Storms to Sun

I headed down to the shore yesterday around lunchtime for a hair cut and to spend the night at my parents'. Just as I got to the bridges to the island, lightning bolts lit up the quickly-darkening sky and thunder shook my car. Within minutes, heavy, heavy downpours flooded the roads and made it difficult to see 5 feet in front of you. The storms lasted several hours.

When the lightning and thunder moved out and the skies cleared a bit, I headed up to the beach with my nephews and sister and mom. We sat and watched the kids play on the heavily eroded beach and get their feet wet in the rough surf. It wasn't a good beach day for them, but it was a really cool sight. Eventually, storm clouds made their way in again, and we headed off the beach.

Being cooped up in the house isn't that fun when you're at the shore, so as soon as all was clear again, we headed out for some serious puddle-jumping.

Homemade pizzas for dinner and a couple glasses of wine, and no alarm clock in the morning. Good stuff. I had planned on taking today off from running, but when I woke up and the temps were cool from the storms passing through, I had to get out there. Ran just 3 easy miles, but the weather was amazing. Today was going to be a low-humidity, low 80's, sunny day. Perfect.

The ocean and beach were still wrecked from the storms, so we headed to the bay beach instead. The boys played, the grown-ups watched, and eventually I got the bug to swim. I cleared it with the lifeguard to swim outside the fence, threw on my cap and goggles, hoped my bikini would stay on in the swim, and set out for the far end of the swim area.

I followed the fence line north to south and back again. I think it was about .25 mi total. Not far, but with the VERY limited open water swimming I really do, I was proud of myself for staying smooth and maintaining freestyle the whole way.

Some play time in the water with the kids and a trip to the ice cream truck later, we were all filled with sunshine and salt air.

We headed home, showered, and got ready to head back to reality. I'm working tomorrow, or I'd have stayed another day. It was a gorgeous day at the shore. Before hitting the road, though, I stopped over to watch my sister-in-law in a paddleboard race.

Looked like lots of fun! The winds had calmed, the sun was still shining brightly, and as I headed off the island and over the bridges, I was amazed at what Mother Nature had given us in the last 28 hours.

I had no business doing it

I swam at the pool this morning after an easy 5 mile run. I decided it would be a short swim, probably 1500 yds or so, mainly because I didn't really feel like swimming today.

When I got there another guy was sort of getting started, too. While I adjusted my goggles and got started, he pulled on his swim gloves, adjusted his goggles, sat on the walk-out steps of the pool, and, well, stayed there.

As I swam 10 laps, I noticed him finally do a lap. Not even a whole lap -- one length of the pool. He stood up at the far end and hung out there for a bit. I finished my 10 and noticed he finally made it to the starting end again. And proceeded to sit on the steps a bit more.

I went on and did another 10 laps after just about a 30 second rest, and could see as I went up and back that this guy did the same thing a few more times: struggle to finish a lap, hang out, repeat.

When I finished the second 10 laps, I had to stop and adjust my goggles. That's when I heard, "You make it look so easy."

Um, what? Ha! Me? NO WAY!

It's not that easy for me, I replied. He went on to tell me he was training for his first triathlon. Next month. His daughter bet him he wouldn't do it. He was determined to do it. He asked me how I swim so easily.

I told him it's not that easy for me. I told him I've been practicing for a few years. I told him a few pointers that my old swim coach taught me -- things I think about every time I'm in the pool. I told him about swimming in a tri, and I told him he just needs to practice and he'll get it.

I had no business talking like I knew anything about swimming. I still consider myself someone who fakes the tri stuff. Yes, I've been doing it for a few years, and yes, I've been swimming enough to feel like I'm better at it than when I started, but I am in no way qualified or knowledgeable enough to impart wisdom or advice on someone else. Not in swimming.

But I did anyway, and the guy listened intently and then watched me swim my last 10 laps. While he did 2.

I wished him luck as I got out of the pool, and told him he can do this.

"I know I can," he said. And smiled.

Down and Dirty

Philadelphia Merrell Down and Dirty 5k Mud Run 2010

Several months ago, the girls from the running store decided we wanted to do this race this summer. None of our guys -- just all the girls that work at the store where I am and our 2 sister stores. None of us had done a race like this before, and we decided to not really race it, but to just go and have fun.

This is a race with military style obstacles, a huge mud pit, and a great charity to support (one that sends care packages to military personnel). It was a hot day, it was a tough course, and it was LOTS of fun!

L and I went over to the race site early, got a parking spot and picked up our packets. We had lots of time to kill before the race (we originally planned on going to see friends doing a 24 hour race nearby, but changed those plans for a few reasons). I walked over to the 3 guys who were parked next to us and started chatting with them. Turns out they were taking this seriously -- the FUN part, that is! They were drinking beers and coffee with Baileys. They offered us a drink, and L and I decided to share in the fun. We joked about one of the guys wearing a speedo for this race, we bragged sarcastically about how well we were all going to do, and we sipped our spiked coffee. It was not even 7am.

Soon enough we headed to the race start and found our other two friends from the store. M and K and L and I lined up in the second wave and soon we were off! We ran over a grassy field and up a hill, then down to a flat section and about 3/4 of a mile into the run we got to our first military obstacle -- a rope climb. Up and over that, with military people yelling at us like we were new recruits. Getting over that obstacle was pretty easy, and soon we were on our way into the woods. Up a trail, and there was our next obstacle -- a series of 3 chest-high walls. No going around, no taking our time. The soldiers kept us moving!

Up more trail (now it's getting steep!) and over a mountain of hay bales. By about two miles in, M was starting to slow, and L went on ahead. K and I stayed with M, reassuring her this was not about time, or racing -- it was about having fun with friends. After a bunch of tough trail climbs, we eventually hit a steep downhill, rounded a corner, and were told we had about a half mile to go. And two more obstacles. The first was a tilted wall that we had to climb up and over. Jump up, grab the knotted rope, hope you don't slip down the wall that they've covered with shampoo. This was truly the only obstacle I was slightly nervous about, but it proved to be MUCH easier than I thought.. Once the three of us were over the wall, we rounded a corner and there was the mud pit!

With a series of 4 humps and troughs, and flag lines strung low across, and the military people yelling at us to GET ON YOUR BELLIES! (we were required to make our way through the pit doing a military crawl), this was gonna be messy. The troughs were filled with muddy water, and the second one I went through I actually had to dunk under. This is where the only problem of the day came in -- coming up over the next muddy hump, I realized there was mud in my eyes, and my contacts were gunked up. Eyes screaming, and trying to blink out the mud, I waited on the last hump for M and K, and we crawled out of the pit together and ran across the finish line. DONE! Tired, muddy, and smiling the whole way. We were handed our dog-tag style finisher's medal and a bottle of water. This was a fun run. L waited while I cleaned off my face and cleared out my lenses (note: med tents should have saline solution!), we found her sister, snapped some pics, and then made our way to the "showers". The showers were a great idea in theory, but in reality it was just a spigot with a bunch of hoses attached -- which meant zero water pressure. I stripped off my shirt, my shoes, and my socks, and threw them right in the trash. I tried to get as much mud off me as I could, but even shoving the hose into my bra and my shorts didn't clear all the mud. It was everywhere, and it was caked on. It was even in my ears!

After making our way home, I showered and headed right to work. I looked up the results and WHOA! I was second in my age group! 72/1964 OA, 2/164 AG. My time was about 5 minutes off my PR, but it wasn't about time -- it was about doing something different, doing something fun, doing something with friends.

We got down and dirty, and had a great time!

Downpours

For the past two days, we've had severe downpours popping up in the day and dumping tons of water from the sky.

Yesterday, my day off from running, I went for a bike ride when the sky cleared. It was actually sunny! I got a good ride going, and was about 12 miles in, when I noticed the sky darkening to the southwest. I figured I could continue around the river and then head home and probably just make it before the (seemingly inevitable) pouring rain started again.

Nope.

About 2.5 miles from home, the first raindrop hit. No big deal, except I had my phone with me and didn't want it to get wet. I stopped under a big tree just as the rain began coming down in buckets. I got my phone into my little pack under my seat, waited and watched the white-out wall of rain, and decided since I was getting soaked under the tree anyway, I'd just head into the monsoon and make my way home.

Soaked. And of course, as soon as I got to my house the rain tapered off.

Today, I decided to push my run to this evening and run with the group run at the store. Instead, while the skies were grey, I headed to the pool. More water! But this time, the water was my friend. I had a really good swim -- 2000yds, pretty much non-stop except for a quick adjustment to my goggles halfway through. Weird that it seems like my swims are always good when it's been a week or so since the last time I was in the pool...

And then, I got home and made lunch and set myself up on the deck with my new book. The sun wasn't out, but it was dry. For about 10 minutes. Then the first raindrop hit, and within 30 seconds it was a downpour. A wall of water streaming from the sky. For hours. Thunder and lightning, too. There's so much water out there, I could go for another swim.

And it hasn't stopped. I have two hours before the group run. I like running in the rain, but the thunder and lightning part makes it not so safe.

C'mon, skies. I wanna get my run done tonight. Just a 90 minute window, please. That's all I need. Then you can release more water if you need to.

Unstructured Summer Days

I like my down time. I like having nothing I *have* to get out of bed for, or nowhere I *have* to be in the day. I like unstructured days. I don't often get them, and truthfully, I'm not good when I have too many in a row, but I had several this first week of July.

After working all weekend at the running store, I dug a super-old running store tank top out of my drawer, grabbed my camera and a six-pack of beer, and headed to meet my friends for the

Summer Beer Mile

It was fun, but it was a much different experience than the Winter Beer Mile. It was a different crew, with some people I was just meeting for the first time. I missed having some of the guys I'm better friends with there, but, alas, lots has changed since then...

My calf felt cranky and tweaked after the first lap, so I decided to just chill out and have fun, rather than run for time. I think I ended my 4 beers and 4 laps (without puking! but admittedly, I'm pretty sure I didn't finish one of the beers) in somewhere between 13 and 14 minutes, and I wasn't last!

The next morning, I got a long run done and headed to the shore. The 4th of July is my oldest nephew's birthday, and so by default we always have a party to attend!

After what felt like a long stretch of busy weeks, I was looking forward to a couple days on the beach. I got a couple runs done, I rode a long (30 mi) bike ride, and I played with my nephews in the ocean for hours. The weather was super hot, but we got a touch of relief right down at the water's edge. It was nice to spend time away from home, in a place that is my home.

I like my unstructured days. I don't want them every day, but I like them when I get them.