Tough Running

Watching the Olympic Men's Marathon, I couldn't help but feel like I knew what Ryan Hall, Ritz, and Sell were experiencing. A week ago, I was in San Diego, suffering through a half marathon. Thankfully, my pace was intended to be slow and so I didn't end up too much off my goal, but it was pretty brutal nonetheless. Just like Hall and the other runners, I avoided running the tangents, just to catch whatever shade I could (not that I knew exactly where the tangent was, but I actually thought about it this time). And just like them, I made sure I got water at every stop and ran under the water misters. I'm usually one to gut out most of the race and avoid the fray of most water stops, but San Diego was a heat I haven't experienced in a while. This weekend, I figured out what that heat is like...it's like running here, but at noon. Not a time I usually run. Unfortunately, K and I were both disappointed in our race and so we decided to get the heck "out of Dodge." (That's a phrase uttered every other sentence by a CPR instructor I once had.) We hustled back to the hotel and while K showered, I spent more than 10 minutes trying to de-tangle my hair (after lots of tangling after a 10 mile training run with a ponytail, I switched to pony-braid, which was perhaps worse). I remember being a young girl and my dad told me that I should rub my hands around my head when I shampooed. The result was a bird's nest of a hair-d0 (speaking of bird's nests...there's one in the yellow arrow of a stoplight near my house...bird and all). This time, I threatened to cut my hair off in the hotel room. Perhaps that's not really a threat, but if I had scissors... Anyway, the best things about San Diego: I bought a sweet running skirt that I really like, I caught up on the Olympics, and we did a number on the Sunday puzzle since the drive home was epic (and we saw Jon Miller).

This Friday, I went to Outside Lands, which turned out to be a disappointing festival in Golden Gate Park. We saw Steel Pulse, The Dynamites, Manu Chau, Beck, and Radiohead. I would have enjoyed it if: there were less instances of men in skinny jeans and hipsters in general, I didn't end up with a headache from all the pot and cigarette smoke, I could see from 1/4 mile away, and there were less people. It was no Newport, I'll tell you that. Radiohead was the best of the night. They were just "on" and handled the power outages during their set like pros.

As a result of a late Friday, I slept until 10am on Saturday! When was the last time that happened? That's how I found out that noon in the 'Lo is the same as San Diego at 7am. My run this weekend was good, despite the heat. For my 10 mile runs, I run around the Stanford campus and at around miles 4 and 8, there is a water fountain and a bathroom! Both are adjacent to the driving range/golf course, tennis courts, and stables. What a crazy place. In addition to a good long run, I had a great tempo workout mid-week, so I'm over the rough patch that was San Diego. One thing is clear, I am crossing the San Diego marathon off my list unless they start the race at 5am or put the whole course under a retractable roof.

And now for the entertainment portion of my post. Here's a shot of me, sweaty, and braid a flyin'. No wonder it ended up so tangled.