Friday, September 12, 2008

Neighborhood Run Day

GAH...I had to get that whiny crap off the front page of my blog STAT ... YUK...

I really have nothing to complain about... AT ALL. I know that

That being said, hug a teacher today. Especially if they teach K-12. They are among the hardest working people in the world...and by Friday, all teachers deserve a hug. Especially if they have parent/teacher conferences tomorrow...you know who you are. Hugs to all of you.

Today was a beautiful running day...overcast and cool. It's still pretty humid ...which is odd for east San Diego County (think desert-like dryness). Today's weather report at noon was 72ยบ, 66% relative humidity (you come here looking for So. Cal weather reports, don't you????).

I'm often envious of those who can just walk out their front door and have a nice neighborhood to run in. I mean, I live in a nice neighborhood, and I COULD RUN HERE occasionally. But I tend not to run in my neighborhood because we live in a semi-rural area (meaning, no sidewalks) AND we live on a hill (although, other than the beach, ALL of San Diego is like that).

But, there's something that is sort of silly about getting in my car and driving to a park to run by myself...especially with the cost of gas and all...but even if gas were cheap, something about it strikes me as sort of odd. I mean its one thing to drive somewhere to run meet up with friends to run, but it seems a little wasteful to drive to run...am I alone in that? Maybe it's just me.

But I didn't really want to run on the treadmill today. I was craving outdoors. And like I said...almost perfect running weather. So today, I did something I rarely do. I stepped out of my front door and ran the neighborhood.

So...here you have it...the grand tour of my neighborhood run...taaaaa daaaaaa....

Here's the start of my runway...see, no sidewalks...luckily not much traffic either...other than the occasional asshat who thinks this is the freeway. Grrrrr.

Here's the first downhill (yes, I moved the camera a little...
's not that curvy...nor do hills photograph well)


I really should write a letter to the mayor about the streets needing repair

The park at the bottom of the hill has a drinking fountain...dare I risk it?
I wonder if any dogs have used it recently?

I guess not...

An example of one of the smaller hills. This is a pretty tame example, but it photographed well. Most of the hills are short like this, but are steeper inclines (followed by short, but steep declines)...and for those of you taking notes, yes, Friday is trash day.

The elevation report...yeah, see that last up...that ends at my driveway.

My stats for the morning (sloooooowwwww...but there were hills, and I stopped to take photos...).

3.1 miles
40.08 minutes
12.:55 pace

So there you have it... My neighborhood run.

You may have noticed that I'm trying to clean up the look of my blog...I think I had too many things running down the single sidebar. I wish that Blogger had a three column (or two sidebar) template...and that it had a template that with tabs at the top of the page. I had to do some pretty serious (for me) html formatting to get that to happen. I'm not sure I could do it again. I also wish that the Blogger drafting window offered a strikethrough text option... I could go on and on...

In any event, I added a new tab at the top of the page that has my running stats, upcoming races, and other running links so that these appear on a separate page, rather than in the sidebar. I also added the super cool "follow me" feature that is new to Blogger...so go ahead and stalk me all you want. You all know I'm stalking you :-)

I'm trying to figure out if there's a way to add Twitter updates to the sidebar. I don't see a gadget for that.

Yes it's true ...I don't have time for teaching, planning, running, being a good mom, but I apparently have loads of time to attend to this...

GAH...

12 comments:

  1. Those hills would suck the life out of me, but otherwise, it looks like a great neighborhood!

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  2. I love that you run with a camera or iPhone :-) Thanks for sharing your run with us and your neighborhood too.

    All those hills will be VERY helpful in San Fran. You'll be happy you did that. And please get the City to fix the streets and water pressure in the fountain.

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  3. Thanks for the run around the "hood"

    Nice new bloggy look too! Cool!

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  4. Well, at least the hills will make you stronger...

    Oh, and you haven't SEEN bad roads until you run in my 'hood.

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  5. Those hills will get you ready for San Fran! Love the pics.

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  6. I love the tour de photos. I would die with all those hills (although they are great training tools)

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  7. Thanks for the comment.

    I too live in a hilly neighborhood and feel strange driving someplace to run by myself. If I ever move, a nice flat neighbor is at the top of my list, forget the number of bedrooms and baths. I want flatness.

    Like the new look! Mine needs work...

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  8. I feel your pain-I live on a hill as well, but i don't think it's as steep as yours!! It's nice to run the neighborhood sometime! It makes you realize why you live where you live! I hope you had a great weekend!!

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  9. Hills? You mean we have hills here? j/k

    Yeah, but you'll be sooooooo ready for San Francisco! Right?

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  10. cool elevation profile. we have a joke around here about driving an SUV to a trailhead to run. we could have just run there and be completely green but.. we won't go there.

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  11. running with a camera is fun! oddly, looks a lot like my roads here in Texas! Well done.

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  12. I like your run in pictures. And, yeah, I feel stupid when I get in a car to run one suburb over!

    You hit on one of my biggest pet peeves: water fountains that don't work. Between that and the condition of roads, we're reminded this town is still in deep doo-doo financially.

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