Mom's surgery went well yesterday.  She now has a titanium plate and some screws in her wrist.  It was a bit more intense than any of us were expecting with the general anesthesia and such, but she is recovering nicely at home now.

    

 

{{{Hugs}}} to Carol's mom.  She might have a time of it going through security screenings now.

 

Joe - Have fun with your 5-er this weekend.  Yep, there are redwoods down toward Ukiah, but the most beautiful stuff is up by  me.  We have some gorgeous state parks.

 

Jim - The pup is so cute!  Always makes me want a dog . . . for a brief moment.  Actually, if I didn't have The Hub, I'd have a dog.

 

Leaving in a couple of hours, but will check in with you guys tomorrow sometime.

Easy 4.....well easy 2.5 tempo 1.5, purrrfect temps. Dessa with me for 1.5 for my unplanned tempo portion.

 

Have a great race Leslie, your training went pretty well it will be a good day.

 

Cindy I didn't let Dessa read your comment, she is getting a little sensitive about her size LOL. I don't know about 5 fingers and punture vines, the bane of every farm kid's bicycle on the plains.

 

Hiya to the rest of the crew, I better get to going, still muddy, working on our combine.

.....so, last night, young friend says, while running through Cheeseman Park, "long run tomorrow?"  "Ok? How long?" says I..."Weeeell, my schedule says 14.....?."  "Oooooh..kaaay...what time?" "Well, have to pick up BF from the airport @ 10:30, so 6?"....ouch!  "Okay.  6 it is...bring a bag & use my shower" .......

 

12.73 run/walk (mostly run) @ ending 13:30ish pc...don't know exactly - garmin died again!  wth? ....cut it short due to time constraints....I am now "comfortably tired", more zucchini bread outta the oven, gotta head out to pick up my Women's Adventure packet (outdoor sports camp! I'm kayaking & rock climbing & stuff tomorrow!) .... Missy is comfortably TOAST!  .... I think maybe it's good for me to pace w/her...I pay more attention to her breathing than mine...makes me back off to a more sane pace!

Hi All!

 

Anybody heard anything from Jewels?!?

 

Cindy - Come to my backyard anytime.  I got it from a good source that The Hub is grilling oysters this weekend. That doesn't happen when I'm there.

 

Joe - Nice HM there!  You're gonna kick butt at your next marathon.  And I don't blame you for dumping the loop dee loop, loop, loop marathon.  Ugh!

 

Jim - So Dessa's your tempo coach??

 

Arla - Hang in there this semester.

 

I had planned on leaving my brother's house around 7:00 this morning when he reminded me that leaving then would put me right smack dab in the middle of rush hour traffic through the Bay Area.  Ugh!  Soooo, on top of not sleeping very much at all last night, I was up and at 'em by 3:45 and on the road before 5:00.  Stopped for coffee (quite possibly the worse I have ever had) and gas, and didnt' stop again until I got on the other side of the Bay Area - far away from Oakland.

 

So I finally got to eat breakfast after about 3+ hours driving, and I'm humming along on 101, listening to the radio, thinking about the race, and I see a sign that says San Luis Obispo, 124 miles away.  WHAT?!?!?!?  I check my directions that I got off the Internet - and here is where I interject don't ever, ever, ever, Ever, EVer, EVEr, EVER, EVER, EVER follow the directions off hotels.com (where I made my hotel reservations).  They forgot one minor, small, little, itty bitty thing - - - - LIKE GETTING FROM HWY 101 TO 1!!!!!!!!!  I ended up going over an hour out of my way.  Sure I was pi$$ed! 

 

Anyway, finally made it to Monterey, found my hotel, then headed down 1 again to Big Sur to find the staging area at Andrew Molera State Park.  Was able to drive a bit of the course (could've driven the whole thing) and confirmed that yep, it's all dirt road and yep, it's all exposed.  And if tomorrow is like today, it's gonna be a warm one.  I've already decided I'm carrying two bottles.

 

On a more melancholy note, it was kind tough knowing that I was so close to Cambria (but so far) and couldn't go visit my mom's and grandparents' grave sites.  Haven't been there in probably 5 years.  If I had another day, I would've made the drive.

 

So now I'm sitting in my hotel room after eating a nice fattening, but oh so delicious, lunch (with enough leftovers for dinner), icing my shins and right knee, ready to zone out for the duration.

 

And now that I've put you through my saga . . . . have a great weekend!!

If I wasn't afraid of offending my friends, I'd use a plethora of 4-letter words to describe today's race.  Instead, I'll say hot, brutally hot, and unrelenting.  I felt worse at a little over the halfway mark than I did at the end of SOB.  I'd say that for about 70%+ of the run we were either going up or going down, and 80% or more of the course was totally exposed.  We started at 9:20.  For 90% of the first 5.88 miles we were climbing in the direct sun.  Took me about 1:40 to get that far, and by the time I got to the aid station (2nd station, first one with food), it was probably in high 80s.  I was told it ended up being in the 90s.

 

One of the aid station workers told me that even the elite runners were having a hard time, which gladdened my heart a tad.   And when I got done, the paramedics had 2 people laying down, and one guy - who was a really good runner - ended up having to have oxygen. I don't know if any others had to have assistance.  I had to sit for almost an hour before I felt like I could drive.  The upside of that, had a really cute medic keeping watch over me.

 

There was no way I could drive back to Healdsburg tonight, so I'm still in Monterey.  Had fantastic lasagna, and now I'm icing my poor shins.  And as bad as my feet feel, I'm surprised I ended up with only one blister.  I want to drink the entire gallon of water I have here, but I feel so bloated . . .

 

I was either DFL or second to DFL - but I finished!