Home Stretch

Right, I know I'm a month and a half late with this, but hey....I'm lazy! :) The race has been run, and the training is over (for me) but I wanted to show you the trail that I ran most frequently. This is not the real Whispering Trail (that's actually a street), but it is what Sandra and I affectionately referred to it as! These were taken my last day of training before the race. I was supposed to do a 2 mile walk. I doubt they meant for me to walk casually, taking pictures, and reflect on the previous weeks.....but that's what I did anyway. I took Declan with me on this outing, but my usual runs happened before he was awake, and while Trevor was still home. So here it is people, Whispering Trail....

The beginning of my route.

This trail is just outside a gate from my apartment community, nice huh?!

The sign at the "fork" in the road, I took the Hicks Canyon Trail from here.

This section goes by the park where Declan had his birthday party, it is also right across the street from our complex.

My beautiful view every morning I ran!

I love this house...or at least this much of it, which is all I can see from the trail.

Declan wasn't too thrilled that I "took a break"

I LOVED the trees. I know it's Socal and everything, but here's hoping we get to see some beautiful colors in the next few weeks! :)

I'm disappointed that I haven't run once since the race. I do miss this trail. Here's hoping I get out there soon! :)

half-time show

Sadly, I don't remember much about the race. It's all sort of a blur, maybe because we ran a little faster than we usually do? ;)

I do remember feeling like I was going to fall apart right around mile 7 and feeling guilty and like a failure in my training. I honestly (unrealistically?) thought it would be easier.

Becky was such an encouragement and that got me emotional a few times. She really kept me going the whole way. I'll have to search from within to continue on to the full marathon.

We beat our goal of 3 hours. Our final time was 2:43:02, making our pace 12:45min/mi.

The best parts for me were: running with a friend, using a real bathroom (instead of a port-o-potty) during the race, spotting Colin at Angel Stadium, and seeing the finish line. I teared up a few times, thanked God many times, almost got sick at the end, and could barely walk after I got home.

I was afraid that my knees were injured, but after a 3hr nap yesterday and sleeping from 9pm to almost 8am, my legs have recuperated and I think I can keep going.

Sweat Patterns

Who knew your knees could sweat?

Puff Daddy's Worst Nightmare

We ran 10 miles this last Saturday! To the beach no less! It was a fun and exhausting experience, following a not-so-to-scale map and markings along the trail. But there is a trail "From the Mountains to the Sea!" I would say, in total we actually ran a little more than 8 of those miles. Bathroom stops, goo replenishes, and my need to walk kept us from running the full 10, but we did finish 10! The end of the run was so beautiful, it ends in Newport's Back Bay....which was flat! I was worried, being somewhat familiar with the area, that the end of our run would be climbing a steep hill. But the trail along Back Bay is level, down the cliff from the hills and houses. Excellent! I'm not sure I'd ever do that run again, but I would totally do a bike ride to the beach!

*Side note: When I was in High School, I worked for Villa Park Cable as a camera-man....-woman....-person, and I would often video the city council meetings. Almost as frequently as I worked, a man would come into the meetings, he was a resident of Villa Park, and he would come to complain about the coyotes. You see, his dear kitty cat Puffy had been mauled by a coyote, and he wouldn't stand for their existence in the city any longer. Cause the city council can actually stop coyotes from coming into the city. Silly man. Anyway, he became a joke to us cable employees, we called him Puff Daddy (hence.....). The station manager even came across a picture at a garage sale, paid the $.25, and proudly hung it on the wall of the production room. What was the picture you ask? It was of a coyote standing over the carcass of a bunny. Still makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Anyway......so on my way over to meet Sandra on Sat., as I was rounding a corner, I noticed a woman walking toward me, and behind her a little bit was an animal, I thought her dog. On a second, more concentrated look, I realized, "That's a coyote!!" (Hence......!) It bounded carelessly into the bushes soon after I recognized him, but the lady it was apparently following had also just noticed and was a bit upset at what could have been her doom. Or at least that's what it seemed like. I wanted to go pet the coyote! So cute!! :)

Oh, and I've run 5 miles the last two days, running the whole way! Go me! Wee!! Less than 3 weeks and this is over! YAHOO!

struggle-duggle

My 6mi run this morning was a toughie. At the start when I was getting prepared, I have a pre-run ritual that I could not complete. *ugh.* Then there were a zillion bugs flying into my face. There are never that many in the morning! *ewwww.* Spider-web stringies were making me itchy all over. *sheesh.* My knees started to hurt at various times around mile 3, which forced me to take quite a few, albeit short, walk breaks. *sigh.* Then, just when I thought I wanted to quit this pointless endeavor with only 1.5mi to go, I saw my good friend Becky! *yippee!* That made it all better. :D

She reminded me that we should try running our next 10mi to the beach since the trail boasts "from the mountains to the sea..." We'll see. That'd be pretty neat-o.

Well, now time to get ready for work. The new background looks very pretty, Becky! And I hope your electronic devices get their act together. ;) See you later!

Whispering Trail

We met a few months ago. We've been hanging out sporadically ever since. Sometimes he....or she (does the trail have a gender Sandra?) has been nice to me, other times not so much. I realized today that he/she hates technology. After my run yesterday, the keyboard on my phone stopped working. Today, at the end of my run, my iPod froze, and my phone pretty much just stopped working altogether. I don't know what the iPod's deal is, but I do keep my phone in my bra (no pockets on my workout clothes) and perhaps my sweat fried it? Eww, I don't know, but I am now phoneless, waiting for a "new" one from Verizon. :( Boo. I had some pretty cool pictures on that phone, and now I don't know if I will get them on the new one. Or any of my contacts. That would suck big time!

So, Whispering Trail, though we continue to meet on an almost daily basis, I look forward to our time apart, starting in September. I will enjoy having expensive electronic equipment that work. Until then.....ugh.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Eye of the Tiger

That's the song that's been going through my head the last few hours. And here's why:

On vacation, I ran once. Uno. That's it. I had all the great intentions to run at least twice, if not 3 times. But we were really so busy and moving and travelling that we (my sister-in-law Grace is the second part of the we, she's training for a half in October) never really had the chance. Perhaps we did too much on vacation, hmm? :) So then I had the intention again of running 5 miles yesterday. Yeah, that didn't happen. I had minor surgery (ahem....mole removed) in the morning, and then made excuses regarding that for the rest of the day.

But tonight, Sandra and I did our scheduled run: 10 miles! Wow! We didn't run the whole way, but we did run a great deal of it. Before the run started I was thinking about how we have 4 WEEKS till the race and I really need to get my butt into serious gear!! (On a side note, I have been able to get it into smaller jeans! :) I was thinking how I could change my running schedule, add a day, run longer each day, really get serious about my training. So as I was giving myself a pep talk, "Eye of the Tiger" popped into my head! Fun times!

So here we go, 4 weeks left.....and then I'm done! Amazing Sandra will keep going, and good for her! She's awesome like that! And I will be the most encouraging friend that I can be. Until then, I'll run beside her and keep her company. I think that's pretty good encouragement, wouldn't you? :)