Running in Sunshine

My company slows down quite a bit during the holidays which makes it super easy for a quick getaway. As many of you know, I am from sunny southern California and am fortunate that my family still lives there.

The first week of being in California found me at my dad and stepmom's house. Let me paint the picture of their neighborhood, the local bike teams use it as training practice for hill repeats on the weekends and mapmyride gives the rating of the hills as the second hardest you can get. The first day out, I had a goal of 5 miles. I made it through the first 2.5 in under 25 minutes. For those of you who know me, that is beyond anything I ever run. Of course those first 2.5 miles were flat and downhill. The run back was humiliating to say the least. There are parts of that run I had to stop and walk and even walking I couldn't catch my breath. All in all, I made the 5 mile goal and called it a day.

My second run needed to be a long one and I set my eyes at 10 miles with a carefully mapped route. Once again, the first 2.5 miles were a breeze followed by about 4 of slow jogging and at times walking. In a neighborhood of incredibly fit people, a lot of folks gawked as they drove by. At first it was a bit frustrating as I was trying my best, but soon it became a badge of honor. Yes, the fat girl is running by you, but guess what, she is running. A sharp right into an unknown area and I got lost and a bit scared. Coming from the manicured lawns and friendly neighbors in my parent's subdivision to keep out signs and pit bulls on this street and I wanted out fast. I took a wrong turn and ended up on a fire road shooting me out in front of a giant hill. I felt disappointed and began to walk. As soon as I began to run, I noticed a familiar red car driving down the hill. It soon turned around and my dad stopped me to tell me to hop in the car. I had been out an hour and a half and he was getting concerned. I obliged, like a good daughter should, and got in the car. My final distance was a little over 8.5 miles which although not my goal, made me happy. 3x of that and I would have a marathon done!

I headed up north to my mom's, but came down with what my sister is dubbing the sickness of the century and thus only got one run in. The run was slow, but good and taught me the importance of proper fuel before a run. Although sick for most of the trip, I was still able to spend 14 hours walking around Disneyland on my feet and a few hours walking Santa Monica. So although my success did not exist in running, I still managed to get some exercise in.

I left the 60-70 degree weather and landed in Boston to 30 degrees in which I quickly put away my running skirts and t-shirts and pondered picking up and moving back to LA/San Diego for the remainder of my training.