#45 and #46

I did my 45th and 46th half marathon this weekend.

I dragged my body out of bed at 4:00am to drive almost two hours north to the race site--a beach run that offered a completely flat course and cloudy skies. It was a small race of only 50 and quite lovely. As you can see from my bib number, I got quite a few laughs and comments. What luck. I eventually unpinned it and attached to my running pants and covered as best as I could with my shirt. I ran an extra five miles after the race as a training run...covering 18 miles that day.

I then drove one hour south and to stay the night near my next race in Orange County. Less than 24 hours later, I dragged my body out of bed once again. I parked my car at the race site only discover I was at the gate of Coto de Caza, home of the Real Housewives of Orange County and a super exclusive gated community. And when I say gated, I don't mean you push a button and a gate opens. It was heavily guarded with one guard for visitors and one guard for residents, along with a police officer monitoring the entrants and plenty of security cameras surrounding the gates. "I wonder what it looks like beyond those gates?" I thought.

I got my answer. The race was a trail half marathon that went into the community and I discovered how the other half lives--and it is pretty spectacular--like out of a movie. I felt like I was in a film about Miami drug lords with their McMansions and perfectly manicured gardens and beautiful models lounging next the pool laying in expensive chaise lounges. The estates/palaces/compounds (I don't know what they are called) looked the size of hotels and the pools and guest quarters looked plucked right out of a resort.

The race itself was small and held a pack of top-notch runners. I immediately felt out of place listening to them discuss how one was trying to break 1,000 marathons, one was going for the Guinness Book of World Records for most marathons run in a year (he was up to 137 at the moment.) Me? I was out for a jog. I pulled out my iPod and heard a girl who just recently completed running seven marathons in seven days say, "I could never run with music. Only purists run without music." Whatever.

Needless to say, I came in second to last. One girl finished after I did...and she was listening to music.

Time for ice.

Happy 4th of July!

I celebrated the 4th of July by going to the beach with friends and watching fireworks on TV. However, I missed one seriously good show. Apparently, all fireworks went off all at once in the bay, totally by accident. That's a major oops. And it made national news in every news outlet across the country. People were upset and I don't know why. How many times do you actually remember a fireworks show? Me? Never. They all run together in my mind. But I guarantee that is one show people will remember for the rest of their lives. Congrats to the lucky ones who got to discover what it is like when an entire show goes off all at once. I've always wondered what that would be like.

Wicked

I spent last weekend with Phoenix peeps in Pasadena, Calif. Two friends and my mom all happened to be in the same city on the same weekend. I ate too much cheesecake and oversized macaroons and made myself sick.

This week I attended the Broadway smash Wicked and fell in love with it. I give it higher ratings than Phantom and Les Miserables. It was comical, touching and the cast possessed loads of talent.

Happy Father's Day

This is when my dad surprised me for my birthday three years ago in California. That was a very happy birthday.

Me in a nutshell

Let's Get Dirty!

One of my New Year's resolutions this year was to participate in a Mud Run. Check that off the bucket list! I completed my first mud run and I am now in love!


Here is how the course is described:

The Mud Run is a challenging 10K run with hills, tire obstacles, river crossings, two 5-foot walls with mud on both sides, tunnel crawl, slippery hill climb, and the final 30-foot mud pit.

That is pretty much my definition of awesomeness. And it was awesome! It took place on a military base and was set up like a combat zone--we had to scale under wires and swim through a mud pit, hoist ourselves over a wall to plop down into mud and run through cylinders caked with mud for 10K. 

I've been asked by a number of people why mud runs? What is the appeal? I just say I guess it's something different. But now I get it. We are all just children wrapped up in adult bodies and it's fun to play like kids once in a while. Granted, now I have to pay money to do this. And I don't have my mom yelling at me when I come home dirty. Now I just have a roommate to do that. 

Wedding

I rarely go to weddings because most of my friends have been married for 10+ years. So it was a a treat to be invited to the wedding of a beautiful couple this weekend. I traveled to the heat of Phoenix, which abruptly cooled for me, and partook in the celebration. The groom is a firefighter so all his groomsmen wore their traditional uniforms, which made them all look quite dapper. It took place right where I used to work, so many memories returned--back when life was much simpler and cheaper. Unfortunately, I was one of two people at the wedding who attended solo and I didn't really know anyone but the bride and groom, so I was left to conversate with strangers.