February 4th, 2011 – 8.43 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

Today, I needed to run. I needed to run long. I needed to feel everything and nothing at the same time. I missed the drive, the freedom and the joy that comes with running until it’s just you and God and the movement of your body. So I decided to run home from work. Home is in the next town over. It sounds pretty impressive when I say it like that, but these little bedroom communities are all about 7 miles wide.

Mile 1 was rough. The first mile is almost always rough for me. I’m sure there are some elite runners whose conditioning is so great that they never need to warm up but I am *not* like that. I always need about .75 miles for muscles recognition to kick in. Also, mile 1 was very hilly and I had to fight to get over it. Then I walked down the other side because I haven’t mastered the art of running downhill without hurting myself and I couldn’t afford to injure myself right at the beginning.

As I am working on mile 2, I turned a corner and I started running down a highway. This is obviously the scariest part of the run. I have about 3 miles of highway before I reach the city limit and I am racing against the sun set. I was all decked out in my reflective gear and I had a flashlight and pepper spray in hand, but I really didn’t want to run this highway in the dark!

At about mile 4, I get a call from Chris telling me that he has run out of gas on the freeway and needs leave the car and walk home to get the other car and will I please call the BGC and the daycare lady to let them know that he is going to be late.

At this point, I am realizing just how self-centered I am when I am running. I was thoroughly annoyed by this. Not because I didn’t care about my stranded husband, but because I felt like I was in a far worse situation than him! I realize he hadn’t chosen his plight and I had brought my situation on myself , but, I was out there, at dusk, in the rape zone, trying to keep my eye on traffic and any fugitives in the bushes who might attack and now I have to be further distracted by a phone call he could have made! Other than that, there was very little I could do to for him in that situation. So I had to fight my way home and stress about whether or not Chris made it home and to the childcare providers before the kids realized something must be wrong.

It’s black as pitch by that point and more than a little frightening. I’ve decided that if any cars pull over, I would start screaming before I waited for any explanation because there is just no reason for any cars to be pulling over on this creepy highway.

When I’m rounding out mile 4, a truck pulls over and starts right for me. I raised my pepper spray and opened my mouth to start screaming my head off. Then the driver blew right passed me and pulled into one of the ranch homes. Sure, I scared him more than he scared me and he probably thought I was crazy, but who cares?! I have too much to live for to worry about looking stupid or making a fool of myself!

At Mile 5, I reach the city limit. It’s still really dark, but at least I’m running on sidewalks now.

At Mile 6, I passed the Target and the city lights are bright enough that I don’t have to use my flashlight any more. I’m feeling pretty good. Aside from the few inclines that I came across, I haven’t walked much at all.

At mile 7, I am feeling great! I passed the Golden Spoon and I wasn’t even tempted to stop in.

Mile 8 is great. My music is singing me home and I am so high on life, the police lights in my neighborhood don’t even phase me. I stop for a millisecond to make sure I don’t recognize any of the cars in what seemed like a pretty serious pile up, and keep on moving. I am desperate to finish this run in 1:45.

I made it home! The kids are eating pizza and the dog is licking the salt off my calves. I still needed to go get the car off the freeway with Chris so my day is far from over but at least I made it home safely (Thank you, Jesus!) and I don’t have to cook. Win Win!

What a great run!!! Can’t wait for Daylight Savings to spring forward so we can get more light in the day. Even though I would never allow my kids to do it, I will definitely do this run again.

Note: I had Chia Seeds and water before I started this run and I didn’t have to hydrate the entire time. Usually after a short 3 mile sprint, I am desperate for water when I get home but I ran this full route and didn’t even realize I hadn’t had any water until almost an hour after I made it home. I highly recommend Pinole and Chia Seeds for running fuel!

February 2nd, 2011 – 2.77 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

Today’s run was good. The easiest and the hardest run I’ve ever done. I ran speed intervals on a hill. I ran 30 second sprints with a full 2 minutes of recovery, which was way too much. I knew it was too much, but I did it anyway. So this was a wimpy run but I enjoyed it.

The first mile was miserable because I’d never done speed intervals before, but the rest wasn’t bad. In the past, whenever I focused on speed, it sucked all the joy out for the process.

And what is the point of doing it if it doesn’t bring joy? I’m not getting paid. I’m not in the elite league. When I register for a race, I’m not gonna be the one tearing the tape. If there’s no joy then there is no point. Beating myself up on the pavement is almost completely useless. My only goal at any race is to finish faster than I did last time.

While focusing on speed is a drag, focusing on kicking your own arse is glorious. That’s what this run was all about and I that’s what I did. It wasn’t much. It wasn’t great. But it rocked! Cuz it’s all about joy.

This is me hanging with my daughter, which brings me joy.

January 30th, 2011 – European XC Challenge – 5K

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

This was a great race! I had never done one like this before. I usually stick with road races and the occasional appearance on WipeOut. This race was different in many ways, but the most significant to me is that this was the first bona fide “race” I’d ever done, really.

Even with the half marathons I’ve done, there were people there who showed up with every intention of walking the entire route. With this race, every level of fitness was represented, but every participant ran it. There were no walkers. Even though no one seemed overly concerned with their time, everybody was there to race!

It was relatively flat but this was a rough course. Marshy and wet, with many obstacles, natural and manmade. This is the difference between road racing and cross country competition and I can absolutely see why people get addicted to it. It was awesomely insane!!!

Here’s a bit of the course. It may not look like it, but God sent the rain and upped the awesome level.



This is Ben making announcements. “We tried to make the course as safe as possible, but it’s still pretty bad so watch out!” Really… This was is opening speech.



And here we are at the Start, with Ben's dire warning still ringing in our ears and completely unconcerned.



This is me at the Start. Happy to be healthy enough to take this kind of abuse. Praise God!!



I think this guy was first in the 10k.



This is me at the Finish! All muddy and wet, but glad to me there!



This is the lady that I chased for 2.5 miles. She was in FANTASTIC shape and I was thrilled to pieces to be able to keep up with her. We were strangers at the Start and good friends by the end. I only beat her because she dashed into a thatch of bamboo grass to go pee. That’s hardcore!




A great race! Much love to the organizers. I was 5th in my age group. The lady in 4th place beat me by a quarter of a second.

January 28th, 2011 – 3.08 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

This run was pretty rough. I ran on my lunch break again. For some reason this route is always really hard for me. It’s an out and back route and it’s relatively flat, although there is a slight incline on the return trip.

There is a lot of traffic on the street and many big rigs, so the air quality is pretty poor. I suppose that can have something to do with it, but I don’t know.

After the first mile or so, I got to run the creek. I always like running creeks. You get the muscle recall exercise of running on dirt without having to go to the edge of town and the footing is usually surer than a normal trail run.

I am running the Compete Green European XC Challenge this weekend. There is a 5k and 10k option for the same price. I am registered for the 5k but if I get there and feel like I’m up to the 10k, I’ll go ahead and do it. The fees are the same and they start at the same time.

I’ve never done a XC race before. This one is supposed to be flat but it is on a marshy trail with obstacles and whatnot. “Natural and man-made” is how the obstacles are described on the course description.

I’m looking forward to it! Let us hope that’s a better run than this one. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day and a bad workout is 10 times better than no workout.

January 26th, 2011 – 1.77 BAREFOOT Run!!!

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

Today’s run was really good! As you may know, I read “Born to Run” and I was intrigued by the idea of running barefoot.

I know there are people who swear by it and I have the uppermost respect for those folks. However, I honestly thought they were crazy. When I ran the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Los Angeles, a team of barefoot runners passed by me on their way up to the elite corral and I thought, “Wow! They are going to run 13 miles barefoot! That’s insane!” Clearly, they knew what they were doing because they were up there with the serious runners and I was all the way back in Corral #17 with the rest of the turtles!

I didn’t have another thought about it… Until I read "Born to Run...", which I highly recommend, by the way.

I’d never been able to stand barefoot without discomfort, let alone run! But what I didn't realize is that I already tend to run with pseudo-barefoot form even though I’m always wearing shoes.

Long ago, I was walking to school in my super cool BKs (that’s British Knights, for those of you who don’t remember the late 80’s) that came with my cheerleading uniform and noticed that I had a lump on my Achilles Tendon when I got home. My Dad told me that he got those when he was in the Military and it came from that sturdy heel strike when you walk for miles

Ever since, I was always careful to strike with my toe, or the balls of my feet whenever I was walking. When I started running, I ran like that too, striking with my mid-foot and taking rather small strides.

After reading “Born to Run”, I spoke to a few people about it and a friend introduced me to a site that sells Vibram Knock Offs and he said he has a friend who has ordered many of them and finds them to be identical to the Vibrams he paid over $100 for. They ship on a slow boat from China so they take quite a while to arrive, but other than that, he has never had an issue with the seller or the shoes…. So I ordered a pair 6 days ago, and I’m still waiting for them.


So…. When I went to the Ladies’ Room this afternoon to get changed for my afternoon run and discovered I’d forgotten my shoes, I was about to forget it all together. Then I thought, Well, there’s no time like the present. Let’s see what this barefoot running is all about.

Everything I’d read about proper barefoot running said to start out small and work your way up. I searched articles and youtube videos and they all said to start out running five minutes at a time.

Well, I wasn’t going to completely undress and suit up for a 5 minute workout! So I figured, I would run up the hill, do a couple laps around the park and come back.

That was the perfect distance. This run wasn’t about speed or distance. It was about getting to know myself in way that was completely strange to me.

Being barefoot in public is HUGE for this Southern Baptist Pastor’s Kid!! There are certain things that “a Lady” never does! And baring your naked feet to someone other than your husband is taboo where I come from! I think it stems from the Book of Ruth, where she uncovers Boaz’s feet while he’s sleeping to intimate that it’s OK with her if he pursues her. Whatever the origin, my father always told me to keep my feet covered so this was fascinating and strange for me.

Indeed, the reactions I got from people in their cars were interesting. It was clear to me that even in super Liberal, whacked out Southern California, people are taken aback by seeing an attractive, healthy woman on the street in a short running skirt with no shoes on!! That’ll take some getting used to.

As for the run, it was bliss. The most wonderful and natural thing. I will definitely be doing it again. If I can work my way up to 3 miles, I will find an organized race to do barefoot and see how it goes.

January 25th, 2011 – 3.34 Mile Run

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

Tonight’s run was good. The original plan was to run on my lunch break like usual, but I spoke to Sean earlier in the day and he asked if we could go running again. Tonight worked for both of us so that became the new plan.

At 5 o’clock sharp, I was dressed out and ready to go. We rode over to his place, grabbed the dog, set our devices and we were off and racing against the sunset. We had about 40 minutes before we’d be cloaked in darkness.

I brought along my mini flashlight because I was pretty sure we’d need it. We ran the railroad track by his house again. I was still working through the weird pain that was in my foot. After a brief bout of research, I discovered that it is likely that I have strained my Anterior Tibial Tendon somehow.



This is fine, as I believe rest, ice and ibuprofen will have me good as new in no time. However at the moment it was giving me hell.

The terrain was tough on me and I was breaking in new shoes but I was determined to take it easy because I had just registered for the Compete Green European XC Challenge. It offers a 5k and a 10k at the same price. I opted for the 5k because I’ve never done a race like this before, but they start at the same time so if I get there and decide I’m up for the 10k, I may ask if I can just hop on board.

By the end of the race, my foot was hurting pretty badly and so was my right knee. Toward the end, we had lost the dog and had to back track so many times, our average pace was all jacked up, but who cares? It was all about getting a good run in with Sean and doing something good for our bodies. Besides, every time I checked our current pace, we were somewhere around 10:45. I’m good with that.

When we were at about the 2.90 mile point, the train came barreling down on the track. Sean had run off to go get the dog and it was dark as pitch (almost). It was at this very unfortunate moment that I realized, I was alone, I couldn’t hear Sean calling, I couldn’t hear Girl barking, I had no pepper spray and I didn’t even have Sean’s phone number. Great! There was nothing left to do but get a good shot of the train coming at me, so that’s what I did!

Soon, Sean saw me flashing my light, we found each other and ran back to his house.

This was the first time in quite a while that I've needed ibuprofen before bed. It was so worth it!

January 21st and 22nd – 2.92 & 5.55 Mile Runs

The continued prayer is, “Lord keep me focused. Keep my mind stayed on You. Help me to bring You praise. I know You believe in me. Please help me in my unbelief. Amen.”

I ran 2 days in a row and need to catch up so I am going to report 2 runs in the same post.

The first one was on Friday after work. The weather has been so beautiful lately, it’s been so great to run at any time of day and even the evenings are nice and pleasant. I knew I was going to get a longer run in the next day, so I just asked Chris to drop me off at the BGC so I could run home. Aside from the perps pulled over by some cops at around the 2 mile mark, this run was pretty uneventful. I wasn’t sure if I should run through the scene or cross the street. I started to cross the street, but didn’t want to be ticketed for J-walking so I just gave them a pretty wide berth and kept moving.

The temperature was perfect. The pace was great and I made it home before Jeopardy. Win – win!

The second run was a tough one. It was over 5.5 miles and it was 90% hills. On the run before the last one, I had this weird pain in my left shin. Right where you’d tie your laces. I’ve never had shin splints before and I thought they happened much higher so I thought perhaps I’d just tied my shoes too tight. The pain was gone as soon as I stopped running so I forgot about it. Then it came back sharply as soon as I put my running shoes on yesterday so I thought it had to be the shoes. I loosened my laces and everything was fine.

This morning, the pain was back as soon as I put my shoes on and I was starting to get concerned. No pain when I’m barefoot. No pain in my Crocs. No pain in any other shoes, just the Asics. This is odd but it really does seem to just be the shoes. So I tied them really loosely and headed over to a friends house for 5 mile run.

Well, this run started out badly and just got worse. First of all, my friend (Michelle) is much better than me so she was off and running and I was far behind her the entire way. This was fine with me, as I have no intention of hurting myself just to prove I can *AND* I love to use my headphones so I don’t have to worry about being rude. Secondly, this was a relentlessly hilly run. I just started working hills into my workouts and I am not a big fan. But hill work is speed work in disguise, so I know I gotta do it.

The first half was very challenging but OK. At about the 3.5 mile mark, this weird pain is starting to come back and it wasn’t letting up. By the time I hit the 5 mile mark, I was walking, even the flat straight-aways.

I hope it’s not shin splints. The pain was gone as soon as I took my shoes off. I can’t be injured right now… or ever really. But I want to register for a run in Camarillo next weekend and I really want to be healthy for it. So I’ll be phasing in some new shoes and praying for healthy shins!

Here’s a pic of Michelle and me I. Hopefully, we can get another run in next weekend.