When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes... and Throat, and Lungs, and Nose...

A few ago when I went to Lake Tahoe for Father's Day, we noticed how smoky it was up there due to the Humboldt fire burning near Paradise. Since then more fires have started and the smoke is drifting all the way down to the bay area :( The smoke is so bad that it's completely covered up Mt. Diablo, which normally looms over the area. I live just minutes away from the base of the mountain and I can't even see it anymore. In addition to our smoky skies, and the creepy red sun, we're also experiencing some pretty bad air quality. It's not as bad a cities north of us are experiencing, but it's bad enough to be noticeable.

This is the air quality report for Concord. The red color on today's forecast is "Unhealthy (U)" which basically means "Not a good day to go for a run" :D... tomorrow it's downgraded to "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (USG)"

On Monday I met up with Pam for our usual run. Because of busy schedules, we hadn't run since Monday the 9th, two weeks before. As we were running I noticed that I was doing a bit more huffing and puffing and had this side cramp that wouldn't go away. The problem was either my lack of running in the past two weeks, or the bad air quality. Pam had done some running since the last time we ran together and since she noticed that she was having a harder time too, I'm guessing the labored breathing was mostly due to the cruddy air.

On Tuesday I didn't really feel like going home after work and just lazing around, even though I had some laundry to do. Claudia mentioned that she was going to do a 3 mile walk after work to pass some time before she was meeting Phil and Amy at the pool. I'm such a nice friend I offered to come out and walk with her. :D Funny how during the past training season it felt like such a chore to go out to the Buddy Runs after work on Tuesday's but my first Tuesday after the season's done I don't want to go home and sit around! I met Claudia at her office and we did a semi-leisurely paced 3 mile walk down Camino Tassajara. By the time I got home it was only about 7:00 and I had plenty of time to eat some food and watch some tv.

Last night I twisted Claudia's arm and convinced her that since the air quality was so icky, she should come drink wine with me at the Walnut Creek Wine Walk instead of going to her track workout. I had heard about it a few days ago and thought it would be fun to check it out. Basically you pay $20 for a wine glass, wristband and map, and then from 6-9pm you walk around to various participating downtown businesses who are serving wine, and usually a little food too. I've been to something similar in Danville but it was on a much smaller scale. In Walnut Creek there were 32 businesses participating-- clothing stores, restaurants, a travel agency, a bank (it's probably the only time I'll ever be able to say I drank in the bank!!), a coffee shop, computer store, salons, and even a mattress store. There were TONS of people out there-- they ran out of the special wine glasses so many people just had plastic cups and a few locations even ran out of wine.

Taking out my "wine withdrawal" at the bank :D

I think that Claudia and I both planned on this taking no more than a couple of hours but before we knew it it was already 9:00 and we had hit 23 of the 32 locations. The last place we went to was a Mediterranean food place and we decided while we were there to grab something more substantial than the cheese and crackers we had been nibbling on all evening. Unfortunately they close up at 9:00 so we ended up going to Pyramid instead, where I ate way too much food for that late hour. When I went home my belly was so stuffed with wine, snacks and a chicken sandwich, I thought I was going to burst! We had a good time though and since it seemed to be such a success, I'm sure they'll do it again!

(Not so) Summer in the City

To celebrate the end of the Team In Training Spring Season (which means no more early morning Saturday runs) what did I decide to do? Get up at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday!! Amy and Claudia were doing the Tri 4 Fun in Pleasanton-- it was Amy's first triathlon every, and Claudia's first one in awhile. Jeanette and I carpooled down together to go cheer them on. When we left my house at 6:00am it was already warm :( and the day only got warmer after that. Thankfully the sign that I made for Amy and Claudia also doubled as a shade structure :D

Amy and Claudia did a fantastic job!! I was hot just sitting there and I'm so proud of how well they did swimming, biking and running in that heat! A few of our Spring Season teammates were also there doing the triathlon so we got to cheer for them too!

After the race we decided to go grab breakfast-- the athletes had earned it, Rocky, Jeanette and I were just hungry :D After breakfast I went home and napped for the rest of the afternoon. When it had cooled down a little, I went to Target to pick up a few things-- I needed to get a head set for my cell phone so I don't get in trouble for talking on the phone in the car after July 1st, plus some things for the concert we were going to the next day in Golden Gate Park.

Alice Radio was putting on a free concert called Alice's Summerthing. They had about 5 bands/artists... not any that were super famous but most all of them had at least one or two songs I knew. It was more of an excuse though to enjoy a nice day with friends in the city. Too bad the "nice" day part of it didn't really happen :( When Lael and I left my house at 10:30, I was dressed in shorts and a tank top, anticipating really nice weather in the city. I grabbed a fleece jacket just in case, thinking that I'd probably end up using it as a pillow. Thank god I brought it because it was FREEZING out there!!

As soon as we went through the tunnel I could see the fog in the city, but I hoped it wasn't anywhere near Golden Gate Park. By the time we got to the park though the sun was gone and the temperature had dropped about 15 degrees :( Lael's friend Kelvin and his GF Amie had gotten there before us and had claimed a good spot in the meadow. Thankfully I had brought a large towel and a fleece blanket to sit on-- with the fleece blanket on top of us, it wasn't too bad. The first band started and more of our friends showed up... Phil, Claudia and Rocky all came after their training was over. My friend Katie and her BF also showed up towards the end of the afternoon. The music was good, we were stuffed with food and we had a good time despite the not-so-summery weather!

Running free week

Girls Night Out + Busy at Work = No running for me! Monday it was my fault... I happily ditched the run in favor of Mojitos and Sex and the City with the girls. Thursday it was Pam's fault but I can't say that I was sad that she had too much work to do and couldn't run (Well, I was sad for her, but not for me!!). It was super hot yesterday and I was not excited about the idea of running in the 90+ degree weather! So instead I actually cooked myself a well balanced dinner (:-O) and watched some tv in my nice air conditioned apartment! Ahhh, so nice!

Tonight I'll probably do much of the same since I need to be up at the butt crack of dawn tomorrow to go cheer on Amy and Claudia at the Tri4Fun! It's Amy's First Triathlon Ever and I know she's going to do a great job!

GOOD LUCK AMY AND CLAUDIA!!!

Girls Night Out x2

I "heart" my girlfriends :D No matter what we're doing, we always have fun together! On Monday night Claudia, Lindsay, Jeanette and I got together for a Girls Night Out. We went to Havana's for some yummy food and mojitos, and then we to see the ultimate Girls Night Out movie, Sex and the City! The movie was fun, but a little on the long side :( I guess when you have 4 important, central characters, it takes time to tell each of their stories. The best thing about the movie was how much it showcased the amazing, unique friendships that women can have with each other.




Last night I met up with two other girlfriends, my former coworker Ann and her cousin Maureen. Maureen tells her hubby that we're the coffee klatch girls, and he joked that we're really the Vodka klatch. I think he's a little closer to the truth since our get togethers NEVER include coffee :) We (along with another girl Lara) meet up maybe once a month, or once every couple of months, for drinks and dinner. Last night we met up at Artisan, a cute little wine bar in Walnut Creek. We got there around 5:30 and next thing you know it's after 10:00!! For the most part we were the only ones in there so we could be as loud as we wanted :) The owner who was there gave us some really good suggestions on wine to try and I think we each enjoyed what we had. Since I hadn't been able to be there for the last meet up it was nice to spend some time catching each other up on what's going on in our lives!

A Happy Father's Day Weekend

Even though I just saw my parent's last weekend, I couldn't NOT see my dad for Father's Day so I had originally planned to make a trip to YC for the weekend. When I talked to my mom last week though, she brought up the idea of going to Tahoe for the weekend instead. My parents are in the middle of remodeling our Tahoe condo so they can sell it :( Boo hoo. Since I hadn't been up to Tahoe since last year, and since I might not be able to get up there again before the unit sells, I thought it was a great idea to head to Tahoe for Father's Day weekend!

Since the sun doesn't go down so darn early this time of year, I decided to just drive up to Tahoe on Friday after work. This would give me at least one full day of relaxation! Too bad everyone else decided to head out of town later Friday afternoon too! I was basically stuck in traffic from here to Sacramento. I guess the high gas prices haven't really deterred people from traveling! Once I started climbing into the foothills though the road got much less congested and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way to Incline Village.

Ahhh, I LOVE the lake! I love that first glimpse of it as you come down the hill into King's Beach. It's just so dang purty :D I finally rolled into the condo complex a little before 9:00... a whopping 4.5 hours since I left work :( Once I got there I spent the evening catching up on things with my parents and checking out all the changes in the condo (new wood floors, new carpet, new sofas, even a new fridge!)

The next morning after breakfast we decided to head down to the beach to relax and read. Us Lamons are funny... we're not really bathing suit people and I think we were the only ones laying out on the lounge chairs in our regular clothes :) Oh well, we enjoyed ourselves! We read, ate, applied lots of sunscreen, read some more, and even fell asleep. It was perfect beach weather, even though we all kept moving our chairs back into the shade as the sun rose higher in the sky :) The only thing marring our perfect day was all the smoky haze hanging over the lake. When we first got to the beach you could barely see the mountains on the other side of the lake... just about 15 miles away. As the day went on the sky got hazier and hazier and the mountains completely disappeared :(

Where are the mountains? It almost looks like we were at the ocean!

After our day of lazing on the beach, we went back to the condo, got cleaned up and then went to dinner down at the Hyatt. My parents had gone there just a couple of weeks before and my parents were raving about the steak fillet that my dad had... since it sounded so good, all three of us had the same thing! After our yummy dinner we went back to the condo so my dad could open gifts and we could have our dessert :D

The next morning I packed up, ate breakfast and watched some tv before heading back to Walnut Creek. This time there was much less traffic on the road and I made it home by early afternoon! It was a fun weekend with the family, and I'm glad I got the chance to be up at the lake, even if it's for the last time... wah, wah, wah!! :(

It feels like summer has arrived!

Now that it's hot, I wish it were cool :( I'm just never happy with the weather! Thankfully since my event is over, I don't HAVE to be out there training in the heat! That doesn't mean I WON'T be out there though! I am still planning on doing the Monday/Thursday runs with Pam (joined by Amy on Mondays) although with our busy schedules, it's down to about once a week right now! I'd really like to keep up with at least some running during the summer so that when it's time to train for Nike at the end of the summer, I won't have to start all over again!

Monday night I met with Pam and Amy for our run. It was warm out but not too bad at all. Amy informed us that she would be taking it slow, and that was fine by me! Towards the end Amy took a walk break and Pam and I picked up the speed a little bit. It was nice to get out there and run with the girls... especially Amy, who I hadn't run with in awhile! I'm glad that the weather held out for us too!

The rest of the week has been pretty laid back. Tuesday I went to dinner with Lindsay at Pyramid. The weather was perfect for sitting out on their back patio enjoying some beers. Last night I had Send Off for our Spring season runners who are going to Alaska next week for the Anchorage Marathon. We have just a few runners going so Send Off was nice and small. It gave us more of an opportunity to visit and chat with eachother!

Tonight I'm off to Tahoe for the weekend! I haven't been up I think since last summer and I'm ready to go up and hang out at the lake! Of course I'm going up there when the gas prices have shot through the roof! Last weekend it was a trip to Sac, this weekend Tahoe... what a time for all this driving around!!

Liar, liar :D

A little over a week ago I posted about my mom's 60th birthday... and a couple of weeks before that about my brother's surprise visit for Mother's Day. Since I wasn't going to be around for her 60th bday (it was the same weekend as Rock N'Roll) getting my brother to come down for Mother's Day was also an early birthday present. But a few days before my mom's birthday, her friend Deni called saying that we needed to plan a surprise party for my mom. There's no saying "NO" to Deni so I said "Okay, what do you have in mind?" That's when the plan was hatched :D

Deni's idea was for a 2 part birthday surprise. First she'd get my mom to come to Sacramento for the day and Deni would surprise her with a spa day. After the spa, they'd go to dinner where family and friends would be waiting! Since I was going to be gone for my mom's actual birthday, we decided that we'd have this celebration on the 7th, also hoping that it would throw my mom off the scent! After MANY emails and calls between me, Deni and my dad, the spa and dinner reservations were made, the family/friends were invited to dinner, the decorations were made, the cake was ordered and we were ready!!

Saturday afternoon as my mom was on the way to Roseville to meet Deni, I was also headed to Roseville. We decided it would be a nice surprise to have me meet them down at the spa. We were hoping that she'd think THAT was the big surprise and not guess that anything was coming after. I got to the spa first and filled out my paperwork. The ladies there were VERY nice and had the whole thing planned out. They parked me in the "Relaxation Room" to wait for Deni and my mom to arrive. Once they got there, the ladies took them on a tour of the spa, including the Relaxation Room, where I was waiting! My mom was very surprised to see me, but I didn't get as much of a scream as my brother did :D Since we were there at the end of the day, the ladies closed the doors and basically gave us the run of the place. We busted out some champagne I had brought and had a nice afternoon of relaxation!

All disheveled from their first treatment!

Me enjoying the sauna

During my facial at the end of the afternoon, I started thinking about the next phase of the plan. Deni and I had concocted a story that would let me leave the spa so I could go down to the restaurant and set up some decorations before my mom and Deni arrived. I was a little nervous about us being about to act natural so my mom wouldn't guess that something was up. :D I think we did a pretty good job because my mom didn't guess a thing! I told her that I needed to go pick up Deni's daughter who hadn't been able to make it for the spa, but had come down from the city for dinner. Our story worked and I was able to leave a little early to go meet everyone at Buca di Beppo to set up!

When I got to the restaurant everyone was already there and waiting for the guest of honor. :D We threw up some decorations and about 10 minutes later she showed up! She was very shocked and excited to see all the family and friends who had come to help her celebrate! After a yummy dinner our server brought out a cake my dad had brought from Yuba City and we all sang Happy Birthday! I think that everyone had a good time, and I know my mom was very surprised so I'd say the day was a success!!

I didn't take many pictures but I'll add some when other people send me theirs!

SURPRISE!!!

Hee hee, we got my mom good over the weekend!! Two surprises in one day and she had NO clue!! HAPPY 60TH BIRTHDAY (again) MOM!!! I'll post an update all about it tomorrow!

San Diego Rock N' Roll Race Report!

The weekend started at the butt crack of dawn on Saturday morning. :( I had to be at SFO at around 7:00 which means I had to get up really early-- boo hoo for me :( Once I got to the airport I was joined by a bunch of other TNTers from around the Bay Area, including some of my Bay Side teammates.

After an uneventful flight, we got to San Diego at about 10:00. A shuttle was waiting for us there to take us to our hotel. The hotel was really nice and BIG (I got lost trying to find the room). The best thing was that even though we were all there well before the check in time, they were able to get us into our rooms. I put my stuff in the room and then headed to the pool to meet up with some other teammates. We spent some time lounging there in the warm sun (that finally decided to come out) before we hopped on the shuttle to head to the Expo.

Me, Ian, Melissa, Deb, Christina and Fran waiting for our shuttle at the SD airport!

The Expo was pretty much like all the other RNR Expos I've been too... which means it was HUGE! I walked around a little bit, and then when Rocky and Claudia got there we all walked around some more. By this time it was around 2:00 and none of us had had any lunch so we walked across the street to this cute restaurant and had some lunch while sitting outside in the sun. The lunch was yummy, but filled me up way to much, especially considering that by the time we were done it was only an hour or so until the pasta party!

Claudia and I at the Expo

The Pasta Party was located just down the street from our hotel so it was a nice short shuttle ride. The food was standard pasta party food, which means not too excited. Good thing I was still full from lunch! I was happy to see though that they had cookies there :D At the Pasta Party we heard from The Penguin-- I've heard him speak a lot before but he still cracks me up! We also heard from some other race people and also an honoree who's also a participant. Everyone's speeches were nice, they just went on WAY too long! I think it was close to 8:30 by the time we finally left! When I got back to my room I spent some time getting all my race stuff ready for the next day. At 10:00 it was lights out!

Team "Because We Can!" on the way to the Pasta Party

Yummm, pasta party food!

Sunday:
I didn't sleep well at all the night before the race :( I actually woke up a few minutes before my alarm was set to go off at 3:30am because I had a dream that I was late for the race! I got up, got ready and then Claudia, Rocky and I headed to the hotel lobby to meet up with everyone. Coach gave us our pep talk, we did our shout outs and then we headed outside to get on the shuttle to the start. Everyone was a little nervous and tired but still excited!

When we got to the start area it was still dark out. We all pottied and then found a spot on the grass to hang out until the start. We pottied some more, checked our bags, and then at 6:15 made our way to our corral. When 6:30 came the race was on! (Which means we just stood there for a few minutes before we started the walk to the start line) :D While we were sitting around before the start the temperature had been a little cool but very comfortable. Great for sitting around, but not cool enough for running. Even though we had the "June Gloom" clouds above us, I started sweating right after we started running. It wasn't really HOT out, but it was a little humid. After just a couple of miles I had sweat pouring off of me... even dripping off my elbows. Sorry, that's kind of gross but I honestly have never sweat more in my life. And when I looked around I could see that everyone else was having the same problem... people's shirts were already drenched and the sun hadn't even come out yet!

The first few miles were pretty nice... we ran down through Balboa Park and then around the downtown area and Gaslamp district. Because I don't know the city well, and there were quite a few turns, I had no idea where I was the first few miles. The only thing I really knew was that at mile 8 I would be one street over from mile 4. This was where we hung out when my brother ran the full marathon, and it's the same place where Claudia and Rocky were going to be. At 4 miles I was feeling really good but had left my teammates behind. I ran past Claudia and Rocky, gave them a quick wave and then kept going.

Between mile 4 and 8 is when I started getting tired. I had started out the race hungry (I either ate too little, too early or both) but after I had a GU around mile 5 I felt better. By mile 8 though I was hungry again :( I also noticed that when I stopped to walk during the water stops my quads were really tight. I was worried that with the humidity and sweating that I'd start to cramp up so I kept drinking more of my gatorade instead of the water at the water stops. I ran into Claudia and Rocky again... I gave them my race belt, got a refill of Gatorade (I had gone through more than half of my bottle), chatted for a minute and then said goodbye. Since they had to get over the the marathon finish line I wasn't going to see them again. :( THANK YOU for being out there and supporting me! Knowing they were going to be there at mile 8 motivated me to keep moving!

After I left them the race route took us onto the freeway. It was very weird running on an empty freeway, and not all the comfortable. The surface isn't smooth and the road is tilted. You don't notice how much when you're driving in a car but running it you do notice. A few people had told me to either run on the very left, or very right side where the road was a little more even so that's what I tried to do. The sucky thing is that in addition to running on this tilted freeway, we were also running up a 2 mile incline :( I knew that for the next 2 miles we'd be running uphill so I just started walking. I knew I couldn't power up this hill and didn't want to tire myself out trying. I noticed at this point that A LOT of people were walking, and A LOT of people were stretching along the side of the road. Not really a good sign so early in the race. I think that the humidity and the course were causing people some difficulty.

While I was on the freeway the sun started to come out. At first I was not happy about that but I was actually more comfortable at that point. I was able to cool down a little when I was walking, and with the sun came a little breeze which helped even more. It also didn't feel quiet as humid which was nice. At mile 10 we got a nice little downhill... a lot of people were still walking so I managed to pass quite a few of them. Then, another little uphill that I walked before we exited off the freeway around mile 11.

These guys cracked me up... I saw them at two spots, once at the top of the big hill cheering "GO GO UP THE HILL!" One guy was REALLY good at the high kicks... kind of scary from a boy in a short skirt!

From mile 11-12.5 I did some running and walking off and on. The bottom of my feet really hurt from the darn freeway and it was just plain hot out there. :( Somehow my Garmin got off course because it was showing .5 miles more than the mile markers. So when I hit 12 miles on my watch, I was only at 11.5. That was really screwing with me because I kept thinking I was almost at each mile marker, but was really a half mile away! When my watch hit 13 miles, I knew I had just .6 left so I started running a little faster. I was on the lookout for a finish chute, or special area for the half marathoners but I didn't see anything. I crossed the mat at 13.1 miles and saw an area off to the right that was the finish area for the half marathoners but was unsure if I should stop running right there, or continue running down the path into the finish area. I kind of did both, so I think that my "finish" photo is of me actually walking. A little anticlimactic and confusing, but oh well, I was just so happy to be done!! They had a special medal for us that looked exactly like the full marathon medals, but with a different color ribbon and a little 1/2 in there :D The finish area was nice too... I saw some of my teammates so we sat in the grass and had some snacks.

Heather and I at the finish area

The plan was that after we finished, we'd be bussed over to the full marathon finish line so that we could get our bags and then get the shuttle back to the hotel. The shuttle took FOREVER, and by the time I got to the finish area Lael, who was running the full marathon, had already finished! I met up with Lael, Claudia and Rocky and then went off to get my bag while they looked for our other friend Bill. The finish line area was so crowded I was starting to get super irritated with people! I was hot, tired and hungry... GET OUT OF MY WAY!!! When I made it back to the family area Bill had showed up and we went to get our free beer-- We sat in the grass, drank our beer and baked for a little bit :D

We decided it was finally time to get going so we made the long trek off to the car, and then drove Bill and Lael back to their car near the start. We couldn't figure out how to get on the darn freeway so we stopped for some lunch at the sandwich place and then made a second attempt, SUCCESS! Back to the hotel we went! I jumped in the shower, laid down for a short rest and then it was time to get ready for the Victory Party!

The Victory Party was at the Convention Center downtown and there were TONS of people there. It was hard to find everyone so I ended up at the table with some of the managers. We ate, drank some beer and then finally found our group on the other side of the room dancing it up! The party was over at 8:00 and most people had already left by then. Claudia and Rocky were having dinner down the street so I went down to meet up with them and then the three of use hooked up with some of the Diablo Valley team who was at a bar down the street. We hit a couple of San Diego's hot spots before finally heading back to our hotel. It had been a LONG day for all of us!

Monday:
The next morning I got to actually lay in bed for awhile. We didn't have to be on the shuttle until about 11:30 so I had time to be a lazy bum :D I was a little sore and achy but wasn't doing the "marathon waddle" like many other people were! I nodded off on the plane, and then finally got to my house at 4:30 :(

All in all it as a good weekend. San Diego is such a fun town and I wish I could have spent more time there having fun, rather than being shuttled all over the place and running the race! I feel pretty good about my time, considering I walked for over 2 miles of it and was sweating like a pig! I don't think I'd ever do the race again though... I've crossed it off my list and that's where it can stay!

THANK YOU to everyone who supported me this season... both financially and emotionally! I couldn't have done it without you all!!!

I DID IT!!

I'm back from San Diego and boy am I sore! I feel almost like I ran the FULL marathon, instead of just the half! The weekend was great and I had a great time being down there. The race went pretty well although because of the humidity I sweated more than I ever had before! Final time: 2:49:13. I'll do a full race report with pictures tomorrow!