All for a good cause

Last night I met up with Brandon, Lindsay, Phil and Karen before the fundraiser at Joe's in Lafayette. We had dinner at Pizza Antica in Lafayette which is SOOO yummy :D My belly was very happy after the pizza, salad and wine! The restaurant was right down the street from Joe's so it was a quick trip to the fundraiser. I had never been to Joe's before and it was pretty nice. I think it used to be some kind of sports bar but now it's more of an upscale jazz place.

MotherHumbuckers went on first a little after 8:00. Their set was a little shorter than an hour so we didn't get to hear all of their songs. They did a fantastic job, as usual, and even played the a son they had written for the team and the honorees. It was very special to hear since it was a TNT fundraiser and we could all use that kind of motivation! The next band was Pine&Battery and they were really good also. By the time they started playing everyone was a little loosened up and brave enough to get up on the dance floor! It seemed like there were a good number of people there so I'm hopnig Rocky and Hugo made some good money for their fundraising!

By 10:00 both bands were done, the DJ was starting to set up and all the college kids were starting to arrive. Since Joe's is the closest club to Moraga and to St. Mary's, there were A LOT of college kids there. In fact, after everyone who was there for the fundraiser left, I think Karen and I were the oldest people there! It was fun to watch all the very young looking college kids having a fun time... but after awhile it made me feel OLD. :( One thing I learned about these youngins is that they LUV their Jager and Red Bulls and their beer of choice is Corona. I see nothing much has changed since my college days... although back then (10 whole years ago) Red Bull wasn't a big thing yet... we went for the straight Jager. :D

Tonight I'm resting up for the run tomorrow... I'm supposed to do 13 miles but I'm not sure if I'm going to do the full mileage. I woke up feeling a little cruddy this morning... not sure if it was the late night, or whatever allergy thing is going on, or a combination of both. This weekend I also have to pack for a trip to Vegas... no, I'm not going for fun, it's work :( There's a big tradeshow every year for our industry so my boss, coworker and I are attending. I won't have a chance to blog until I get back on Wednesday... Have a great weekend everyone!!!

I'm going CRAZY!!

Wow, it's been such a crazy day. I've been on the phone so much I think I'm getting cauliflower ear!

Last night I met up with Amy for our Wednesday night run. I got there a few minutes early and Amy was already there so we got an early start on our run. Boy it was hot out... and Amy was tapering, and I was still a little sore, and we're both wussies, so we went nice and sllloooowwww :) Or at least we tried to... whenever Amy tells me that this time she's actually going to take it slow and not run too fast, she always ends up running too fast! She wanted to stick with a 12:30-13:00 mile since she's doing Portland next weekend but instead she averages a tad over 12 minutes per mile. Thanks to a little (and I mean LITTLE) burst of speed at the end, I averaged just under a 12 minutes mile. The run felt good, except for the heat. I'm SO looking forward to when it will be cool during our runs... but I'm not looking forward to when it will be DARK during our runs :(

Tonight I'm not running with Amy and Pam like I did last weekend... I am going to a TNT fundraiser put on by Rocky and another TNT band dude Hugo. Both of their bands, MotherHumbuckers and Pine&Battery, will be playing at Joe's of Lafayette and even though it's a school night, there's no way I'd miss the show, especially since it's practically in my backyard!

Easy Track

Last night I went out to DVC for the Diablo Valley team's track workout. I was hoping that they'd kind of take it easy on us since most people had just done the 20 miler a few days earlier. I arrived there a few minutes late and was met at the top of the bleachers by the team who was on their way OUT of the track area. I guess Coach Tim decided to take it easy on us, at least sort of :)

We start out on the street and ran about a half mile to the trail that runs above DVC (and I guess all the way out to Highway 4 if you go far enough). I felt a little winded on the way to the trail but just figured I wasn't quick recovered from the 20 miler. We did a short stretch at the trail head and then Coach Tim sent us on our way for a quick 15-20 minutes out, and then back. I had never been on this section of the trail before (I'm not sure if it was Iron Horse, or the Canal Trail... I'm thinking Canal Trail) so that was nice... but it was also full of this tiny little hills :( I can't seem to get away from those darn hills. I pushed myself though and ran up them all... 15 minutes out, and then 15 minutes back. By the time we started back, it was starting to get dark out... I guess it's about time to bust out the headlamp! After we hit the trail head where we started, we were back out on the street and back to DVC for the last half mile. I was a nice downhill slope, which explains why I was so out of breathe on the way out!

I think I finished about 40 minutes for around 3.5 miles and I actually felt good. I could feel my hips starting to ache again but no biggie... my body is still recovernig and that will get better over the next couple of days!

Road to Recovery

It's been awhile since I last trained for a marathon and I forgot what a 20 miler will do to your body. Up until now I've been very lucky with my post-long run recovery. There's been a little bit of stiffness, but I've avoided a lot of the major soreness that you usually get after a long run. I think partially that's due to the fact that I don't come home, take a shower and then take a nap right away. After the past few long runs I've gone out to lunch, then come home, cleaned the house and THEN taken a shower and a nap... and even gone out later. Even though I'm dog tired, moving around and doing stuff helps things from tightening up too much :D

This 20 miler killed me though. I got home Saturday after the run, ate some lunch, did a little vaccuming and then showered and napped. For the past few days, my body has NOT been happy with me :( There's been a little bit of muscle soreness, especially in my calves, but what's mostly bothered me are my hips. I think it's my IT band :( Every time I put my weight on either leg (basically every time I walk), I can feel the sharp ache in my hips.

I've also been fighting something since I got back from Yosemite. I had a dry throat all last week, which I initially thought was just from the dry mountain air... it never turned into a full fledged sore throat, but it just felt like I was about to come down with something. After the 20 miler I think my body was having a harder time fighting it off :( Yesterday I didn't feel so hot so instead of going to run with Amy and Pam, I took the night off. I treated myself to some yummy Thai food, took a long nap and felt so much better when I woke up! Today both my whole body feels like it's finally starting to recover. There's still a little soreness, and my throat still feels weird, but I think I'm feeling ready for track tonight! I just hope they take it easy on us!

20 miler done? CHECK!

With all the Yosemite blogging, I haven't talked much lately about my running. I was a good girl last week and got three days of running in. I did track with the Bay Side team Tuesday night, ran with Amy on Wednesday night, and then ran with Amy and Pam on Thursday evening. All the runs went well, despite my crappy eating throughout the week.

All week I was dreading the 20 miler coming up in San Francisco. I think I partially blocked it from my mind. But no matter how hard I tried to NOT think about it, the 20 miler wasn't going to go away :( Saturday AM I woke up at 4:45 to start getting ready. I ate a little more food than usual, knowing that I was going to need the energy, and then left for the Lafayette BART to meet Raji at 5:30. The weather forecast had mentioned rain and went I first left the house it was just lightly sprinkling. By the time Raji and I were headed through the tunnel on the way to the city, it was full on raining :( Great. We made it out to Ocean Beach about 6:20 and met up in the pitch black with all 5 Bay Area TNT teams in Golden Gate Park. Raji, Phil and I started out about 6:45 right after the first group went. The rain had pretty much stopped at this point, at least for now.

Our meeting point

Mentally, I broke this run up into three sections. The first roughly 6 mile section took us up the hill by the Cliff House, around Sea Cliff and then back down by the Cliff House to GGP. The 2nd leg was about 4 miles and went up through GGP, and then back down to the Great Highway. The 3rd, and longest section at slightly over 10 miles, took us out the Great Highway, around Lake Merced, and then back to GGP and the finish.

The first leg went pretty well. Right off the bat we had a big hill by the Cliff House, and then we were onto the Land's End trail.-- gorgeous trail and beautiful views but I could have down without the dozens of steps we had to climb. We got a nice tour through the fancy schmancy Sea Cliff homes (HI ROBIN WILLIAMS!!) before we hit a downhill to the turn around at mile three. Then it was back UP that hill :( back by the nice homes, up another long incline and then finally down a couple steep hills to the park. During the (very few) downhills, Phil kept reminding me to take it slow. Our game plan for the run was to take it easy up the hills, walking if we wanted to, and keep a nice, easy pace the rest of the time. Section 1... CHECK!!

I'm not in the pic, but this is one of the "inclines" we went up

Section 2 through GGP was very pretty, but it's basically one long incline all the way to the turn around. We ran by the bison, who obviously didn't mind the drizzle. We also ran by this pretty little stream and then a pretty big waterfall... hmmm, never noticed that before. We also ran by a bunch of high school kids who were in the park for some kind of track event. They were probably looking at all of us decked out running with our fuel belts and gels and wondering why we were all running so slow! At the turn around it was nice to know that for the next couple of miles back through the park it would be slightly downhill. When Phil and I came out of the park, I was feeling good, but not looking forward to the last, and longest, leg. :( Section 2... CHECK!!

Oooh, pretty waterfall

I had remember the trail along the Great Highway as generally flat, but with a slight incline all the way out to the zoo. In reality there were a lot more small ups and downs. It had also started to rain harder and we were soaked :( 10 more miles just seemed like so far so to make things easier, I decided to break this section down into thirds also... section 3a was out the Great Highway, 3b would be around Lake Merced and 3c was back along the Great Highway. I know, I'm a dork, but it really helps to break it up into smaller portions... it seems less daunting that way. Out the Great Highway was fine, then we ran up past the zoo and hit the water stop at Lake Merced. Section 3a... CHECK.

View from the Cliff House of Ocean Beach and the Great Highway

Then around the Lake we went. It had been quite a few years since I had run Lake Merced so in my mind I was picturing something like Lake Merritt... about 3 miles of a flat trail. The Lake Merced loop was actually more than 4 miles, and there were a lot of inclines (WHERE on earth were those downhills!?!). At this point Phil was starting to feel a little worse for wear. Everything was aching, sore and tight... probably from those bigger hills earlier in the course. He was a trooper though and we kept plugging away, even though that meant walking up all of the inclines, even if they were very slight inclines. We hit the last Lake Merced water stop and ran into Mama Lisa. She was helping a couple of people who were feeling not so hot. Section 3b... CHECK. Thank god, only one more section left :D

Phil wasn't feeling good at all so we just walked for awhile past the zoo and back down to the Great Highway. At the corner we saw Cappy Jeanette driving by and flagged her down to come pick up Phil. Phil is one of the most mentally "tough" people I know so when he couldn't go any further, I knew it was because his body just couldn't take it anymore. He rocked for 18 miles, and helped keep me motivated the whole time! After he and Jeanette took off in the car, I took off back down the Great Highway for the last 3 miles. Surprisingly, I felt really good. Sure, things were sore, my feet hurt, my gels and electrolytes weren't mixing so well in my stomach, but my back wasn't bothering me much at all, the rain had stopped, and I mentally felt great! I spent the last 3 miles enjoying the view of the ocean, the hot surfers, and the cute little homes along the Great Highway. I really had to go to the bathroom at the end so instead of running to the "finish line" where the team was, I stopped a little sooner at the Beach Chalet to go potty. Section 3c... CHECK!!! Finally time for a hair short of 21 miles... 4:20. Thank god that was over! I got a post race massage, visited with a few people and then Raji and I headed home.

The rest of Saturday I spent cleaning, sleeping and watching some tv. Sunday I slept in and then did a little laundry before heading off to the Walnut Festival to see Jeanette's band play. After that Claudia, Amy, Anita and I went over to our friend Lindy's house for our Stitch N'Bitch. We did a little bit of stitching, but mostly spent the evening chatting, eating, and drinking wine and some of Lindy's homemade Limoncello!

Yosemite Part 2

Sunday morning Lael, Anthea, Chiel, Kelvin and Amie all woke up before the butt crack of dawn so they could get an early start on Half Dome (crazies!). After they all left and it was nice and quiet again I went back to sleep for a bit. After a couple of hours, Eranie, Cat and I were up and, over our breakfast of hot chocolate and trail mix, tried to figure out what we wanted to do that day. One option was to do a shorter hike, another option was to rent bikes and do the Valley floor loop. We decided on the 2nd option. We headed over to Curry Village to rent our beach cruisers-- of course I picked a pretty turquoise one :D The bikes are pretty basic... there are no gears to worry about and to brake, you just peddled backwards. The only thing missing was a basket, bell and streamers!

GO AWAY BEAR, GO AWAY!!

On the way to Curry Village to get our bikes

Our cool Beach Cruisers... aren't they pretty? :D

The Valley Floor bike path goes in a 13 mile loop around the valley. It hooks into a few of the hiking trails-- Mirror Lake, Yosemite Falls-- which means take a break from the bike and do a short little hike along the way. We started out at Curry Village and biked out towards Mirror Lake. There were a couple of very slight uphills, and then we got to some fun downhills where we could just coast along the empty road. We parked our bikes at the start of the Mirror Lake trail and walked up the road to check it out. Unfortunately there was no lake to be seen, just the Mirror sand bed :( We did have a very nice view of Half Dome though. :)

Beautiful views of Half Dome

Mirror Lake Bed (aka Mirror Lake when there's water)

After leaving Mirror Lake we continued along on the bike path, which we also had to share with the casual strollers walking along. The one negative about visiting a place where a lot of foreigners visit is that when you yell out "ON YOUR LEFT" they don't understand you :( You'd think just our yelling would make them turn around but nope, we could have been yelling out "WATCH OUT FOR THE BEAR" for all they knew. We didn't stop at the Yosemite Falls trail... there wasn't any water coming over the falls so didn't really care about hiking up any closer to see a dry waterfall. We stopped for lunch along the Merced river. The weather was so nice and we just sat and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

Yummm, lunch

Our lunch spot on the Merced River

We got back to Curry Village after just a couple of hours. We turned in our bikes :( and then headed back to the campsite. After relaxing for awhile, Cat and I went back to Curry Village to take some showers. They redid the inside of the shower facility since the last time we went and it looks really nice. There was also NO ONE there so we had the place to ourselves :D When we got back to our campsite, Eranie told us that Lael, Anthea and Chiel had just called in on the walkie talkie and were a few minutes away. Kelvin and Amie were about an hour behind them... Amie had a lot of blister issues which slowed them down a little bit :( Other than some nasty blisters and being exhausted, I think they all had a great time. The pictures Lael took on his sister's SLR camera are gorgeous.

Lael, Anthea, Chiel, Amie and Kelvin on the top of Half Dome

After everyone else took showers we cooked up some burgers and hot dogs. There we were in our campsite with all our food laid out (bad campers :( ) and two campsites away we hear "GO AWAY BEAR, GO AWAY". Oh no, not again. The bear never made it over in our direction though, thank god. We finished the night off with some semi-scary ghost stories and of course some s'mores :D That night I slept much more soundly... other the the snoring again, I didn't hear anything else. The next morning we were up early, had a yummy French Toast breakfast cooked by Lael, packed up our stuff and then tried to cram it all in the car again. We were back on the road probably around 10:00 and drove pretty much straight through to San Ramon. We made pretty good time and made it back around 1:00. We unpacked the car, I packed up my car and then headed for home. It was a really fun trip and I probably could have even stayed a little longer. It was nice to be home though and into some clean clothes that didn't smell like campfire smoke :D

Yosemite Part 1

Friday evening was spent in frantic packing mode. I was having a major dilemma trying to figure out what to bring. The 3 different weather reports I looked at weren't helping matters... they each had 3 different forecasts for Yosemite. One said it would be in the 60's (sweatshirt and jeans weather), one said the 70's (possibly shorts, especially if hiking, but still some warmer clothes) and one even said it would be in the low 80's (no sweatshirt needed). Just to be safe, I packed a little of everything!

Saturday I got up bright and early. Thankfully, the car was packed already with my tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, camping chair, and the stove/pots/pans/propane borrowed from Claudia and Rocky. All I had to do was finish packing my toiletries and then bring down my bag, pillow and blanket. We were all meeting at Lael's at 7:00 and I got there a few minutes early. (Our group ended up being me, my friend Lael, his girlfriend Anthea, his friend from TNT Chiel,and his friends Kelvin and Eranie with their girlfriends Amie and Kat.) Everything was laid out on his driveway and my first thought was, "Uh Oh, how are we going to get all that stuff in Anthea's SUV?!!" I had serious doubts but we did it. We had to cram some stuff in the other vehicle and in the back seat but we got most all of it in Anthea's and still had room for the 4 of us too :D After a detour to get gas, and to McDonald's for breakfast, we were finally on the road a little after 9:00am.

Yes, that is our camping stuff all piled up next to me :(

The drive went well and we made good time. I even got in a little nap on the way. :D We arrived at the little ranger kiosk at the edge of Yosemite National Park and there was a line to get in. We just had to wait a few minutes to get through and then we wound down to the valley floor.

We found our tent site in the Lower Pines campsite and started to set everything up. We had a double site since we were a larger group and it was nice and large. There was a little flat parking area where our bear bins, campfire, and picnic table were, and we set up all our tents outside that area near the trees. My tent is that pretty blue and white one on the left in the picture :D

Of course AFTER everything was all set up a ranger came by and very nicely told us that our tents were supposed to be set up INSIDE the "parking" area where we currently had our cars. They were trying to keep tents and people out of the outside area to promote vegetation growth, which would help screen the individual group sites from each other and also help cut down on noise. Great. Now we had to move the cars and then all of our tents (with every thing inside) to the inner area near the picnic tables. Once we did that, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading and snacking :D The weather ended up being just perfect. Under the trees it was nice and cool, and out in the sun it was pretty warm. :D

That night we cooked up some yummy chicken on the grill, and had that with some salad and veggies. We kept getting in trouble with the rangers though because we had food out, instead of shut in our bear bins. There is a big problem in Yosemite with bears, and every individual campsite had a steel bear bin where you are supposed to keep EVERYTHING that smells yummy and might attract bears (food, sunscreen, soap, lotion, lip gloss, etc). If you're not actively eating food, it's supposed to be locked in the bear bin, which is a little inconvenient when you're with a big group and you're trying to make dinner. After dinner we had some yummy s'mores :D My favorite camping food :D Most people make s'mores with graham crackers but for some odd reason, I grew up using Ritz crackers instead. Whenever I tell people that, they screw their faces up in disgust. This time I brought some Ritz crackers in addition to the graham crackers, just in case some one wanted to be brave. Amie had also had s'mores with Ritz so it wasn't just me swearing that it was actually good. Most everyone tried it, liked it and I think they're now converted :D

We all went to bed around 10pm, our bellies full from the s'mores :D It was still pretty nice out and I was toasty warm, bordering on hot, inside my sleeping bag. It didn't take long before I was asleep. All of a sudden around midnight I was woken up by some loud yelling. "GO AWAY BEAR, GO AWAY!!" AHHHH, there was a bear in the campground! We heard the yelling and banging for a few more terrifying minutes and then all was quiet... and I think that was even worse. All I could think about was that the bear could be walking by my tent at that exact moment. Did he smell the cherry chapstick I had snuck in my sleeping bag with me? Did he smell the Strawberry Daiquiri lotion I had put on that morning? I guess he didn't because I survived the night :D I got woken up a few times thanks to some loud campers, the cars driving by us on the road, and then the freezing cold very early in the morning, but no more bears. At one point though I thought that I heard a bear... it turned out to be just someone snoring. Phew :D

TO BE CONTINUED....

Post #100

Wow, this is my 100th post! Woo hoo! Okay, let's move on :D

Yosemite was a lot of fun... I didn't freeze to death, fall off a cliff, or get eaten by a bear :D My poor camera went kaput this weekend though :( I was having battery issues, then on Sunday I woke up and something was wrong with the LCD screen... it just shows a white screen with a big black line down the middle :( I think the camera itself is okay, but without the LCD screen I'll have to use the view finder and won't be able to see the pics until I download them. And what's the fun in that :( I will do a full update once I get pictures emailed to me... every story is more fun with pictures :)

We'll miss you Aunt Margaret

My mom called me last night with some sad news :( My Aunt Margaret, my grandmother's sister on my dad's side, passed away the other day. This was one amazing lady... She was in her 90's and, up until just about a year ago, she was as independent as ever and able to live on her own. She loved to paint, and was very talented, although she would never admit to it :) My dad and I went out to Richmond, VA for a visit back in 2005 and here are some pictures...

She and my dad



She and I at her favorite Chinese restaurant



Two of her more recent paintings

LOVE YOU AUNT MARGARET!!

I'm so confused... what day is it?

Man, this week is throwing me for a loop...

Tuesday I left work around noon to drive up to Yuba City for my mom's ordination. On my way, I swung by the Sacramento airport to pick up my brother who had flown in from Portland. We got to YC around 2:30 and had about a half hour to chat with my mom before we needed to start getting ready. The ordination wasn't until 6:00 but we had to get to the church at 4:00 for practice-- my brother and I were carrying the flags during the procession and recession so we needed to be there early too.

A little after 5:00 everyone else started to roll into the church. My mom had sent an announcement about her ordination to a number of family and friends and a lot of them showed up. My aunt was there with my little cousin Elizabeth. A family friend from NY came all the way out. A 2nd cousin of my mom and his son, my 3rd cousin, neither of which I had ever met before (at least that I remember!) came from the Bay Area and Davis. Some family friends from Stockton and Sacramento also made the trip up. I even saw some family friends that I hadn't seen for at least 6 or 7 years... and it was much longer since they had seen my brother!

The service itself was very nice... it was pretty much a regular church service with the ordination of the new Deacons and one new Priest in the middle. The vising Bishop from Bolivia (but who was NOT actually Bolivian as I found out :D) also re-affirmed and re-confirmed some members of the church. And who snorted during the service? Um yeah, that would be me :/ Good thing everyone else was laughing so no one really heard me. :) My mom did a great job... she even got to give her first communion :D Now that she's a Deacon she can perform parts of the service, can baptize people, marry them with permission from the Bishop and can even be called Reverend. But darn it... she can't absolve those peskly little sins! CONGRATULATIONS MOM!!! I'm very proud of you :D

After the service there was a very nice reception... we visiting with all the family and friends that had shown up to support my mom, ate some yummy deviled eggs and took pictures :) By the time we got home, it was about 9:30. LOOONNGGG day :(

The next morning I was up at 6:30 and my brother and I were out of the house by 8am. I dropped him off at the airport again for his flight back, and then drove straight to work. After work I had to run out to San Ramon to pick up an air mattress from Karen to use this weekend. I dropped by Target on my way home to pick up a few more camping supplies. I had planned on running on my own when I got home (since Claudia and Amy were both down for the count due to injuries/aggravations) but by the time I got home it was already getting dark :( I was so tired I ate some food, watched a little tv and was in bed by 9:15. Tonight is laundry night so that tomorrow I can pack up for Yosemite. Is this week over YET?

Practice camping...

Last night I spent the evening putting up, cleaning out and taking down the tent that I'm going to be using this weekend during our Yosemite camping trip. I sort of inherited this tent from TNT about a year ago, and it hasn't been out of it's bag since then. I figured it was probably a good idea to take it out to make sure all the poles were in there and that I could actually get the thing up. With the way they make the tents now, they're so easy to put up-- lay the tent out, put the poles together, feed them through the sleeves and you're pretty much done! This tent is pretty big... it took up the whole spare room... and it's tall enough in the middle that I don't have to stoop over!

Today I am leaving work early and heading to Yuba City for the night. My mom is being ordained as Deacon in her church tonight so the whole family will be there for support :D My brother is flying in from Portland so I'll be picking him up at the airport on my way to YC. Since it's a mid-week thing though, Grady and I are both leaving YC tomorrow am to head back to Portland and the Bay Area. This means I'll have to miss out on track tonight... I guess I'll have to start being good next week!

Couldn't quite do it :(

Our NY training group was supposed to be doing 18 miles this weekend while the team was doing 16... I couldn't quite make it though. :(

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 5:00am and I was out the door at 5:30 headed to the Alameda Creek Trail in Fremont. In all my TNT season I have missed our runs here... usually because I was out of town. I knew the trail was flat and that Amy loves to do her long runs here, but other than that I had no expectations. I got to the staging area, went potty in a pitch black porta-potty and then went up to the trail with the rest of the 6:30am group. I started out running with Claudia, Phil and Meenu. Everything was going well so far... it was a little overcast out which was nice since I was already sweaty. I was hoping it would STAY overcast for the rest of the day!

There we were... all four of us running along, chatting and gossiping when all of a sudden at mile 1.22 Claudia goes down next to me (and contrary to rumor... I DID NOT push her :D). Her right foot caught on the edge of the trail and next thing we know she's on the ground with a pretty ugly scrape on her knee and a rapidly swelling ankle :( Unfortunately, it was the same ankle she twisted a couple months ago in Berkeley. We got on the phone right away to Rocky and he came out to pick her up. Problem was, we were about .25 miles away from the nearest access point. Claudia toughed it out for awhile, hobbling in between Meenu and I (who were hobbling for some reason too... maybe in sympathy) That was slow going so the boys took over taking turns carrying her to the car. Meenu went back with her and Rocky and Phil and I were on our own :(

Phil and I ran together for a few miles until mentor Jeremy and Lael came up behind us. Phil took off with Jeremy and Lael hung back with me. I didn't think that arrangement would last long since Lael is quite a bit faster than I am. But next thing I know we've done the first 8 miles and we're passing back by the start to go out for the other 10. We stopped for awhile at the start... Lael needed to use the potty and I was happy taking a rest break waiting for him. A few minutes later we were ready to go again and headed out for our remaining 10 miles (which just sounded SO far) :( During this leg I started to get tired... I don't know if I was pushing myself a little more because I was running with Lael and felt bad about holding him back. Or maybe it was because the sun was starting to come out and it was feeling a little warmer. We took a couple of walk breaks, mostly to rehydrate or take a Gu.

The whole way I kept trying to do the math in my head, figuring out how much further until we would be turning around and coming back. Since Phil and I had walked Claudia to the car, and then ran that portion again, my watch was a little ahead of the mileage markers and it was screwing me up. By the time we got to the first turnaround (for the 16 milers) I was mentally ready to turn around. Lael reminded me that we still needed to go out another mile before we could turn around. No way... I was physically pooped and mentally done. So, we turned around and came back. My vision had started getting a little blurry, which was kind of freaking me out, and in my wacked out running mind, I was afraid I was either 1) getting a migraine or 2) losing my eyesight completely. Thankfully the blurriness went away on it's own after awhile.

We took a few more walk breaks on the way back and then ran into Coach Tim who said the finish was just a half mile past this little bridge that was just up ahead. Thank god... the end was near, even if it wasn't in sight yet. Lael and I started running again but when we reached the bridge we realized we hadn't seen the one mile mark yet. Rudy was riding by on his bike and told us that the finish was actually about a mile or so away. Thanks Coach Tim for the false hope :( Right before we reached the finish, Lael realized he'd had enough of this slow poke pace and took off to finish the last two miles that I didn't do.

My final time for 16.82 miles ended up being about 3:30... I wasn't too happy about this since I had done 16 on a crappy trail at San Leandro in exactly 3. But then I remembered that when Claudia fell and we were helping her, my watch was still running. I didn't remember to stop it for at least 10 or 15 minutes. So that made me feel a little better. Other than that, I was feeling crappy. My head hurt, my knees and hips hurt where my IT band was, and yet again my back was bothering me. :( I sat down in the shade to stretch out a little bit and rest... when I got back up I REALLY wasn't feeling good. I drank a bunch of water when I got back instead of Gatorade, which I know NOT to do but just couldn't resist, so I started getting cold sweats and feeling nauseous :( I went to the car and drank the G2O I brought with me and started feeling better.

After the long drive home, I made myself a yummy sandwich, took and shower and went straight to be for a nap! That night I met Lindsay for a movie (Hairspray... VERY good) and some drinks at Tiki Tom's and Mr. Lucky's. We had a lot of fun, maybe even a little TOO much fun! All I can say is that the grilled cheese sandwich I got at Hubcaps at 2:30am tasted divine... the Mint Chocolate Chip milkshake might not have been the best idea though :(

Sunday morning I slept in and then at 2:30 headed out to a Doggie Party in Oakland. Claudia had organized a little get together for all the TNT doggies and their owners at the store of another TNT friend. Even though I have been doggie-less since Claudia and Patch moved out, I was still invited :D I got some cuddle time with my little muffin, and Daisy too, who looked so pretty in her dress and was enjoying her first outing with other doggies since getting all her shots! After the party it was back home and back on the couch for the rest of the night!

Creepy Red Sun

Well, I lied yesterday... we DID have a good reason not to run last night: the icky, smokey air. :( There have been a lot of fires in the area recently. The Lick Fire began Monday in Henry Coe State Park down in Morgan Hill-- so far it's burned about 11,000 acres and it's only 20% contained. Another fire started on Monday in the Plumas National Forest-- that 15,000 acre fire is only 5% contained. As a result of these wildfires, the air quality has been very poor. The air is hot and smoky, and the light looks wierd too... it's like a hazy orange. When I left the house today for work I noticed that the light looked wierd again... when I got to work I saw why. Instead of a bright yellow sun up in the sky, the sun is a neon reddish orange color. Very creepy.

So last night we canceled our run and instead I did some much needed grocery shopping, got some new books at the library, watched some tv and then fit in a quick core/ab workout before bed. Since the air is crappy today too, I probably won't run again... I'll do another core/ab workout and then carbo load with a pasta dinner in preparation for the 18 miler on Saturday!

"You have a baby... in a bar"

(If you didn't know... that's a quote from Sweet Home Alabama) :D

Last night Claudia, Rocky and I met up with Kathy, an old TNT friend, her hubby Rick and their new baby Ava. Kathy used to live in San Jose and I met her my very first season of TNT back in 2003. She became one of our good friends but a few years ago she moved away from the Bay Area. She now lives in Idaho, which means we don't get to see her very often :( Last time she came to town in 2006 I was driving to Yuba City for a funeral so I didn't get to see her. Since then, she and Rick had a beautiful little baby named Ava and were back in the Bay Area visiting family and friends.

We all met up at Havana's... one of our favorite eating (but mostly drinking) places. It wasn't until after we had made plans that I thought maybe this wasn't the best place to meet up with Kathy and Rick, since they'd have Ava with them. But oh well... it is a restaurant, not just a bar, and we weren't going during the heavy party time! In fact, we saw a couple other babies there!

We had so much fun catching up with Kathy and Rick and playing with Ava. She is such a sweet little baby! Claudia and I brought some baby gifts that we had bought during our Friday shopping spree so they opened them there. I think Ava liked the ribbons more than her new outfits and toys!

Because of our dinner plans last night, I didn't make it to track... again. It's cooled off a lot over the past couple of days so tonight Claudia, Amy and I have no excuse NOT to run! We'll see how I feel though after the two mojitos I had last night!

Thank God for AAA

Happy post Labor Day weekend! I hope everyone had a fun and safe Labor Day Weekend!

Friday my boss treated us to a half day :D He didn't have many calls scheduled so he said that we could take off around lunch. I had plans to meet Claudia, Amy and Jeanette for lunch at Whole Foods so I hurried to finish all my work and then met up with them. Claudia had taken the day off and since we had plans to meet some friends in WC for dinner that night, she decided to just hang out in WC with me for the rest of the day, instead of driving out to Oakland and then back later! We killed some time shopping at Target and Ross and then hung out at my place until it was time to meet Brandy and Lindsay for dinner at Stanfords. Our service was crappy but dinner with the girls was fun! We were bad girls though and each had a (few) cocktails with dinner, even though 3 of the 4 of us were running the next day :(

The next morning I was up early so that I could get my run in before leaving for Tahoe. My plan was to get to the Lafayette/Moraga trail at 6:15, go out and back 3 miles and then meet Amy and her group there for 3 out and back at 7:45. That way I'd only have to do 6 by myself. When I got to the little parking lot I saw one of my old mentees Margo, and a couple of her friends. They were going out for a run so Margo asked if I wanted to join them. Of course! That meant I'd have some company for the first 3 miles out! I threw my purse in the trunk, shut it, and then realized that my keys were in my purse... now in the trunk. Whooops, that's not good. I figured since I was already out there, I might as well get my run in and deal with the keys later.

The first three miles went well... leaving from Lafayette, the trail to Moraga is at a slight incline and I could definitely feel it. I felt like I was running pretty hard, but wasn't really going very fast. At least since we started so early, it was nice and cool out. I stuck with Margo and her girls until the trail crosses the road around three miles... I turned around and they continued on with their run. The run back was pretty easy... it was nice to get that slight decline after running uphill for the past three miles. I got back to the beginning of the trail around 7:20 and waited for Amy, Bree, Sandy and Mary Ann to get there. Amy and her girls like to do a run/walk so we did 4 minutes of running and then 1 minute of walking for the next three miles. At this point it was warming up, and I had already done 6 miles, so I didn't mind too much those little walk breaks! The community center is right about at the 3 mile mark so we all stopped there for a potty break and to refill our bottles. I was going to turn around and head back, but most of the girls were going to keep running. I needed to borrow someones phone to call AAA and since Sandy had also done some extra mileage before we started, she turned back with me. The run back was a little harder. Even though we were running downhill, the heat was catching up with us and it was really starting to warm up. My final time for 12 miles was 2:20:59. I felt pretty good... no back problems although my left knee and hip were a little achy. All in all though, it was a good run.

I called AAA, talked to a super nice lady and then Sandy and I sat in the hot sun waiting for him to get there, and the other girls to get back. The AAA guy got there in about a half hour (they gave me an hour window) but had forgotten the tools he needed so he had to go back to his shop in Lafayette to get them. Thankfully I have a trunk release button in the car so he just needed to get one of the doors open. About 10:15 I was FINALLY on my way home! I jumped in the shower, ate a little pasta, picked up a friend at BART (her mom and cousin were up in Tahoe with my parents) and then we were off to Tahoe!

The traffic on the way up wasn't bad at all and we made pretty good time. I think with the Bay Bridge closed there were less people headed up to Tahoe on Sat. morning. We got to Incline around 3:45 and I went straight to the beach to meet up with everyone. The weather was so perfect up there... not windy at all like it usually is in the afternoon. We sat around on the beach for awhile and then went back to the condo to make dinner. I think everyone was pretty tired after the long day so after dinner we just watched some tv and lounged around before going to bed. We weren't sleeping very long before we were woken up by our rowdy neighbors across the way. I think they had been at a wedding so when they came home they were all a little drunk. It was this huge group of people and they were all SUPER loud! Since it was so hot, we all had our windows open and could hear everything they were doing. After a final smoke break on their steps around 1:00AM they were finally ready for bed. Urg. I wasn't taking any chances though so I popped in some earplugs before I went back to sleep. Those earplugs work wonders... I didn't hear anything or woke up until my mom came in my room at 10:30 the next morning to wake me up!

My dad cooked up some yummy pancakes for breakfast and after we all got ready, it was time for the beach again. Since it was earlier in the day, it was a lot warmer out but in the shade it was perfect. We stayed at the beach for a couple hours, and then my mom, dad, and our family friend's niece and I went down to Zephyr Cove for a trip on the Woodwind II. It was a gorgeous day for a sail... they took us down along the shore almost all the way to South Lake and then back up. After the sail we went down to South Lake for dinner. We ate at the Forest Buffet at Harrah's... it was a LONG wait but the food was good and I think we all ate our money's worth! It's on the top floor of the casino and, even though we weren't looking right out over the water (that view was reserved for the pricier restaurant around the corner) the views were still gorgeous! After dinner we walked down to the lake to see the fireworks show. I wasn't really sure what to expect but the fireworks were among the best I've ever seen. The went on for what seemed like forever, and they had a lot of fireworks I'd never seen before-- even some in the shape of dice!

I was looking forward to a quiet night's sleep (figuring the neighbors couldn't be that loud AGAIN) but no such luck. The people in the bedroom directly across from me decided to start a DVD a little after 10 PM. No biggie, except with THEIR window open, and mine open, it sounded like the movie was playing in MY room. There was no way I could put up with this for the whole length of the movie. I tried yelling across the tiny courtyard at them. No luck. Three of us had to walk outside to yell up at them and throw rocks at their window before they finally heard us and shut their window. After that though it was quiet (thanks in part to the earplugs again!).

Then next morning we woke up, ate some breakfast and packed up the car. Our friend's niece (who I was dropping off in Sacramento) and I headed out at 11:00 and by the time I got home it was 4:00. It took my almost 5 hours to get home (including a short stop off in Sac. to eat and drop off Kayla)! Yucky traffic... and not just Labor Day weekend traffic from Tahoe... we also saw a bunch of dusty, dirty, funky cars, most with funky bikes on them. It took me awhile before I figured out that they must be people coming back from Burning Man. Crazy people :D