Once again, I disappeared longer than planned. Oops.
I actually had last week off of work as a postponed vacation from October. It was only going to be a couple of days but combined with Veteran’s Day, it turned into the whole week. I didn’t really have any plans but sometimes those weeks are needed.
I ran some, I slept some, I ate yummy food and watched some movies. There may or may not be a Christmas Tree up. Maybe 2. I also may have gone full Hallmark channel character and there may be a 7 foot tree in my bedroom. May be.
I had my quarterly strip search with the dermatologist and they took another biopsy. This time higher on my back. And damn did it hurt more than the last ones. I swear it even hurt more than the full on melanoma incisions and those needed stitches. It put running on the backburner the last few days of vacation as I couldn’t figure out a sports bra that didn’t hurt. Boo. Good news is that although it did show cancerous cells, they said the got it all.
I also made the choice to stop 2 of my medications. I’ve been thinking about it for some time now as I honestly think the side effects were outweighing the positives. Whether or not that remains to be true though is still to be seen. So it’s been a detoxing couple weeks.
I was actually running consistent and smart at the beginning of vacation. I was really enjoying my runs. I wish I could say I was continuing that this week but damn I forgot how dark it is now when I get out of work. I’m not adjusted yet even though I usually love this time of year. I have all of my lights ready though.
One of my favorite local races is this weekend. Rescheduled from it’s usual month. I so want to run it. However even I am not stupid enough to jump into a half marathon right now. But I am sad.
I am also still in denial that next week is Thanksgiving though. How is that even possible? I just can’t wrap my head around it.
Sometimes being smart is stupid. But still the right thing to do.
Disclaimer: I received an entry into the Marin Endurance Festival to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews!
I didn’t run the 2 weeks before the Marin Endurance Festival, and if I’m being really honest, I barely ran in all of October.
Race week actually started off with a foggy, pain filled head thanks to a sinus infection. Grr. Plus the last few weeks of work have left me feeling fried. Which is also why I ghosted on the blog for 2 weeks. Maybe one good thing about getting older is that I finally admit these things to myself. Well, sometimes.
I had my bib mailed to me as I knew making the pickup window was likely nil. I swear the word “half” written on it just kept taunting me. I knew I needed to downgrade but pride is a stubborn thing. Even when I woke on race morning with an asshat stomach, I still wasn’t completely sold on dropping down.
However, sanity prevailed and I located the solutions table on race morning and dropped to the 10k. Which then left me to kill time as the 10k started 45 minutes after the half marathon. Lucky the start/ finish area was freaking awesome – McNear’s Beach with palm trees and shoreline views. It was also freaking cold and I was wishing I packed more than just my long sleeve. I attempted a real warm up but my stomach fought back so I just took another Pepto and walked a little. Finally it was go time.
Right up a hill. I know I’m out of shape but I don’t usually walk that quickly in a race, ha! I alternated between running and walking as we headed out of the park towards the city with shoreline views . We turned around near 1.5 miles and headed back the way came. Again… uphill. Miles 1-2 : 12:21, 13:15
The 5k mark was pretty much the top of that hill and it felt way harder than it should have been. Boo. The road narrowed and started snaking around the hillside as we ran towards China Camp State Park. I was also melting. Rookie mistake- long sleeves was a major miscalculation. I have zero complaint about the views along the way. Mile 3: 13:40
I was starting to get confused though. Mile 3 was the last mile marker I saw that made sense for the 10k. I started seeing runners up on the hill on the trail and off the road. Some of them were wearing 10k bibs which confused me. The course description said only the last .4 miles were trail. But no runners were coming back my way, save one lone female runner around 1/2 mile later. Huh?
We hit the 10K turnaround and on the way back were sort of directed off the road and up a trail. Have I mentioned I love dirt??? I was tired and barely running but I managed to pass up all the 10k runners who had been in sight for the last part of the race and drop them. And also keep them behind me. It’s the little things.😂 Miles 4-5 : 13:05, 14:18
As much as I love trails, I was learning that my shoes were very wrong for rocky dirt and was extra glad I had dropped from the half.
There was also a scary moment as we came across a runner being medically evacuated from the course on the trail section. How the paramedics got the stretcher up there I have no idea. Good news was that the runner was not on the stretcher but walking, albeit with a firefighter on each side and very, very wobbly- down the trail. Hopefully it wasn’t anything too serious.
Then it was more dirt trail with a very misplaced mile 12 sign down to the road and into the back of the beach park. I walked some more but managed to actually run across the finish line which is more than I can say for either of my last races. Mile 6: 14:27
Finish – 1:24:33
This is my slowest non-full trail 10k ever. That said, it’s my fastest 10 in years.
I really liked this course. Logistics were a bit of an issue both course wise and parking – my car was 2 miles away😂😂. Still, this is a course I would recommend. I feel like a better in shape me should try the half some future year.
Disclaimer: I received an entry into the Marin Endurance Festival to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews!
I may be barely running but my race schedule says something different. I have 3 races in the next 5 weeks. 3! 5 weeks! Two of them are half marathons! All 3 have trail! 2 have pretty good climbs but all 3 have dirt! I love dirt!
First up is a 10K down in Agua Dulce that I love but it will kick my butt. It’s hard. Third up is a half marathon down in the desert… at night. I’ve been looking forward to it for years but I am trying to not get too excited as I may have puppy care problems. I have a back up plan for that though, I will be bummed but it’s life, right?
However, let’s talk about race#2! I’m heading north for the Marin Endurance Festival on Halloween weekend. There is so much going on that weekend. Saturday is the triathlon and duathlon events. I almost want to find a bike! But let’s be real, I wasn’t good at riding a bike when I was a kid, I really wouldn’t be now. I am disaster prone enough on my own.
Sunday is for the running. A half, a 10k and a 5k. All the fun kicks off at McNear’s Beach. The race website says there are 7 miles road and 6ish trail. So my big question now- what kind of shoes do I wear? Seriously, I am not joking- trail or road? I need to recon this trail.
What are your future race plans?
Oh, and if you want to join, you can save with code BRPRO10.
Well at least running wise. Not gonna lie, life has me feeling a little fried.
I got in an interesting 5K, like I mentioned last week. And everyone at work was intrigued by the white turkey I saw. Even Google says they are rare. Who knew?
Friday was the end to a long, long week. I briefly thought about running but who was I kidding? Then there was Saturday. I wanted to sleep in but I couldn’t. I had a prior commitment working the registration table for a fundraiser for a local charity through work. I should have run in the afternoon but instead I took a 2 hour nap. And I am not sad. I needed it.
Sunday started with drama. The cat was sick so it meant a trip to the emergency vet. People still aren’t allowed into the vet so after they took Heli in, it meant chilling in the car for a while. Coincidently while a helicopter circled the area. I tried not to wonder why they were circling. Thankfully, Heli was ok just extremely constipated. Poor dude.
I could have used the rough morning to pass on running and have in the past but chose not to. My non-plan plan called for 6 in theory miles. Which would also be the longest run since the Santa Rosa Half. So I changed and headed out to see how things went. I tried to play it smart though. I knew I was way undertrained and also figured that my next half would involve a lot of walking. So I power walked the first 3 miles and ran/walked the next 3. Other than a shoe lace issues 2 miles in, I felt surprisingly ok. I fueled at the half way point, still working on that. But I felt good. I even rounded it out to be a 10k.
A 9 mile week sounds like nothing but considering it’s about half of what I ran in the entire month of September, I’ll take it. Now if the daily headaches would go away, that would be great.
This was gonna be the week, I felt it. This was the week I was going to get up an run in the morning before work. This was it.
Then Monday came. I’m not stupid, I knew I wasn’t starting this out on a Monday. I did set an alarm for the earlier time though and at least get up and check out the window to see the what the morning looked like. Then I dozed for another hour-ish. No the problem popped up on Monday’s lunch.
A bear!
Rumors of a bear roaming my side of town popped up on social media. Then the security videos start popping up. Nope, yeah that’s a bear. And way too damn close to my house. With my weird animal luck, even my coworkers were cracking jokes that I’d be calling in from the hospital.
Granted most of animal encounters are funny- mini horse, goats, feisty possum, runaway chickens, attack peacocks but there are still scars on my ass from the the worst of my dog encounters. So yeah, mornings were sounding less like a good thing. Ha!
It was a Thursday afternoon run this week where I again showed my proclivity for running into animals where they maybe shouldn’t be. I was heading up the concrete path and could see something moving farther up the path and it wasn’t human. Could it be peacocks again? No, didn’t look right. So I slowed and got closer. Wait, are those turkeys? Can turkeys be white?? Also they looked small. But smart. They ran farther up the path from me, snuck into the bushes on my left and doubled back behind me. Then popped out of the bushes behind and bolted down the path. What the hell?
A mile later, things were still weird. There’s a dog behind a stonewall but he and I have been chill for years. However he was going crazy and pogo sticking up and down so I could see his head just popping over the wall. Huh? Then I heard a little jingling. Look up the path and there is a small chihuahua running my way. It passed me and I could a pink bling-ed up collar and then it kept running. What? I turned around and tried to catch it but it dropped me like a track start and I couldn’t find it again. Grrr.
Oh but pogo dog and I shared a look- like “where the hell did that come from?”.
Slacker Runner 