Conquerors

Betty and I woke up REALLY early to start our long run this week at 6:00 am (that's in the MORNING!)

Now I know that lots of runners are really early-morning people...I read all your blogs with your 5:30 running starts, or your 5am gym workouts, and I admire you-all for it...really, I do...but I have to say, I think that's all NUTS... As a confirmed night-owl, this early morning stuff is not only really painful; it's for the birds.

Yet, there we were this morning at 6 am... (well 6:14 really...I ran a little late), doing our warm-up. Betty and I realized at some point on Friday, that unless we ran REALLY EARLY on Sunday, we might not get a good long run in at all...and with less than two weeks before AFC, we can't have that...

Also, we still had 6th Avenue to conquer (the hill at mile 11 of AFC...it's cruel, just cruel)

Here's the route for this morning's long run...about 10-ish miles. I think I put the start point on a block south from where Betty and I actually started, but I didn't realize it until too late and I didn't want to start mapping all over again. We ran the loop through Balboa Park twice, then headed down to the Harbor and ended by running up 6th.

There are some REALLY SIGNIFICANT things I learned this morning about running at Balboa Park at 6am.

• There is ample parking on 6th avenue, and everywhere else for that matter.
  
• The homeless population is still sleeping.
  
• The custodians do not unlock the restrooms until "oh about 7:00 or so" (that's a direct quote from one of the groundskeepers, individuals whom don't seem to have keys to said restrooms).

This was a huge issue for me this morning. As I've written before, I'm a pretty regular person...wake up, morning coffee, take care of business...like clockwork, so any deviation to my morning routine that puts me in a place where I cannot "take care of business" in a timely fashion is a problem for me, as is running close to 2.5 miles while "holding it"...getting hopeful each time I came close to a restroom (there are at least three we passed along the way)...then disappointed as I notice the locked gate/door (WTF is up with THAT?)

Luckily, one set of public restrooms (I know, ewwww) was open. (FYI...it was the one next to the Aerospace Museum, across from the Starlight Bowl). So, I had an opportunity to (as Clarence once so eloquently put it) "drop the kids off at the pool." (Yeah? What do you call it? My dad calls it "seeing a man about a horse" I don't really get that though...).

To be honest, I was happy to find the open restrooms as the alternative was going to be the porta-potties that were no doubt left over from the San Diego Track Club 8 mile run (which I chose not to do) the day before. I was THAT desperate and (also luckily), I had a map and we KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!

The rest of the run was relatively uneventful. After my potty break (relief!), I eventually caught up to Betty...we ran DOWN Laurel (a pretty steep downhill at about 6.5 to 7 miles...steeper, I think, than anything we'll run in two weeks), around Harbor, (Betty let me "bite and suck" on her camel pack...thank you very much), through a little bit of downtown before we got to...
6th street...

Aka the HILL...

Ran. The. Whole. Fucking. Thing!

Woot!