Summer Runnin'!

Sorry about the long absence. While I havent been writing, I keep on running.

I signed up for the Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon in Santa Ynez right before it sold out - because I was thinking about it and someone I knew was encouraging me to do it. I signed up for $95 bucks. Three weeks before the May 7th race I ran the Chardonnay 10 miler as a training run and with a decent time. Two weeks before the race I got a message in my FB inbox from a bridesmaid of a friend inviting me to a dinner with friends of the bride (My friend Angie) the night before the wedding. "Sure!" I said and even threw in a couple of suggestions. "Then it occurred to me to as for details - she said oh the day before the wedding at 5:30." Hmm this can't be a good answer cause I don't quite remember the date of the wedding although I know it is sometime in May. Then she adds, "The wedding is May 7th". Oops, I thought.

After envisioning how horrible and unrealistic it would be to try to fit both events into the day, I looked online and found that I could sell my race bib. After posting it on FB, Twitter (@osum), and DailyMile, I had some interest and was able to sell it successfully for the price that I paid for it.

My first thought after I sold my entry was finding another half as close to May 7th so that the runs leading up to it were worthwhile but close in proximity. I didn't want to spend much to do a run. I found the Ojai 2 Ocean marathon and half-marathon, but I wasn't crazy about the two loop oceanside course. (Being obnoxiously spoiled, most of my runs are oceanside and I wanted something different.) The half marathon entry was $64 but I didn't sign up. I kept looking and nothing quite jumped at me. One afternoon I got a push notification on my iphone from Groupon, the group coupon site that this race was 50% off. For $32 bucks?! Heck yes, so I signed up for Ojai 2 Ocean, coming up this weekend.

My last fast run in preparation for this race was yesterday, June 1st, official NATIONAL RUNNING DAY. I posted about it on FB and my sister called to say she was interested in coming, so we ran it together. It was a fun run, with perfect weather, and a good crowd. While my run up was rough, at about the 2 mile mark I decided I could still put in a better time, and wrapped up with 35: 34 on the 5k.

Nite Moves 6/1/11

Location:Santa Barbara