Last time, on the Adventures of Running Lisa…
When we last left off, I was trying to get to Sacramento but ended up in San Francisco with my very good friend that I hardly ever see. We spent our Saturday hanging out at the lake, herding geese and just talking. That afternoon I was able to catch a ride with my uncle and FINALLY arrived in Sacramento- well, Lodi to be precise.
I arrived just in time for BBQ, followed by birthday pie!
In case you can’t tell, that’s my Pop Pop standing in front of three different kinds of pie- lemon meringue, chocolate crème, and coconut crème. Yes, I tasted them all.
The next morning I knew I had to run. Since I only did about 3 miles on Saturday, the Queens half marathon is about 6 WEEKS AWAY, and I ate all that pie, I knew I had to squeeze in a long run. I don’t really know my way around Lodi, so for this run, I had to face my greatest foe- THE TREADMILL!!!
Scary huh? I turned my iPod to the Go! Team’s “The Power is On” and hopped on the treadmill. This song makes me feel like I should walk into a room in slow motion and do a roundhouse kick to a bad guy’s face. I figured it could help me get through my treadmill run. AND You know what? I kicked that treadmill’s BUTT! I did 7 miles in 68:49. Take that!
I decided to follow my run with a quick dip in the pool. I figured it would be like an ice bath, except not cold and much more pleasant. I just floated for about 10 minutes. It was wonderful.
Finally, no trip to California would be complete without a visit to the local In N Out.
This is a number 2 animal style. I scarfed it down.
The flight back to New York was very uneventful. I was SO tired and as soon as we got on the plane I passed out and woke up about 5 minutes before landing. I’m not exactly sure what day or time it is, but this weary traveler is happy to be home.
Well this weekend was…an adventure.
It began with trying to get from NY to Sacramento for my Grandpa’s 80th birthday, but the weather had other ideas. Everything seemed fine at check-in but just before boarding, they posted that the flight would be severely delayed, causing me to miss my connection. Perfect. Of course no one made any announcements, so it was mass chaos. I found the right line to rebook my flight and there’s only one person working at the counters. My mom and I double-teamed it- she was on the phone with the airline while I was in the line. It was looking grim for getting to Sacramento, but then I remembered, I have a friend near San Francisco that I never get to see! Several text messages and lots of waiting later, I had my flight rebooked to San Francisco.
Of course that couldn’t be all. Just before the flight was about to board again, it was like the heavens opened up and said “Lisa, you shall not fly.” Thunder, lightning, and hail delayed the flight again. I’ll spare you all the details, but after 7 hours of waiting at the airport, I was finally on my way to San Francisco. Andrea is a super awesome friend and came to pick me up after midnight and let me stay with her for the night.
Since this is a blog about running and not a blog about travel nightmares, let’s get to the running. Saturday I was planning on running 7 to 8 miles, but seeing as how I didn’t really know where I was and I’d been traveling for 13 hours, I just went for a short run. Running in a suburban neighborhood is totally different. There’s nothing to look at. No crazy people. No weird pizza-eating squirrels. Nothing. One thing suburbia does have are speed radars. I was clocked at 8 miles an hour. I spent the rest of my run trying to figure how many minutes per mile that was. I still never figured that out.
Because of my unexpected visit, I had the day to spend with Andrea! We went to Merritt Lake and went for a nice walk. There were LOTS of geese.
Why did the geese cross the road?
To get to the other side, of course!
Ok. I’m still exhausted and need a nap and some food. Stay tuned for the rest of my weekend adventures!
