Saturday's 18 (19) miles o' fun (and Monday's assorted funpak)
I remember when 18 miles...- was what I would run in a week. Maybe.
- was 2 hours more than my "long" run.
- was something only crazy people did.
- could never ever even remotely get me out of bed on a Sat. morning.
I.D. had already had her adrenaline shot of the day shuttling her son Sante to practice in Los Gatos...or was that Los Altos? Mom! I'm going to be late! So by the time she met me in Campbell park, she had already made the trip out and back and out again and instead of wondering what to do with the extra 45 minutes (stretching was the plan) she hadn't even had time to put on her running shoes.
We left our stash of M&M's, peanut butter filled pretzels, boiled potatoes and water in my car don't worry my precious little chocolate candies, we'll be back and met the rest of the band at LGHS.
Now we get to the part where Yoko gets her nickname. She had already warned us that she had some injuries that was keeping her from running long distances, and on top of it she was going out Friday night. Yet, there she was, on time in the parking lot ready to go out at least part way and then walk back. Did I mention that she made it with only an hour of sleep? And that she had been out drinking and dancing the night before? It seemed hard to believe especially since I got the distinct feeling that she was itching to pull away during that first 6 miles. Yes, what started out as perhaps a few miles out and a walk back turned into a full 12 mile loop for injured, sleep deprived Tetsujin Yoko. Please don't make me run with her when she's rested.
The 5 of us took a power break, reaping the reward of running - M&Ms. The middle 6 miles is a bridge to bridge loop, 2 miles and a 4 mile out and back to Meridian from the park. We parted from Mike and Yoko at mile 7; they went back and we went on to our 18 miles of glory. The next 12 miles is mostly a blur now. The sun came out, the weather turned exceptionally beautiful and other than dodging the odd puddle or muddy patch it was a text book run. The real reason why its so vague now was the intensely interesting conversation covering a wide swath of issues on rascism, sexism and our perception. I couldn't even begin to capture the essence of the discussion but the miles flew by.
We did have a bit of fun with a group of bicyclist we caught at the top of a hill coming back. We passed them as they waited at the top (they let us go by) and then they quickly passed us again, but we caught them at the top of the Vasona dam! And they didn't pass us again until the railroad tracks. We'll beat them next time!
A small point about distances, even though the route is nominally 18 miles, it is actually close to 19 and all that is required is another 2+ mile loop to bring us to our 21 miler in 3 weeks!
Monday 7+
Its well known that I.D. is the toughest one in our bunch, is the most consistent, runs the most and in most ways inspires us to greatness. That's why she's Iron Dayle. In yet another example of her Ironess, she casually mentions that Sunday in an effort not to be a source of discouragement to her daughter, she ran at Rancho. What happened to the meaning of rest day? So I think, well there is no way she's going to want to run up to the dish today. How little I know. Our little run around Stanford campus is 5.9 miles and yesterday we added 1-2 miles to that by running 2/3 of the dish loop from south gate to the north gate.
Remarkable what all that winter hill running does. I had remembered the loop being a bit more challenging, but to attempt to quote Sissie - "That's it? No more hills?"
posted by Patrick el Coyote @ 10:38 AM
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