Yesterday I had an experience that took me back to my childhood. Any stray animal that came around our house (and often our own animals) would get threatened by my dad to be "taken for a drive." That meant he would take them to some undisclosed location (the dump) and drop them off. I don't think he ever actually did it, and I've caught him several times snuggling with our cats, but we heard the threats quite often. Apparently my dad wasn't the only one to threaten such actions. Paul's dad was known to make similar threats to cats, dogs, and sons who caused him grief. I think our dads would have been great friends.
Anyway, Paul drove 35 minutes on the freeway just to drop me off on a lonely road on top of a mountain. I'm pretty sure he was hoping I wouldn't find my way home. There was no shoulder on the road and the cars zoomed past with no regard for the slow, blindingly-white-legged runner on the side. I kept a small tally while I was making my way home to distract myself from the persistent thoughts that nag of "why am I doing this?" and "why did I think this was a good idea?"
So here goes:
Miles: 17
Elevation change: 2000'
Hours running: 3 (new record! Thank you, 5 miles of steep downhill)
Highways: 3
Dead snakes: 2
Dead snakes I didn't see until I almost stepped on them and thought they were alive: 2
Black crows: at least two dozen
Bikers: at least 70
Other runners: 1
Other runners going much, much faster than me: 1
Lizards: dozens
Lizards I almost stepped on: 1
Ocean views: 4 miles
Bay views: 10 miles
Nature preserves: 4
Number of times I sang Kelly Clarkson songs to myself: at least 100 (not traditionally a KC fan, so this one surprises even me)
Number of times I got lost: 0!!!!! This is a first for me, seriously.
That's about it. Not interesting. Welcome to my Saturdays.
View of San Mateo county. Taken by Paul on his way home from dropping me off. You could see both ocean and bay from this road. Then you run through a bunch of redwoods. Gorgeous.
I think you can see the ocean somewhere in this shot.
Reece's new favorite game is chess. That is to say, his favorite game is "eat dad's chess pieces." He's pretty good at it. He's actually figured out that the pieces are supposed to move on squares on the board and so he'll move them back and forth. It's pretty cute.
Hello, ladies.
6 comments:
Wow. You are so, so awesome. I want to be like you when I grow up.
How is it possible that Reese gets even cuter with every picture? I mean, dang!
ha ha ha ha Im just laughing out loud at the "hello ladies" comment. You are such a beast and gross on the dead snakes..ive actually done that before myself in good ol Paradise, Utah
Those pictures of Reece are awesome! By the way - great job on the running! (I once pushed myself to run a 10K instead of the 5K I was planning on. I almost died, but I did feel triumphant. Weird how pushing our bodies to do new things does that.)
While I've agreed to like AZ, I have to say that I do not find the desert views pretty...at all! Seeing your beautiful running trails makes me so jealous. Too bad you didn't get any pics of the road you were running on. I hate running next to cars. They're so loud and I always feel like I'm sucking exhaust. Congratulations on your 17 miler! That's a toughie. Depending on the program you're using, you're almost to your max mileage before the race right? I ran5 miles at a 10% incline the other day and it totally kicked my butt! I'm gonna try to run 8 today and see how it goes. I'll keep ya posted!
Congrats on not getting lost!! And I like your kid. :-)
I love that you posted the chess picture (subtle message: the kids a genius) next to the darts picture (subtle message: hide the paste).
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