She Do Run Run

Hurray, spring is here! The hills are lush with all the rain we've had. I got home on Saturday night from my trip to the other wine country and woke up to my beautiful view. It was storming, so I slept in instead of doing my scheduled 45 minutes of drills.

I only ran twice in the week I was gone. Partly because of the heavy rains and partly because we were traveling with another couple. I did run across the GG Bridge as I had posted I would and am so glad that I did. We stayed in Sausalito, so it was interesting to start in the opposite direction than I'm used to. The weather was beautiful, but I couldn't take any pictures because my cell phone battery was dead, even though I thought it had been charging overnight. Sigh.

Back on schedule today, though--I have a half-marathon in three weeks! I woke up, showered, dressed, had breakfast and had SD drop me off on the highway. I ran towards town and met him at the bagel shop after the run. During the run, I saw bluebirds and red-tailed hawks, oaks and vineyards. The shoulder is wide and although there was some traffic, it wasn't horrible. Here's a picture I took a couple of weeks ago. It gives you an idea, even though the sky wasn't as clear today.



The temperature was 42 degrees when I started, but the sun was shining so it felt warm. I even took off my gloves. About two miles into the run, it started to shower. It was somewhat light, so didn't hamper my run any and I quickly dried.



When you're running point to point, there aren't any options, so when the second downpour came, all I could do was keep running. At least the bill of the cap keeps the water off my face, but I got plenty wet. That too passed, and as I neared the bagel shop I still had twenty minutes left in my two-hour workout, so I took a detour and ran up Kiler Canyon, past almond orchards and about twenty turkey vultures roosting in the trees. They kind of disgust me and clearly there was some tasty morsel that I was keeping them from. I was almost afraid they would swarm and attack me, but they were well behaved. Here's a picture of Kiler Canyon, taken a couple of weeks ago.


Tomorrow's workout: 90 minutes of speed training. Not sure it's going to help me in the half, but hopefully it will lead to a PR in Portland. Hmmm, that has a nice alliteration. I think I have a new mantra: PR in Portland!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm in San Francisco with my husband and some friends from Minneapolis and I plan to take them to the Buena Vista bar later for Irish Coffee. Of course, I'll be wearing a bit of green--my Shamrock pin from the old country.

First though (after some sleep!) I plan to run across the Golden Gate bridge. I brought my Human Race t-shirt from a previous year. The Human Race, you may remember, is an 8K St. Patrick's race that I used to run in St. Paul. I used to really enjoy that race and since there aren't any races in SLO to celebrate the holiday, I'll have to make due with past events.

And yes, I'm still running, although not blogging about it these days. There are lots of reasons--Facebook, SDs retirement, too many commitments--but I still like to pretend that I'm a blogger. And I've been saving a joke to share with you on St. Patrick's Day; after all, it's a tradition! Here it is:

An Irishman goes into the confessional box after years of being away from the Church. Along one wall he sees a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates.

Then the priest comes in. "Father, forgive me, for 'tis been a very long time since I've been to confession, but I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be.

"Get out," says the priest. "You're on my side."

May you be fleet of feet, strong of heart, and always find your happy pace. :-)