with feeling now

i like to tease my runners when they mention a difficult run because of the elements or an injury or being tired, etc. my joking response is, "hey, anyone can run when it's dry out. running in monsoons makes you hardcore" or "anyone can swim with two working arms. swimming w/ an arm in a cast makes you hardcore" or "oh yeah? anyone can cycle on TWO wheels..." and so on and so forth.

well, i got my just rewards this week. with snow in malibu on wednesday, california is experiencing some weather that it's residents aren't normally used to. thursday morning i headed out for my ride into work and didn't realize that it was sub freezing when i left the house until i was a couple miles into my ride. by the half way point, the feet were aching from the cold pain and i could barely feel my hands anymore. i determined that those cycling shoes that the salesperson said were designed for good ventilation were working just as designed.

and then during today's trail run, the temperature was in the low 50's and full sun, which felt really comfortable, until i got up on one of the ridges with shorts soaked with sweat. the stiff wind, the shorts and the cool air was just the combination for weinerbite. and as luck would have it, it set in at about mile 5 of a 14+ mile run. so, as traffic on the trails would allow, i enjoyed my run with one hand down the shorts.

i don't mind the cold, and i've got the gear for it, but i just wish that the southern california weather would make up it's mind and either get cold and stay cold, or warm up and stay warm. none of this bait and switch anymore! i'm ready to run, ride and swim with feeling again!

too big a bite

biting off more than i can chew; how many times have i been guilty of that? sunday was another instance, but fortunately, this time it had a happy ending.

with the twin peaks 50/50 looming, the coach is upping my mileage and giving me longer runs closer together. this week ended up being one of the larger mileage weeks that i've had in recent months. three runs of 10+ miles, including a tough 2x4 mile interval workout and a long run of 14 on friday had me sitting at 40 miles for the week when i stepped onto the trail for a 20-22 mile run sunday morning.

i planned on running a similar route that jessica, matt and i ran several months ago, linking the aliso creek, laguna wilderness and el moro parks together. the route included some significant climbing and very few spots to bail should things get a little more than i could handle. i first dropped down into wood canyon via mathis and then back up the canyon to cholla. once back up on the ridge, i headed to stair step and down into laguna canyon. the weather was pretty chilly, but i had dressed properly and was actually quite comfortable in the 30 degree temps and wind.

up into laguna coast wilderness park i went, and feeling pretty good the whole way. i could feel the miles from the week, but being out on the trails and enjoying the solitude continued to be at the fore of my mind. i linked up with the trails in el moro and ran the loop, ending up at the el moro ranger station by about 14.5 miles. i refueled and headed off on the next leg of the run. a mile into the el moro loop, i was part way up bfi hill, the one that caused flipperhead to use my name as a swear word. i paused for a moment and looked down the hill at the pacific coast highway, easily a couple hundred meters away and access to a gentle stroll along the coast and one climb back to where i'd parked. i turned and looked up bfi, a grueling climb and the beginning of many more miles of tough hills. tempting, but i'd signed up for the race and damnit if i was going to bail without really seeing what my body could handle, and up bfi i went.

about six miles later i was back at the bottom of laguna canyon, just over 21 miles and looking up the daunting climb of stair step, with three miles left to go. i'd misjudged the distance and it was looking like the run was going to end up being 24 miles. my legs were beyond feeling like lead and my left hip was complaining any time i lifted my leg higher than normal. i knew i was going to pay and some of the hardest running was still ahead. again, i told myself that i'd signed up for this, to get going and not stop. so up i went. and up. and up. but before i knew it, i was back on the ridge and headed back to the 'top of the world'. the trail continued under my feet and before i knew it, i was on the final mile. and we all know the mantra that goes along with that last mile. "i can do anything for a mile". and it was true. i crested the summit and saw my vehicle and realized just how hard and deep i'd had to dig to finish the run, but confident that twin peaks was now doable.

the trashman

you really never know the amount of work that goes into organizing and putting on a race until you volunteer. like manning a water station or cutting chips off shoes at the finish line. even then, you never really know the amount of work that goes into organizing and putting on a race, until you actually organize and put on a race.

back when i started volunteering w/ the fit & fun group for olive crest, i met up with a guy named jonathon and found out that he runs a race organization company. i ended up volunteering at a couple races that he organized and went from just showing up and helping out where i could to being part of his 'crew'. this past sunday was the most involved i've ever been in a large scale race.

jonathon was the course director for the oc marathon this year and i ended up being on his race crew. i was up at 2:30 and at the start at 3:30 to help put up signage for the parking, shuttle volunteers out onto the course, put up tables and the like. once the race started, i headed to the finish and picked up a big diesel flatbed truck and a crew of high school kids and we began driving the course, collecting the trash from the water stations.

we finished cleaning the half marathon route at about 12:00 and as we rolled into the finish to dump the collected trash in the dumpsters, i saw an ambulance at the final turn of the full marathon route. turns out we lost one runner during the race to a heart attack, right at the 26 mile marker. still searching the news for details.

i dropped off my crew and picked up another set of guys to finish up what had been started on the full marathon course. unfortunately lots of water station volunteers had left when there were only a handful of walkers still on the course, so i had my crew clean the stations and then we'd hang around for a bit and cheer before heading to the next station. the cool thing about this was that we got to cheer the same dozen or so walkers all the way to the finish from about mile 19. we'd cheer at the station and give them fun, personal attention and then honk and cheer wildly as we drove past them on our way to the next station.

we finally finished up the route at about 3:00, got all the trash offloaded and i let the crew go. i hung around for a bit and helped out with a couple other things, but finally decided to head home around 4pm.

it was really amazing to see all of the individuals organizing the volunteers, the course, the police, emergency services, etc. it's crazy when you think about just how much each one of these people has to coordinate and how much they rely on the people they've assigned to be autonomous. i, for one, was already hooked on volunteering, but now that i've had a taste of the chaos (i mean organization) of the race, i think i'm doubly hooked.