we take note and remember it. We cherish the feeling of ascending. Of breathing harder and challenging our muscles in a new way. It doesn’t happen often.

I was very excited about the hill I had to run over to get to the beach. The beach was about a mile from our hotel.

In case anyone wants to repeat this vacation- we stayed at the Hyatt. Ive included a picture of the hill I got to run over.

And a picture of the beach I ran along. Although I chose not to run on the sand. I ran on a sidewalk that was parallel to the beach.

I was doing intervals, and so was the guy in front of me. I was hoping to pass him at least once. I didn’t even care if I was passing him on my speedy interval, and it was his slow interval. But it never happened. Oh well. Some satisfactions are never realized. Every time I was about to pass him, he started into a fast sprint. I didn’t see a garmin on his arm. I wondered if he was using me to know when to start a sprint. Maybe every time he heard me gaining?

Part of the morning scenery included 5 or so drop-dead female models in skimpy bikini’s and high heels. They seriously looked more like life-size barbies than real people. A reporter was interviewing them in front of the waves. All part of the San Diego experience!

I intended to run a total of 8 miles. When I was approaching 8 miles, and thought I was almost home, I wondered where my hill was. Then I saw my hotel- across an inlet. Without Cynthia there to navigate, I had somehow taken a wrong turn and ended up in the way wrong place.

After nearly calling Noah several times for a rescue- I ran around until I found the hill home. And ended with only a half mile more than what Id intended. Not a bad “lost”.

Isn’t a new running route one of the absolute best things about vacation???

The Scenic Route

Although I haven't posted in ages, I have been running. Good thing since St. George will be here before we know it! I thought I'd just post a few photos of my running routes from the past month. Since I load books on my phone to listen to while I run, I can also use the phone for photos. It makes for great memories and blog entries, but it's not so hot when trying to keep pace! I have been stopping way too often to snap a few pics. :) Not bad for a camera phone, eh? How can everyone not love running when the scenery is like this??

10 mile run near my parents' home in Wallsburg, Utah.

Six mile run in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Six mile run in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Four mile run on the beach in Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Supposed to be a four mile run in Baker City, Oregon.

My father-in-law recommended a route that turned out to be 7.5 miles!

I suppose I should invest in that Garmin. :)

Bridge on the Bridge

Just thought I would share that I had a great run last Monday (Memorial Day) across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It had been a cold weekend there without sun for Saturday and Sunday. After fighting off a bit of the sore throat and sniffles due to that weather change (and the fact I forgot my jacket!), I thankfully started feeling better and good to go for a run on Monday afternoon! I was sooooo looking forward to running on the bridge!

We waited until about 11:00am for it to warm up before we started off on our public transit journey from Nob Hill to the bridge. Caught a bus down to the marina and thought about catching a cab to the bridge from there, but we decided to enjoy our nice long walk of about 3 miles to the bridge along the water together. We got to the trail with the steps up to the bridge and Tim sent me on my way. The bridge is about 1.7 miles long so I went out and back then back toward the middle again to get me over 4 miles. A short run but purely for enjoyment. Tim hung out on the bridge waiting for me to come back and take some pictures.

The only down sides were the noise of the cars passing and the fact that it took some patience to get through the crowds of tourists at each end of the bridge. The holiday made it quite a popular spot to visit, so I just took my time getting through and enjoyed the view of the city, Alcatraz, and the passing ships and boats. I think I'll try it again if we go on a weekend that isn't quite so busy. All in all, it was a beautiful run along a legendary path and a great trip! Maybe Bay to Breakers next year! We were a weekend too late for it this time around.


Here are a few pics from the day...don't mind my extremely cheesy, 100% unpolished looks. ;) Top left: Tim and I headed toward the bridge - massive structure!; Bottom left: pre-run on the trail up - shows that famous fog covering the tops of the towers; Top center: me coming back from the other side; Top right: the crowd on the bridge

Half-Marathon

The half-marathon went well yesterday. It was a fun, small-town run. It started at 6:45 a.m. and was a nice, flat, out-and-back course. I've never ran an out-and-back half-marathon so it was pretty inspiring to see the top runners fly by you on their way to the finish as you're still running towards the turn-around point.

I felt pretty strong through the whole race. When I woke up I ate a piece of toast and then right before the race I ate a granola bar. I think that was one of my problems for the last half-marathon, I felt like I was running on an empty tank of gas - no energy. So this time I ate a few things before the race and that helped me to stay strong during the entire run. I started slow - didn't want to get sucked in with the fast-starters - and then picked up my pace as the race went on. Not sure I will ever be able to get that 1:45 I'm shooting for but I'm pretty happy with 1:53:50.

After the race was over, I walked around for a bit and then threw-up. The St. George marathon was the last race where I threw-up. That's what I call a good race - when you ran so hard you throw-up and leave a piece of you behind as if to say, "I was here. I ran the half-marathon. I've left my mark." :) A good race.

A few stats for those who are interested (I did mention this was a small-town race which means there's a lot less competition!):

• 55th place overall (137 people ran the half-marathon - a 5k and kids 1 mile race were also held)
• 13th place out of all the women (61 women total)
• 5th place in my age-division (24 women total)

Has Everyone Given Up the Sport?

I haven't been on here in weeks so I was sure there would be something new today. What's going on? Are we all as busy as I've been in the last few weeks? I'm happy to report that even with all the "busy-ness" I have still been running. Here are some highlights!

We went camping last week and ran 8 miles around the campsite on Saturday (8 one mile loops.) About half a mile of that loop was a pretty good hill that kicked my butt each time but it was fun. I'm glad Lindy, Karen and Bronwyn were there for moral support and thank goodness for our new camp shower. While primitive I think all of us agreed that we felt oddly refreshed after our very public shower.

On Tuesday we did our normal early morning run. It was a little warm and humid. I had to stop and walk after 4 miles and then came home and got sick. I thought it was just from the heat, but later found out there was a bug going around, that made me happy that it isn't the end of outdoor running this summer after all.

Thursday I ran at the gym, hours before we found out that our gym is CLOSING! How am I going to train for St. George all summer in the heat. I need those treadmills. I guess we'll be driving the 20 minutes to the other location at least for the summer.

Today I ran about 9 miles. The weather has been unseasonably cool but humid. It made for a nice run today - I know the outdoor runs will be ending soon. We had some good conversation this morning. There are some things you only talk about on a long run.

I love this sport! So how is your training going?

What is this Honking? - Another Ragnar Story

~ Ragnar Relay Los Angeles 2009 - My second leg (leg 22) near the Palos Verdes area - 4.5 miles ~

At around 1:00am I'm readying for my 2nd leg of the race. I was getting pretty darn tired since we'd been up since 5:00am so I planned on trying to keep a pace around or a little faster than 11:00. Just before the exchange, one of my team members from the other van, Cassandra, told me she'd like to run the leg with me. Cool! I liked the idea of having a running partner for this middle of the night run. Safety in numbers!

Not sure I mentioned before that Van 1 had all of their 2nd legs of the race eliminated entirely the DAY BEFORE the race because CalTrans did not provide permits for that stretch to Ragnar. :( Lame for Van 1, so they wanted to make it up by running with Van 2 on their 2nd legs. As a side note, this actually turned out to be awesome! Van 1 got to hang out with Van 2 for once during a relay! There were even times I was riding in Van 1. Built up the team and we all got the chance to get to know everyone on the team rather than just our van-mates. Usually the other van needs the rest and they only meet up for a short time at major exchanges. Blessing in disguise!

So this leg was about 4.5 miles through a pretty nice neighborhood. I thought it was fairly cold out so I went wearing running pants, a sports bra, long sleeve dri fit shirt and a light windbreaker type running jacket with my snappy safety vest that they make us wear at night over the top. All of this was a big mistake! I heated up within the first mile and thought I would die. This was partially because I was trying to keep pace with Cassandra's 8:30/9:00ish pace. Had no idea she was that fast! I was HOT and felt trapped in under that safety vest. With all of my fumbling Cassandra had gotten well ahead of me with her iPod blasting, so my yelling for her wouldn't even work. She turned around in time to realize what I was doing and came back to grab my jacket from me. I really wanted to take off my long sleeve shirt too, but didn't want to bare the belly. I forgot that I would have had the vest partially covering me, but oh well. Pants were also a bad idea and I knew better! When I have my knee braces on, that's enough to warm the lower half. Next time I must follow my own advice of not trying something new on race day! At this point I just had to get through.

We saw the team a little bit down the road and I threw my jacket at them to hold on to. Cassandra was zoning to her music and would look back to check on me every so often, but we didn't really run together. As I'm trying to keep up with her I realized my breathing had gotten heavy. I was making a bit of a honking noise. It was odd - never heard myself involuntarily making that noise at home even when I'm pushing it. In fact, I sounded like my poor wheezy little dog who has bronchial issues. I said to myself as I'm running, "I sound like Lady!" Not sure what to attribute that to...the coastal wet night air, the extra humidity unlike home, the additional body heat, the tiredness? Anyone ever experienced this along the coast?

Anyways, we finished up and Van 1 was waiting for us, but no Van 2??? We had seen them less than 1/2 mile from the exchange and wondered how they would make it to the exchange in time...well, they didn't. One of the guys from Van 1 took the initiative to carry on so I slapped the bracelet on him. Van 2 came shortly after the handoff (they miscalculated mileage) and they just drove on up to get Pete, who was supposed to be running at that time, dropped off to run the rest of his leg. Van 1 stayed at the exchange so I could catch my breath and use the restroom. The exchange was outside of a 24 Hour Fitness - YAY! - real bathrooms. I was happy because I felt ready to puke! ;) I didn't though - after I was able to wash off my face and get cooled off I felt better - tired, but better. Cassandra seemed to feel good and she did AWESOME! It was great having her out there with me to at motivate me to keep going. I felt bad that I was holding her back, but it's nice to know that she has power and stamina even without sleep! She's one to follow when you aren't sure you can press on!

After that I barely remember anything from Pete or Caitlin's run until morning because I crashed out when I got back in my van (except I remember countin' the people Caitlin was passing like she was lightning!!!) . Pete drove around after our handoff to Van 1 until he found us a motel near the next major exchange and we got to shower and get about 2 hours of sleep! Thank goodness for Pete doing this for us! Felt so refreshed in the morning! Doesn't sound like much rest, but it was great! Up and at 'em again in the morning waiting at Huntington Beach for Van 1 to finish their last legs. We enjoyed our morning there with a great view and some good breakfast croissants from the corner donut shop. Brandi, Pete and I walked down to the water with Caitlin for her first time stepping foot in the Pacific Ocean (she's from NY). Nice morning hanging out with the team and soon Tracey arrived to our cheers as we sent Nick off from our van for his final leg! One more for me to go and it was my big one...8.5 coming up in a few hours!

Here is a picture of me (left), Caitlin (center), and Brandi (right) - the AZ girls bundled up at the Huntington Beach exchange on Saturday morning just before a wave came up behind us and sent us running away with wet pants! That Ragnar hoody is my new favorite sweatshirt, by the way! When you gals get to do a Ragnar make sure you bring $25 for one. So soft and fuzzy inside - it rocks!

Congrats to the St. George Entrants!

Congrats to all of you that signed up for St. George! Looks like you all made it in! Let that lottery luck follow you into injury free training and awesome results! I'll be thinking of all of you!

Knowing this now, please let me know if there is anyone crazy enough to do Ragnar Las Vegas the following weekend, but I wouldn't expect you to want to so soon after a marathon! That might be a little too much without enough rest! Anyone on the blog that is not doing St. George and might want to do Ragnar, let me know.

Congrats again to all doing St. George!!!