Summer Fun Run

Summer of Fun

My goal: To have more fun than a kid should be allowed to have.

Quote from my brother Tom

Tim and I set out for a run the other day. These were our views. I think I may have been running slow in the beginning (with good enough reason, my legs have load in them). We are running up Soledad at a pace Tim announces as above 11 min/mile. Now before you get smug and all "my grandma can run faster that that", and some grandmas can, I will clarify that it was up Mt. Soledad. Get it mount as in mountain. Ok so it's not Kilimajaro , but whatever, I'm just a La Jolla Housewife trying to stay fit;)
Just before we reach the top Tim takes advantage of my breathlessness and really starts to tease. He says jeez Jen , you really need to show some commitment. An 11 minute mile. What's next, and you let all these people beat you. He rattles off the name of several of my training partners, whom I respect and in my mind are really, really fast. "Let", get it let being the opportune outragious hysterical word. Although I'm not the best I can't say I really let people beat me. I give it what I got.
I start to laugh so hard I sound like a hyena. I can't breath in fully or out fully. It's sort of a hyperventilating laugh. Which out loud sounds so funny. I think I might break a rib. I almost fall down with laughter. Tim says "come on, where is your commitment." I rode an uber million miles last week, swam as instructed, went to yoga, and even got some running in. OK, one run I failed on because my legs wouldn't go.I tried. I am laughing. He says if my girl friends were there I would be running faster. He is kidding but I try to pick it up anyway. I run as hard as I can to the cross. I feel a little bonky as it has been a long day. I slug down a GU a start to feel better. Maybe even "fast". Just as I feel good, Tim says he feels a little bonky. No problem, I tell him and pull out what turns out to be an empty gel wrapper. Oops. Sorry. Tim says he has to go home. I say I'm just warming up. Where is your commitment? He looks a little too whipped for it to be funny anymore. I want to run down the fire road with Tim and he wants to go home :( It's really pretty. It's all downhill from here I beg and bribe. He's not buying it. I have lied too many times about vertical gain and distances. He says "yes and then another mile up". O.k. I'm busted. We agree to save something for tomorrow.
Sunday, we run at noon. In the heat of the day. I'm a little whiny about running at noon. Stating next time we will run at 7:00 a.m. He negates my whining by stating we are heat training. Next time he's going to train at noon in a garbage bag. Point awarded to Tim. Tim says we need to do more heat training to get ready for Kona. Kona, I shriek we are not going to Kona. "You are not" he says. "You don't have enough commitment, I am" I sarcastically ask how. As medical? A lottery spot? "Nope". He says he's going to qualify at Solana Beach next weekend. With all the seriousness in the world he asks me where the roll down goes to. Now I am laughing so hard I want to lie down on the bike/dog path and cry. I do not know how I continued to run in this state. (You probably have to know triathlons to appreciate the humor in this, but one cannot get to Kona via Solana Beach.) Once again I am laughing so hard I can't fully get a breath in or out.

Tim says if he isn't going to Kona, he doesn't want to heat train anymore. He suggests going to the cove for a swim. So at mile 7.5 of 12, we take a break and swim in the ocean. I'm not sure what it does to race preparation, but I tell you it was a bit of heaven. We run the rest of the way home wet from the cove. We decide it was the best thing ever.

We like the cove dip so much the next evening we go for another run dip run. I bring my goggles and swim cap in the pocket of my tri jersey. I don't want to get out of the ocean, but it is 7:00 p.m. already and dinner is waiting for us.
Tim and I run home. My shoes squish the whole way home from my wet feet but I don't care. Tim and I decide this is the most fun summer ever.

Hope your summer is as great as mine.