johnsjar

I met some people today at this charity run for an orphanage in Haiti. Ran it in about 37 minutes. Had a lot of fun. Brian had it laid out like a mini Death Race complete with Mt. Hamill and flags. But it was nothing like the real thing.

I’ll be doing a few more marathons before tackling a 125 km in 24 hours or less wilderness Ultra run.

I was really worried about my knee before the run but fortunately it did not begin swelling up and was only a wee bit sore. I really worked on those knots yesterday and this morning and I also applied a lot of heat to the muscles. Now the knee is really bruised and sore but at least I loosened up enough to not affect my biomechanics. And I also cheated a bit by taking some ibuprofen before the run. Not really something I would normally recommend.

Except for the nasty muscle knots that suddenly appeared in my left knee which really crippled me after a great start to yesterday’s run. I was nursing it a whole lot thinking how crappy it is to go from a 1:03 and change PR for a 10 km to a 1:33:51 11 km fiasco. Not to mention that I have to run Sunday, tomorrow, to support a friend’s daughter who is starting an orphanage in Haiti. It’s only a 5 km trail run but still, it really sucks to have my biomechanics twisted out of shape by some stupid muscle knots.

Plus I have a half marathon in Devon on the 14th. The good news is that it is just some muscle knots that I am painfully working out. It’s happened before.

and hey - I just reached the 1000 km mark for this year, how about that?

It’s all good.

Just leaving Bend, Oregon after a few hours at Crater Lake where I returned something that belongs to Mt Mazama. Next stop Spokane, then home.

Ran just under 11 km from the Prarie Creek Campsite to the “Big Tree” turnout (about 2.5 km) then through the forest trails and back again.

Ran another 10 km on the 26th of September in about 1:09 and change. Ran from the Bothe Napa Valley State Park Campground through to Silverado road and back.

Another PR today because I ran the 10 km in 1:03:33 for a 6:21 pace. There seems to be some hope that I will soon break the 1 hour mark, which is very surprising to me since I did not expect to do that until the end of this year at the earliest. In fact I am so surprised that I am looking for some kind of mistake but I can’t find one.

Santa Clara University was the location and I got to run mostly in the shade. We are leaving tomorrow for NAPA. Next run is hopefully Friday. I have not yet found a mailbox to send off a package to Lisa Lawrence. I think I might just drop in on her in Tacoma. I have not yet decided if we can swing by there on our way home.

It seems all we do is walk around and look at a bunch of free loading animals. And that includes people. Kidding aside, between my running in the mornings and walking for 8 hours straight in a bajillion degree sunny day I’m getting a wee bit tired. So I think I’ll pass on tomorrows run. We did the San Diego Wildlife Park today and saw some pretty impressive conservation efforts underway. I got to see what I wanted to see which was mainly the California Condor, the Mountain Gorilla, and at the San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park I saw the Pandas including the cute little cub.

San Diego (I am not familiar with the various organizations) has done a world of good in terms of saving species and habitats. I certainly would see the Wildlife Park (1800 acres) again. But probably won’t as it is a big ole world. Conservation, I was told, starts in our own back yard.

Tomorrow will be an easy day with stops at the excellent San Diego Natural History Museum and a bike ride around Balboa Park. I’m glad we brought our bikes, they and the bike carrier seem to hold up well in spite of the high speeds and distance and loco local driver maniacs.

Day after tomorrow we head out to do some snorkeling in La Jolla. Should be fun swimming with the leopard sharks in their breeding season. Estos animales muerden! No! Estos animales no muerden.