On Saturday I turned 40.
On Friday night I was out with two great friends drinking an absurd amount of Captain Morgan and kamikazes. This made for an interesting run on Saturday to usher in my 40th year.
I woke up early enough to realize I had just gone to sleep and I didn't care if the coffee maker had just kicked on, I was getting a couple more hours of sleep. My friend Matt was sleeping on the couch and he had mentioned a few times through the night, "I don't want to go hiking with you."
I had planned on just hiking so Matt could come out with us, but his resistance the night before was heard. When I staggered into the living room a couple hours later and got some coffee in my system he greeted me with, "I am not going out with you this morning." OKAY, I get it.
Tabitha called me and said she was sorry she was running late, she couldn't find her Camelbak. I told her I was going to pass on the hike and she let me know about myself and told me that I was going to go. I called my friend Bonnie and told her to come over if she wanted to get in on the action.
Hitting the trail late in the morning I was a little freaked out because I had to be back before noon so I could start getting ready for my birthday party. Looking at my watch, it was 11. I was screwed.
We chatted it up as we walked the first leg. Tabitha is still making sure her calf muscle doesn't pop again and Bonnie is fresh out of physical therapy for an IT band issue (I should google that because she had a lot to say about it and I had no idea what she was talking about)
Bonnie had done the first part of this on a hike with her friend so I was intent on showing her the secret side of it that most people don't know about or just think it goes down to a small waterfall.
We talked about how addictive this is and Bonnie calls it 'Jonesin'. We all hate it when we can't get out and do this.
When we entered this part of the canyon you are surrounded by the walls and fallen rock. So many times on runs I have seen the wall and swore that one of these days I would climb up there and see what was on the other side. On my 40th birthday I dug my Treks into the wall and began climbing up, holding on to roots and rocks. At the top I was rewarded with nothing. Oh well, it was fun being a little kid for a minute.
When we came out of the canyon you are blessed with the cut open and you can see where they began making the dam. At this spot I looked down to see a butterfly at my feet and I stopped and it was so beautiful I wanted to make sure that Tabitha saw it, I started chanting her name and she freaked out thinking that my complete immobile body was frozen because there was a snake about to strike me. "Look at this butterfly!" I slowly bent down to see if I could get a better look.
"You bitch! don't do that! I thought you were going to be eaten by a snake!"
We all sat there as I got the butterfly on the tip of my finger and held it out so they could get pictures. I surrendered a good 15 minutes of my day looking at his wings and beautiful furry body.
I glanced at my Garmin watch as we headed further into the canyon. My phone rang, which NEVER happens out in those canyons and I fumbled with my Camelbak and saw that my boyfriend was calling. "Happy Birthday Baby! Where are you? When am I going to see you?"
Uh-oh.
"I'm out on a hike/run and we are the second leg back to the car! I will see you soon!" I crammed my phone back in after the I love yous and be safes. "Let's go girls, it's 1pm and I have to be at Lester's at 2pm for my birthday party." I didn't want to calculate the drive home (20 minutes) shower (10 minutes) and drive to his house (10 minutes) because I would rob myself of the joy of the run back to the car. I went with, "it's my 40th birthday and I wanted to do this."
Bonnie and Tabitha took up the hill we would need to crest to get to the main trail. It was about halfway up the hill that my run turned into a walk and my walk turned into a struggled stagger. Sweet Jesus, the hangover decided to kick in about then. "Oh god, i'm hungry and dizzy!" They were almost to the top and I felt my watch tightening around my wrist telling me to keep moving, "This is like the Hungover Games!" they didn't hear me, they were cheering me on to make sure I got up that hill in one piece. I think they could see how green I was turning.
As soon as I got over the hill I knew we had one very small one and then it was all downhill. Now I was checking my Garmin about every 4 seconds calculating how fast I would have to get to the car, how fast I would have to drive, what steps I would need to take to cut off a few minutes so I could make it on time. We ran...and ran...and ran. We ran 2 miles in 20 minutes and I actually made it to my party only 20 minutes late.
The report on the feet/calves/body. I crested a hill and hit my foot all funky on a rock and I had to pamper it for the rest of the day, but on a scale of 1 to 10 on the pain it was only a 5 and the recovery was minimal. I was fine the next day.
This run was the first time that I actually noticed the length of my stride. Going downhill I could feel how I was doing most of my running from the knees down and I had to make an effort to involve my hips. Because I did this my stride lengthened and my feet had to compensate for that. It's a give and take with that method because even though my pace improved, I had to think about what I was doing and I haven't learned how to lengthen my stride and not beat my feet up because of it.
All in all, a beautiful run on a beautiful day.
On Friday night I was out with two great friends drinking an absurd amount of Captain Morgan and kamikazes. This made for an interesting run on Saturday to usher in my 40th year.
I woke up early enough to realize I had just gone to sleep and I didn't care if the coffee maker had just kicked on, I was getting a couple more hours of sleep. My friend Matt was sleeping on the couch and he had mentioned a few times through the night, "I don't want to go hiking with you."
I had planned on just hiking so Matt could come out with us, but his resistance the night before was heard. When I staggered into the living room a couple hours later and got some coffee in my system he greeted me with, "I am not going out with you this morning." OKAY, I get it.
Tabitha called me and said she was sorry she was running late, she couldn't find her Camelbak. I told her I was going to pass on the hike and she let me know about myself and told me that I was going to go. I called my friend Bonnie and told her to come over if she wanted to get in on the action.
Hitting the trail late in the morning I was a little freaked out because I had to be back before noon so I could start getting ready for my birthday party. Looking at my watch, it was 11. I was screwed.
We chatted it up as we walked the first leg. Tabitha is still making sure her calf muscle doesn't pop again and Bonnie is fresh out of physical therapy for an IT band issue (I should google that because she had a lot to say about it and I had no idea what she was talking about)
Bonnie had done the first part of this on a hike with her friend so I was intent on showing her the secret side of it that most people don't know about or just think it goes down to a small waterfall.
We talked about how addictive this is and Bonnie calls it 'Jonesin'. We all hate it when we can't get out and do this.
When we entered this part of the canyon you are surrounded by the walls and fallen rock. So many times on runs I have seen the wall and swore that one of these days I would climb up there and see what was on the other side. On my 40th birthday I dug my Treks into the wall and began climbing up, holding on to roots and rocks. At the top I was rewarded with nothing. Oh well, it was fun being a little kid for a minute.
When we came out of the canyon you are blessed with the cut open and you can see where they began making the dam. At this spot I looked down to see a butterfly at my feet and I stopped and it was so beautiful I wanted to make sure that Tabitha saw it, I started chanting her name and she freaked out thinking that my complete immobile body was frozen because there was a snake about to strike me. "Look at this butterfly!" I slowly bent down to see if I could get a better look.
"You bitch! don't do that! I thought you were going to be eaten by a snake!"
We all sat there as I got the butterfly on the tip of my finger and held it out so they could get pictures. I surrendered a good 15 minutes of my day looking at his wings and beautiful furry body.
I glanced at my Garmin watch as we headed further into the canyon. My phone rang, which NEVER happens out in those canyons and I fumbled with my Camelbak and saw that my boyfriend was calling. "Happy Birthday Baby! Where are you? When am I going to see you?"
Uh-oh.
"I'm out on a hike/run and we are the second leg back to the car! I will see you soon!" I crammed my phone back in after the I love yous and be safes. "Let's go girls, it's 1pm and I have to be at Lester's at 2pm for my birthday party." I didn't want to calculate the drive home (20 minutes) shower (10 minutes) and drive to his house (10 minutes) because I would rob myself of the joy of the run back to the car. I went with, "it's my 40th birthday and I wanted to do this."
Bonnie and Tabitha took up the hill we would need to crest to get to the main trail. It was about halfway up the hill that my run turned into a walk and my walk turned into a struggled stagger. Sweet Jesus, the hangover decided to kick in about then. "Oh god, i'm hungry and dizzy!" They were almost to the top and I felt my watch tightening around my wrist telling me to keep moving, "This is like the Hungover Games!" they didn't hear me, they were cheering me on to make sure I got up that hill in one piece. I think they could see how green I was turning.
As soon as I got over the hill I knew we had one very small one and then it was all downhill. Now I was checking my Garmin about every 4 seconds calculating how fast I would have to get to the car, how fast I would have to drive, what steps I would need to take to cut off a few minutes so I could make it on time. We ran...and ran...and ran. We ran 2 miles in 20 minutes and I actually made it to my party only 20 minutes late.
The report on the feet/calves/body. I crested a hill and hit my foot all funky on a rock and I had to pamper it for the rest of the day, but on a scale of 1 to 10 on the pain it was only a 5 and the recovery was minimal. I was fine the next day.
This run was the first time that I actually noticed the length of my stride. Going downhill I could feel how I was doing most of my running from the knees down and I had to make an effort to involve my hips. Because I did this my stride lengthened and my feet had to compensate for that. It's a give and take with that method because even though my pace improved, I had to think about what I was doing and I haven't learned how to lengthen my stride and not beat my feet up because of it.
All in all, a beautiful run on a beautiful day.
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