Vacation

These past couple weeks have been a bit hectic for me. I have been trying to train and make sure all was taken care of at home and work so I could leave on vacation.

I did the training - 15 miles on Sept 23, 21 miles on Sept 30 and some weekday training thrown in for good measure!

I finished up what needed to be taken care of at work and got most of the stuff at home complete.

Then Oct 1 came and it was time to take off for Washington (state - that is). Richland, WA to be specific.

Sunday was filled with unpacking, greeting all the animals at my dad and Michele's, relaxing on the porch with a vodka tonic, taking a quick walk with the dogs, stopping by to say hi to my grandfather a couple blocks away (my grandmother would be home later that night from a trip to Branson, MO), then it was back home for some much needed sleep!!

The next morning it was up and out the door by 7:30 to head over to Enumclaw to drop off my aunt Janet's dog and to have a quick lunch with her and my aunt Martha.

On the way over we passed multiple vineyards and apple orchards, had a great view of Mt. Adams and as we went over Chinook Pass we had a picture perfect view of Mt. Ranieer and even got a glimpse of Mt. St. Helens every so often. It was a beautiful day.

After getting to Enumclaw (the Black Diamond tri festival is held close to here), we did a little visiting, had some lunch and then it was time to head home.

I was hoping to get some better shots of Mt. Ranieer on the way back, but the clouds had come in and she was was covered up. Too bad. At least we were able to see her in all her glory that morning.

We kept on going and made a stop in Yakima at the infamous Miner's burger joint (well it is famous here, anyway!!). During high school team road trips this was THE place to stop. And it has been that way for years. When my dad and mom were in high school, they stopped there, too. It's got history!

Anyway, after half of a Big Miner Burger, some fries and a small peunut butter chocolate malt it was back on the road to Richland and eventually a nice cozy bed.

Now I need to get back in the training swing of things and go for a run along the Columbia River. It is looking like it will be a gorgeous day and I am so ready to run in cool weather!!

This past Saturday when I left the apartment at 5 am for our 21 miles - the temp was in the mid 70's and the humidity was 100%. Yuck!! And the day didn't get any better from there. I do not know what the deal was but my legs HURT during that run!! Yeah, I know - 21 miles will do that to you. But this was a different kind of hurt. It was like my legs were being stuck with thousands of needles. I tried stretching, didn't help. The only thing that helped was stopping. And I couldn't do that becuase I had to get to the "finish line"!! I finally finished, stretched, went to the store and bought a 10 lb bag of ice (should have bought two) and attempted to have an ice bath. Well, the ice melted too fast so I ended up with a cold bath, but I think it helped a little. I just wish I knew what the deal was. Maybe it was just a bad day. Let's just hope the same thing doesn't happen during the marathon.

Okay, enough typing. Time to get into my running gear and head for the river!!