Inside the absence of fear

This was my theme song for the day - Absence of Fear (Jewel).

You see, I've been afraid of the Coronado Bridge for nearly my entire life. Long story short, sometimes telling an 8 year old that the bridge was built in sections translates to the bridge was built to fall down. Yeah. Anyway, I signed up for this race a few months ago, and as the day approached I got more and more nervous. Like, I couldn't shut up about this run because if I just kept talking about it maybe it wouldn't be real. Or something.

Anyway, on race day I got up bright and early and headed to Coronado (over the dreaded bridge) to park and ride the shuttle to the start line (over the bridge.) As I drove over I did my normal "hold your breath and don't look anywhere but straight ahead" thing, though it's harder when you're the one driving (previously I had always been the passenger.) I easily found parking in the overflow lot and hopped on the first bus back to San Diego. I think the poor girl next to me on the bus thought I was going to puke on her or something when I took a big gulp of air and shut my eyes as we headed back over the bridge.

Before long, we were here:

And as the minutes went by my stomach was in knots. I texted my fiance "AAAAHHHHH WHAT AM I DOING?!?!" more than once. He provided the needed encouragement and perhaps a promise of a mimosa when I returned home. Mimosas are my motivator, people.

The first mile was through Barrio Logan, a part of town I don't venture to often (though my favorite coffee shop is there and it was really hard not to make a pit stop there) but really is quite lovely in the wee small hours of the morning. This was where the water stop was, as well as a Mariachi band and Folklorio dancers. They were awesome. Then, you turn the corner and up, up, up you go.

You can't really see how many people are ahead of me here, but trust me there were a ton of people. Basically, that entire bridge you see in front you me is covered in runners. That's what 10,000 people running looks like (well, I guess some of them were behind me, but you know what I mean.) This part here? Not even on the "real" bridge yet. Once we got there I started running like my life depended on it, so the rest of the photos are slightly blurry, but I'm posting them anyway. PROOF. 

This is a shot of one of the "breaks" they built into the bridge, aka my greatest fear.

These guys ran the entire way in full gear. 

I MADE IT! 

I didn't stick around for any of the post race festivities because I was too busy crying. Yeah, most people cry after a marathon. I cry when I run/walk 4 miles over a bridge. Same difference. /sarcasm

I took this while waiting for traffic in front of me to clear. I wasn't actually moving or anything. Don't worry.

There were still hundreds (thousands?) of people on the bridge as I drove back across (breathing normally this time and looking around) I honked and cheered for them through my sunroof. That was fun, though I'm not sure the car in front of me appreciated all the honking. I think they had just finished the run too, though, so they probably got it. 

My time was not great. The distance was not far. It doesn't matter though because my fear was conquered.

A no good really bad day.

So I've done two runs (April and May) since I last typed anything here. I'll cover the April run now by saying: it SUCKED. I couldn't even run the whole thing because I got a cramp in my good foot at the beginning, so I ended up walking nearly the entire way. I couldn't even write about it at the time because I was so frustrated.

I will say that the race and organization were wonderful, I just had a poor performance. If you get the chance to work with/run for/donate to ACT Today! Do it.

One hope.

Like many other runners, and, well, humans, my heart has been heavy since Monday. I don't plan on listening to my co-workers and never running a race again. In fact, I plan on participating in the Bay Bridge Run over the Coronado bridge (a tough 4 miler) next month as planned and wearing blue and yellow for Boston. So yesterday when I went out on my run, I put on a race shirt and thought about Boston. It was a short run, but I cried for everyone involved (I'm a crier) and felt peace toward the end.

Here's my race shirt:

And here's a song I can't get out of my head right now.  Some Good in this World

Let Your Light Shine

The day was beautiful, as was the pre/post-race set-up. It was fantastic to see so many San Diegans (and former San Diegans) out bright and early on a Saturday morning in memory of two beautiful girls taken too soon.

Those folks on the ground worked so hard to make a beautiful chalk drawing that thousands of people promptly ran over and destroyed.  

 This is not a runners "race." It just isn't. There are far too many folks out there to support the wonderful cause thus there is tons of traffic to avoid. They make an attempt at corralling runners in waves, but it wasn't the most organized and most people failed to pay attention. As previously mentioned the hill was back. I'm frustrated because I can't find my finish time for the Jingle Bell run, but I'm fairly certain I sped up a little this race despite having to dodge around traffic quite a bit. Before long, I saw this....it's always glorious. All finished!

 Despite not being a "runners run" it's a great run. Everyone on the course is incredibly encouraging. They were cheering on other runner and thanking volunteers, it was incredibly uplifting. Also uplifting was the kick off (this year done by Amber Dubois' little sister) and the speech made by Mr. and Mrs. King. Mr. King said he ran the course that morning, just he and his daughter....that really hit my heart because she was taken too soon, and running was one of her passions. The quotes all along the course that she loved just added to the spirit that was so very present on this day.

 RIP Chelsea and Amber, I know your spirits were with us yesterday. Your light continues to shine.

[Jaws music]

OMG. The hill is back. The Jingle Bell 5k hill, the one that made me want to give up forever. It's part of this darn race on Saturday. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!! P.S. I'm Finishing Chelsea's Run on Saturday. See you there.

SuperStahh

In my quest to find a race every single month (I started in October, but whatever, 12 months is 12 months) I stumbled upon the Super Run thanks to my new favorite website . I generally try and find something with either a) a good cause (this is my first choice) or b) a fun theme (like the 80s run.) The Super Run supported Morse HS athletics, Water for Children Africa, and a Cancer organization. If you know me, you know I'll almost always support local HS anything (they need funding) as well as Africa anything (well, not really, I vet my organizations fairly well) so I was in. The only problem? It was just a week after the Stephen Strasburg run. What was I thinking? So just a few short days after I ran through the rain, I was parking my car and spying this:

Now THAT is what I want to see when I'm getting ready to run. A beautiful sunrise is definitely a sign of a good day. The race didn't have a pre-race packet pick up so I got there early enough to pick up my stuff and schlep it back to my car before the start of the run. I know from experience I don't want to run with all that crap. On the way back to drop off the AWESOME shirt we received, I spied this:

Um, yeah, I kind of love San Diego sometimes. This was both a 5 and 10k and I noticed that the vast majority of the participants were from the San Diego Track Club and later learned that this was one of their training runs for the marathon trainees. This meant the biggest group was running the 10k, and it made me want to try one out for myself. Maybe in a few months. The course was super fast, and I managed a PR. You can tell by the official race photos that I was trying really hard. I'm a seriously gorgeous hideous runner.

Here I am crossing the finish line, oh yeah!

If only I could look as pretty as the sunrise did. And with that, I'm all caught up. Until next time, friends. I'll be finishing Chelsea's Run in just a few short weeks. Join me.

Take me out to the [race track]

I was super excited in January to run the Stephen Strasburg 5k at SDSU. I'm a big sports fan and the prospect of seeing some of my favorite past and present Padres (and even a few future Padres) was enough to get me out in the rain (again.) Stephen Strasburg was there too, and the race's packet pickup included several Washington Nationals themed items. It was awesome, and I'm a very proud owner of the autographs I was able to receive. I posted this stellar hideous photo on my FB, but let's just say, I started running because SD has nice weather. This rain is for the birds.

The course itself was a slow one, but as you can see above I finished anyway. There's nothing like running downhill at the start of a race and realizing "oh crap, this means I'm going to have to run back up at the end." Anyway, it was still a fun race for me, and the cheering crowds of college baseball players/cheerleaders was a nice touch (even though it made me feel ancient.) It was also cool to run past the kids camped out at Viejas Arena for the upcoming SDSU basketball game.