It's Easy

Today officially marks one week until the marathon. I'm feeling less ambivalent about my foot and more confident that I'll finish the entire half marathon running most of it, however I won't be shattering any records. I'm OK with not shattering any records, I'm over-joyed to be running.

I participated in the very last Saturday run with the track club. We began the run at a very sunny RIMAC Field at the UCSD campus. This was a 1 hour 30 minutes time on your feet run, and I really didn't place any expectations on myself, I just wanted to move, even if it was slow going. I would have been happy with a 12 or 13 minute mile average. I started out running with AKA Alice. I honestly thought I would end up watching her run off well ahead of me because she's doing great and I'm still on the rebound, but I was able to keep up with her, more or less, for the entire run. I think running with her helped me to push myself just a little more than I normally would have done on my own. A few of our splits were even in the 10 m/m range. I was surprised. This run boosted my confidence. Parts of this run were, admittedly, a little tough. For starters, it was a WARM morning. We've had a cool Spring thus far, and the warmth of the sun did not make for a completely comfortable run. We've had no heat training. Sure, it was a gorgeous day, perhaps for going to the beach or lounging by the pool, but for running? Not so much.  I'm glad I remembered to slather on the 50 SPF sun block before heading out this particular morning.  There were also a few hills. They weren't extremely steep hills, only one made me want to walk, but it was enough to make it a good, but hard workout. Running with AKA Alice made the miles go by smoothly. I also forgot Lucy and relied on the BiM program on my cell phone to track miles, but I put my cell phone in the pouch on my water bottle belt, and couldn't easily check for time and miles. AKA Alice kept me posted on time and miles ran.

Post run photo op.  I just realized how pasty I look next to the healthy glow of AKA Alice.  Photo credit to my Hubs, who used my trusty cell phone camera. 

Other highlights of the last run:

• Taking the oath  - "I (state your name)"... promise to have a good race, etc...
• Seeing a lot of my track club friends.
• Listening to the guest speaker.
• Hubs watching the soccer games on the field and not listening to the speaker, especially when he blurted out "nice" after a  play on the soccer field, which coincided with something the guest speaker said.

After the guest speaker and other announcements, Hubs and and I went home, cleaned up, then went to a party for my in-law's 65th wedding anniversary, hosted by my in-law's care taker.

Here's most of us.

This home was located in a modest neighborhood, in a very unassuming house, but the back had this mini version of Hugh Heffner's mansion pool/grotto:

Perfect for this day!

The actual Playboy mansion grotto/pool, just to compare.

After we  swam, toasted my in-laws, stuffed our faces and played games, Hubs and I went home to do this:

Good times...

We scraped texture coat from just one section of the house.  This stuff is horrible.  My uncle had the house texture coated less than 20 years ago, but the guarantee is for "as long as you own the home,"  as long as my uncle owned the home. It figures that the stuff was already peeling off the house when we bought it from the estate.  Perhaps there are contractors who have a better texture coat product, but this is the second house we've lived in that the texture coat easily peeled off.  

My sister, husband and nephew are in town for a few days.  It turns out that my sister applied for a position with in her company, in the Sherman Oaks, CA, area and got the job.  Ever since they've moved out of California they've been trying to move back.  They've lived in 6 different states since leaving California.  The trip was mostly to scope out neighborhoods close to her work.  So far they're liking Studio City, but they have until August to make the move.  Saying they're excited is an understatement.  With only a couple of  hours of drive time between the Los Angeles are and San Diego, I'm sure we'll be seeing each other a little more often.

Misszippy is having a Somnio Jacket giveaway!  Be sure and check it out!

Thursday's Song:
Cherry, Cherry - Neil Diamond

PEACE