Sunday, November 2, 2008

*Rain, Mud and Hills*


Don't those sound like every one's favorite things when it comes to running? :P Well our run included all of those things yesterday morning and then some!



We woke up, bright and early at 6am so we could get something in our tummies, get dressed and get over to Don and Sara's apartment by 6:45am before heading off to the Redwood Regional park in the Oakland Hills. We got sort of lost back in the woods, but luckily, we saw some of our teammates' and our coach's cars drive by us and we were able to follow them through the winding roads. We arrived about 10 minutes late so we quickly got out of the car, got the directions for our run and we were off!

It was still dark out when we started to run, and it was lightly raining but it pretty calming to be out in the middle of the woods, at dawn, with nothing around except for a couple of other runners. I even heard an owl off in the distance. The first 4.5 miles of our run were a steady uphill climb.... which was extremely difficult. Especially since the rain had been falling all night and the mud got pretty thick in some parts of the trail. A couple of times, I had to stop and scrape the mud off my shoes because it felt like I was carrying an extra 2 lbs on each foot. I enjoy running but I'm still not strong enough to run steep hills for 4 straight miles, so the first part of my run included a lot of power walking mixed with running.

I eventually got into my running rhythm at about mile 3 and I felt pretty good. Our turn around point was at mile 4.5. As we headed up the hill, we had some beautiful views to enjoy, overlooking valleys of redwood trees; there were even little clouds floating through the trees that made it seem movie worthy. I made it back down, and although we only did 9 miles (we were supposed to do 14) our coach said the difficulty of the trail was equal to a 14 mile distance, if not more. I would have to agree because a 9 mile run would normally take me just under 2 hours, but our 9 mile uphill run yesterday took me over 2 hour and 40 minutes...and I wasn't extra slow either. It was just a really hard run!

At the end of the run, I was honored to receive the Spirit Box for the week and will have to find something pretty good to add to the box! Thanks Team Oz!

Well I will be training like normal this week, plus getting ready for my 18 mile run next weekend! Although, I won't be able to join the team because I'm heading up a fundraising Rummage sale next Saturday to hopefully grow my fundraising total. If you are in the area, feel free to drop off donations or come by to shop! Saturday Nov. 8th 9am-3:30pm. at The Kensington in Walnut Creek.

Have a great week everyone!

PEACE, LOVE & a CURE! -C.
Pictures: Here are some pics of the trail....isn't it beautiful?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Clara-
I am trying to reply to your blog on The Knot and cannot for some reason-
I am the mother of a bride (March 09) and I live in the Traverse City Area- email me and I can give you some ideas for caterers-
I was on TEAM in 06 for the Bayshore Marathon in TC. A friend and I did the 1/2 in gratefulness- both of our sons are cancer survivors (13 years my son w/leukemia 6 years her son w/lymphoma)
Thanks for helping a great cause and GO TEAM!
Nancy Spinniken
nspinniken@yahoo.com
PS you will love running for TEAM in the marathon- you'll feel so special with all the support- it made us feel sorry for all those who only had a couple supporters. :-)