Week Seventeen

And also Week Sixteen—I forgot to write last week. Oops! Well, it was a nine-mile run through the Park, with lots of little loops and turns around the Polo Field and Stow Lake and through the Rhododendron Garden, and it went just fine.

This week was a twenty-mile run, and the biggest news of the week is that, for once, I didn't have to take the bus to the run site, because I now have a car! I bought myself a Toyota RAV4 on Friday, and got to drive my brand new car to the Park.

The route was a little unusual - we ran down Sunset to Vicente, then to Stern Grove and around Pine Lake, back to the Park and over to the ocean, down the Great Highway to Santiago and back, then through the Park on JFK out to the Panhandle to Masonic and back. It was a pleasant run, and nice to do something a little different. The weather was gorgeous - enough so that I feel like I got a little sunburn.

I felt fine while I was running, and finished the twenty miles with no problems, but afterwards I felt a little sick. I'm not sure why. The heat? Doesn't usually bother me. The only things I did differently were filling my bottle with Gatorade instead of plain water when I started out this morning and eating lots of gummi bears along the way. Either of these might have upset my stomach, or maybe it was that seafood salad I bought at the corner Walgreens yesterday. Maybe it was just a bad day. In any case, I did my twenty miles.

The only other thing is I really need to get some new shoes soon. My current pair is getting pretty worn, and I don't think they fit as well as they should to begin with. My left big toe always gets sore, and the toenail is coming loose. My right foot was a little sore today, too. I'll have to try to make time to get to the shoe store before next week's run.

Week Fifteen

Eighteen miles today! It was a good run, nice cool weather, nice low-key run. There were only five of us running in our group today, which made it a little more relaxed, I think. Since we were doing a longer run, we slowed down our pace and interval, running 15 minute miles at a 2:2 run/walk ratio (and my watch is still working!). The route was down Great Highway to Sloat and back, through the park to the Polo Fields (running up Bernice Rogers, across JFK and down Chain of Lakes Drive, instead of the usual straight up MLK and Middle Drive), then down Sunset, around Lake Merced and back. The other new twist was a slight detour from Vicente to the west end of Stern Grove, around Pine Lake and back. I told everyone the story of the AIDS Marathon getting kicked out of Stern Grove last year (for making too much noise while running past a wedding), and warned everyone about the very steep path at the back entrance to the Grove (when they saw it, our first-year runners exclaimed, "You said it was steep, but I didn't think it would be that steep!").

After the run, we headed up past the Cliff House to Louis' diner to have a late lunch overlooking the old Sutro Baths and out over the ocean. The weather had cleared up and it was a beautiful day, blue skies and puffy white clouds over a clear blue sea. It was fun to sit and relax with the "girls" for a while, to chat without having to concentrate on keeping the pace and watching the trails. And, we presented our soon-to-be-married runner Leigh with a gift certificate for a dinner at Green's for a wedding present.

Week Fourteen

Today's run was another eight-mile recovery run. The hardest part about it was figuring out where the course was! There were lots of twists and turns and back trails, and I"m not at all sure we always chose the right way. But we got from one end to the other, and it was approximately eight miles, so it was all good!

We began by running down to MLK, up Middle Drive to the Polo Fields, then cut across on a bike path to JFK. We went down JFK to Stow Lake, once around Stow Lake (clockwise! we were supposed to run clockwise!), after "christening" the brand new clean and shiny bathrooms, then up JFK to the museums where we turned in to run past the big hole in the ground where the DeYoung Museum used to be (we were pleased to see the sphinxes were still there, although they no longer have an entrance to anything to guard) and back across to MLK, where we headed back up past the Shakespeare Garden, and through the AIDS Memorial Grove. We ended up running along the high back trail along the AIDS Memorial Grove, to many cries of "are you sure we're going the right way?" But we made it through and back out to JFK, where we turned back and headed west.

The trickiest part was when we turned off onto the Bridal Trail after Transverse Drive. From there we knew we were supposed to follow the trail alongside Fulton, but the trail kept twisting and turning and splitting off and being blocked by fences and crossing roads, and at some point we just threw up our hands and kept running in the general direction until we got safely back to our start.

Let's hope the eighteen-miler is a little less confusing, or we may never find our way home!

Week Thirteen

Having been out of town for the Labor Day weekend, I did my 8-mile run on my own on Tuesday this week. At this point, I'm enough of an "old hand" at this that running eight miles by myself is no big deal. I ran from my place, down to the end of the Panhandle, through the Panhandle and Golden Gate Park to the bison paddock and back. I was feeling a bit worn out, but I took it easy and the weather was cool and it was a pleasant run.

The hardest thing about doing the eight-mile run this way is that, once I get as far as the Bison Paddock, it's hard to make myself turn around and go back! It feels like it's so close to the ocean, it's a shame not to just go ahead and run the rest of the way. But I stuck to my schedule and got my run in.

Fundraising is hanging in there. I managed to meet the September 4 deadline with over $1000, in order to avoid having my credit card charged, and now I have until October 11 to reach $3000. That's going to be a bit harder—my eBay auctions have been doing well, but I'm running out of things to sell, so I'm going to have to think about what to do next!