A tale of two runs!

A run down memory lane:

This week I drove down to Los Angeles to help Laura move out of her apartment. I had planned to get my run in when I got there and luckily I pulled into town an hour before her last final! Dave and I lived in Playa del Rey when we first were married and I thought it would be fun to run along one of my old routes I used to take right out our apartment door 28 years ago.  

This was our apartment. It looks like it's had a facelift in the last few years.

This paved route goes for miles along the southern L.A. beach cities.

View coming back. Our old place was just behind that row of apartments.

Finished my run along the canal and spotted Stonehenge in Marina del Rey :)

After helping Laura pack up, we went out for sushi and then went back to her apartment to hang out and visited with her friends. Hearing about finals, all nighters, etc. brought back memories and made me happy I was through with all that. The next morning we finished packing and found Laura had a flat tire. We had her little donut tire put on and headed out to a gas station for a repair. They wouldn't repair it because they felt it had too much age damage and we would run the risk of it exploding. Fine then! I didn't want to get new tires from this place so we decided to start driving to our next destination, Camarillo. Our plan was to pick up some stuff from Stephen who was also moving out of his apartment. You are not supposed to drive over 50 mph on a little donut tire so it seemed to take forever to get there. I kept speeding up to 55, then 60 but follow the rules Laura wouldn't budge much over 50. Since we had about 5 hours of driving still to go to get to San Jose, we decided to get tires in Camarillo. Stephen called ahead and found a good deal for us. Four tires, loading Stephen's extra stuff and some lunch later, we were on the road again.

Here we are driving up the 101 with Laura and Stephen caravanning behind me. We made it home safely and in time for me to clean up, change and meet Dave at a dinner party!

A long run that was surprisingly fun:

I'm training for the Surf City marathonHuntington Beach which will be February 5th. I'm following a Hal Higdon plan that so far is working well for me. I used the same plan for my first marathon, the Napa Valley marathon last March, but this time around I think I'm stronger and fitter. I had IT band issues when I was training for Napa and so far I'm feeling pretty good this time around. Todays long run was an 18 miler. I planned out a route where Dave could drop me off and I would run home. My Dad hasn't been feeling well and last night had to be admitted to the hospital for some IV antibiotics. My niece, Janine, was in town visiting my parents which I didn't know since I had been out of town moving kids out of apartments :) She's a runner and said she would love to go with me for part of my run! I planned a new route so she could run the first 10 miles with me. It was so fun to run with her and the 10 miles went by so quickly. The next 8 were a little slower but I did it! Finished in 3:17. I've been working on finding the right nutrition that works for me for these long runs. For the second time on a long run I put 4 gels in a flask with a little bit of water. The consistency of gels kind of gross me out so adding a little waters makes them go down easier. My flask is a small hand held bottle that is easy to carry. I also carried a water bottle with a hand strap. I've worn waist carriers before but my stomach just doesn't do well with anything putting pressure on it. I sipped some of the gel solution every mile with a little sip of water. This worked really well for me. I felt like my energy stayed the same throughout the run. The energy was there but my legs were toast by the end!

This is me and Janine (with Dave being silly in the background) visiting my Dad after we finished our run. I'm really hoping that Janine decides that Surf City will work out in her training plan. It would be so fun to do a race with her.  My Dad was feeling much better today and we're hoping he'll be discharged tomorrow!