Thursday, December 13, 2007

Critter Sighting

On my Saturday morning run this past week I startled a beautiful, statuesque doe. I was on my return loop and deep in thought when she jumped out in front of me. I used to see deer quite often, now it's only every 6 months or so. It saddens me that there is so little wildlife around my area now.

I used to see California quail, bunnies and deer quite often in the upper neighborhoods where I live. I even ran with a pack of coyotes one morning years ago. Now I NEVER see quail, I've seen one bunny in the past year and have had only two deer sightings. I'd like to have my critters back!

Mission Accomplished


Well it was wasn't pretty but I did finish the entire 35k. Much to my horror I discovered about 10 miles in that a 35k is NOT 20 miles but 22. And those extra two miles were awful.

It was a series of unfortunate events. I had a great start and everything was fine until probably around mile 8 or so when we ran into a group of angry hornets. A couple lodged into my right sock (why???) and stung me. I swore, loudly and colorfully and hoped that my foot wouldn't swell up like a melon. The stings burned for the rest of the run and for a day or two after but the swelling was not too bad.

The worst thing was the tightening of all of my muscles around my hips at about mile 15 or so. But I persevered and finished in an ungodly slow time that I'm too embarrassed to share or write down, so i won't .

But this was a test run, to learn some new things about myself and my state of running. These are the things I learned -

1. Damn you're tough - My DH was shocked that I ran the whole thing, or umm at least covered the entire distance on my two feet.
2. Need more miles in training - Duh.
3. Need hill repeats and speed training - Already instituted in the training schedule.
4. My knees are fine - The leg with the metal parts had no problems whatsoever. My joints are healthy and can take it. Yay!
5. This was frickin' fun! - It's been forever since I've entered a race and this one was so much fun! I've signed up for another, shorter one by the same promoters in January. I hope to be faster, stronger and wiser by then and maybe be almost a contender again.