You Light Up My Life

Okay, that was a cheesy post title and now I'll be humming that stupid tune the rest of the evening. Anyway, with the time change a few weeks ago and shorter days now, it's getting darker earlier. Which means if you run in the late afternoon, you're probably finishing your runs in the dark. That means you need to make yourself visible to all those cars driving home from work. Fortunately, the running gear companies are making more and more gear to make you shine like the running star you are.

The easiest way to increase your visibility is to wear reflective bands and clothing. The most exciting new gear out now (okay, it's exciting to me) is from illumiNITE. They put thin, reflective squiggly lines all over their garment, making an entire arm or leg reflect light. You can order it online at Road Runner Sports, although at the brick and mortar store in Torrance, they didn't know what I was talking about.

Also, you can now buy LED lights on head bands and vests, among a variety of other types of wearable lights. It's amazing when I go out running at night or early morning and pass runners who are wearing all dark clothes. Seems like a stupid and unnecessary risk to me.

So visit your local running or sporting goods store and pick up some reflective gear. And run safely.

Hello from Colorado

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. I've been in Colorado for almost a month now. I have been running though. When I first got here, I felt like I was so out of shape. The altitude just kills you! But I was able to do 18 miles the first weekend and 20 miles the next. Unfortunately, when I went running two days later, my foot started hurting halfway through my run, so I had to walk about 3 miles back to my hotel. I haven't run since (about a week now). Just a little setback in my training for the O.C. Marathon in January, but I should be able to get going again very soon.

Wimping Out

Okay, I will admit it: I wimped out last weekend. Friday evening, we had the first rain in what seemed like years in the South Bay. So I'm sitting in our house, enjoying being dry and warm and thought, "Man, it would be nice to be able to sleep in a little." So I wimped out and cancelled the fun-run on Saturday morning.

That is the last time that I will cancel the run due to weather, unless there's a hurricane coming or thunderstorms or something life-threatening. So there's my commitment--come rain or shine, we're running. No wimps in Elijah's Running Club.

That's one of the toughest things to master when you're first getting into the whole running thing. The mental part. It's getting over the "Oh, I really don't feel like getting up and going out there to run for miles and miles." I've gotten to the point where I set the alarm and when it goes off, I just get up and don't think about the possibility of lying back down. Because I know that I'll feel good once I get out there. Because I know that I'll feel even better once I'm done.

So bottom line: we're running tomorrow.

Results

Well, I finished the Disneyland Half-Marathon. Considering that it was about 80 degrees at the start (at 6 am!), I'm happy with how I finished. My time was 1:41:34. That was my chip time. It took 26 seconds to get to the starting line after the start.

The route was nice, mostly flat. It was interesting running through the two Disney parks, having various characters cheering you on. I gave high-fives to a couple monsters from Monsters, Inc. And running through Angels Stadium was pretty cool. They had the Angels' announcer calling out names as we rounded home plate with our image being put up on the huge jumbotron screen in left field.

I was very impressed with the organization of the race. Very well-organized for only their 2nd annual race. I'll be running it again next year, but we might make a weekend of it and stay in a hotel close by or maybe at the Disneyland Hotel itself.

Running with Goofy

Wow, I just realized how long it's been since I last posted. A week ago, I ran almost 4 miles in Phoenix at 3:30 pm. It was about 108 degrees and sunny. That was the toughest 4 miles I've run in a long time. Felt good to get back in the cool hotel room. I don't know how they do it down there.

This weekend is the Disneyland Half-Marathon. I'll be running in that and one other person from Elijah's Running Club will be running in the 5k race on Sunday. I'm beginning to think that the 6 am start time for the half is not all that bad, since we've been having a mini-heat wave here lately. I'll post on our results next week.

Surfing with no waves

Okay, so we didn't surf on Saturday. We just ran. Perfect running weather again--marine layer, cool. They were having the International Surf Festival at the pier this past weekend. When we showed up, they were starting the 2-mile beach run. There were probably 100 people running.

Not sure how much surfing they did on Saturday, because it was pretty calm before our run. And a friend from Hope Chapel told me he ended up doing a paddleboard workout Saturday afternoon before church because it was so calm.

Running on the beach

Since everyone else was either out of town or sick, I decided to run on the beach down by the water. The sand was nice and firm, but still a softer surface than the concrete of the strand. It was nice hearing the waves crash as I did the pier to pier run. Curiously, I didn't really feel a breeze off the ocean. It felt good to take my shoes and socks off at the end of my run and wade into the water to cool my feet off.

Still looking for anyone wanting to train for a half or full marathon. As I said in my last post, I'll stay around after our normal Fun Run (3.3 miles or so) and do a longer run.