California

Well, we flew out to LA last Wednesday evening. We met Vicki in Hollywood for dinner and walked around to see some of the stars and all. Not that exciting, though we saw Kermit's star...haha. headed over to Calabasas for the night. What I saw of LA and Hollywood didn't impress me all that much. I did see those things in songs like Hollywood boulevards, Reseda, Ventura Blvd, etc :-p

We drove up the coast (Highway 1) most of the way, with stops in several cities along the way. The rest of California was nice once we got outside LA :-p There are a lot of cute little towns. Except Guadalupe, which was kind of a dump. We stopped at a few beaches, bought some strawberries from a roadside stand, walked around towns. We stopped in Santa Barbara for most of one of the days, which was a nice little town. Solvang is a little town that is all Dutch-like and was pretty neat. Looking at the map now apparently we passed through a town called Bicknell... We stopped at Pismo Beach for lunch and in the area for beach/dunes. We stopped in San Luis Obispo for an hour or so and found out that Cal Tech was not there, but Cal Poly. We also stopped in Morro Bay and Cambria, as well as some random stops along the way.

Friday night we stayed in San Simeon. We decided not to go up to tour Hearst Castle...2-hour walking tour the day before a marathon? no thanks :) Friday night we sat along the shore and watched the sunset and then went inside to eat dinner. Saturday morning we went back to Cambria, which is another cute little town, for breakfast. We also stopped to see a place there called Nitt Witt Ridge. Basically a guy built a house and gardens out of recycled objects and materials. We got to Big Sur Saturday afternoon-ish and drove the course. I think driving the course scared me more than actually running it!

Sunday morning was the race. It was slightly warm and there were a few breezy spots, but otherwise beautiful weather. The course was by far the toughest and most beautiful course I have ever run, and possibly will ever run. I finished just under 4 hours, 3:58:36, which I am very happy with :) After the race and lunch, Vicki drove me back to her place in Tustin so I could fly back home from LA on Monday afternoon. That was a long drive and I was exhausted.

I only got about 3.5 hours of sleep (which is probably why I got sick this week...) because the new kitty kept hopping up on the bed and annoying me. Really really cute kitty, but not at 2am... Vicki and I had breakfast Monday morning in Surf City USA and I flew out in the afternoon. About 5-10 minutes before landing our plane got struck by lightning, so that was an experience. Nothing really happened besides the flash and noise, but nobody panicked, so I figured nothing was wrong. Just something to laugh at :-p Oh and I got pulled aside before getting on the plane for a random search. Fun.

So, to summarize: the race went really well, I had a great time, and it's beautiful on the Pacific coast :)