The Quest Continues - Two Days in Sonoma (sorta a race report)

When we last left our heroines, they were enjoying the fruits of Napa Valley. On the third day of their journey, they would investigate the harvest from the valley of Sonoma...

But before THAT quest could begin, the girls had to visit the Napa to Sonoma race expo, after all, they were in town for the race.

It was one of the first times we'd parked in an open field...smack dab in the middle of some vineyards this was going to be unlike any other race

OK... I'll stop with the third person heroic journey language...it's tiresome, but I say Harry Potter this week, forgive me...

In any event, on the third day, we went to the Race Expo. A word about the expo...it was small, but it's also the only expo I've ever been to where there was a wine tasting!

There was also a big blue chair

The only other obstacle we encountered was locating Betty's bib... Betty purchased a bib from another runner and did an official race transfer. As a homage to her previous attempt to purchase a 3rd party bib, she registered for this race using the pseudonym "tiger." She had forgotten about it. Thus, it took us awhile to figure out why she wasn't listed as "registered." and none of us thought to look for her under "Tiger

Forget you ever saw her real name...

After the expo, we wandered over to Sonoma and browsed the downtown square where the race would end. We decided to buy some sandwiches and find a place to picnic.

DramaGirl found her perfect shop.

They have EVERYTHING here....just everything...

I'd been reading on my iPad (BTW...an absolute MUST when traveling in unfamiliar territory... The GPS maps and The Google kept us from getting lost on multiple occasions and decreased the number of U-Turns by about 80%...really! I did the calculations!)... looking for a place to have a picnic, so when Betty started reading road signs out loud (which she tends to do) and noted the historical marker for Buena Vista Winery, I shouted "Turn THERE!" and we did. We had no idea that we we to come upon the best winery we would visit.

The herd, with our driver and chief photographer

It's an official historical place, but we are all teachers, so we like that kind of stuff...wonder if I can write this trip off on my taxes as an "education work-related expense.... Hmmmmm

At Buena Vista, we met Millie...and immediately we all hit it off, so we decided to name Betty's D2 after her.

Meet the Millies!!!!

I could do a whole blog about Millie. let's just say that she was fabulous, was an excellent wine educator, and we bought a load of wine from her. If you are ever in Sonoma, visit the winery and ask for Millie. Tell her you know the heffers from San Diego and that you want to taste Pinot "the right way." I suspect she will remember us.

Three Pinots, three vintages, side by side...Aka "The Right Way" to taste. I likes the one on the left.

Oh yeah...and we had a picnic too.

So...two days, five winery tasting rooms...our haul?

About four cases...good thing Betty is driving back to SoCal

Later that day, after the effects of "The tasting, we decided to leave a car in Sonoma for after the race the next morning...quite cranky, probably one of the best ideas we had the whole time!

Where we left the car.

The next morning, we got up for the race (oh yeah...that's why we were there) It started at Carneros Winery. Millie and DramaGirl dropped us off at the start...

Walking up to the start...a little cool...overcast...in other words, perfect running weather.

So...who thinks that two days of wine tasting befo a half marathon is a good idea?

I was standing in the Porta Potty line when I took this photo

Mandatory pre-race photo

And we were off. The first half mile had one relatively serious hill, but it was mercifully short, and then the rest of the route was all, gentle, rolling hills. I got separated pretty early from Elsie and Betty, who were walk/running, and speedy Mik. I was so distracted by the scenery that the first five or six miles just rolled right on by, and I was surprised every time I would pass a mile marker...something that NEVER happens to me during a race, or ever for that matter.

Elsie and Betty at Mile 6

I mean, can you blame me for being distracted?

I felt like my pace was pretty even for the first seven miles or so.
Mile 1 - 11:11
Mile 2 - 10:32
Mile 3 - 10:51
Mile 4 - 10:57
Mile 5 - 11:06
Mile 6 - 11:25
Mile 7 - 10:20


Around Mile 8 we crossed the highway (the main road that connects Napa and Sonoma Valleys. We had been warned in the race material that we might have to stop along the way to let traffic cross). I could see a gap in the runners and figured that I might get stopped if I didn't speed up, so I did, but then something weird happened, and my right contact lens fogged up...so I stopped for a minute at the Mile 8 water station and tried to rinse it out with some water...it worked a little bit.

The last five miles were, again, through some more vineyards and a residential area as we headed into Sonoma.

At the Mile 10 water station, there was, of course, wine.

It was white. Yes I had some with a water chaser. Awesome!

I felt very good for the last two miles, and for me, that was the goal. I wanted to finish strong. No walking in the last three miles. I even had some kick at the end.

Mile 8 - 11:47
Mile 9 - 11:06
Mile 10 - 10:14
Mile 11 - 11:34
Mile 12 - 10:20
Mile 13 - 10:17
Finish - 9:25

Unofficial "Garmin" time was 2:22:40 Official time was 2:25:52 which is respectable, but I'm not quite sure where I lost three minutes.

Post race...a medal and something I can use!

Mik with her new wine stopper

Usually after a race, we hightail it out of the crowd, usually to get some food, but this post-race expo included...you guessed it, wine tasting! So we hung out for awhile to get some good use out of our race swag.

Elsie and Betty, enjoying more wine

Mik was bummed because she finished at 9:15 and they didn't start the tasting until 9:30...she did make up for lost time by getting a taste and then immediately standing in line for the next...

After tasting for a little while, we decided that some food would be a good thing, so we walked about two blocks to the car, and drove back over the hill to Napa, where we found a little diner...

Elsie's diner attire

Our race morning concluded with watching the Women's soccer team lose to Japan. Betty should have left the room more often because every time she did, Team USA scored.

Apparently our cheering squad was not enough

I gotta send out props to the race organizer, Destination Races...this was a great event, and I'm not just saying so because of the wine. It was really well organized, better than many of the large races I've done over the years. All of the people involved were helpful and genuinely seemed to want everyone to have a good time. There were plenty of aid stations, mostly water, bit one had Hammer Gels (which I'd never tried before, and which I liked). I will definitely do one of their events again.

Next time: Betty, Alice, Millie, and DramaGirl go to Momma's cabin at Lake Tahoe (in other words...it ain't over yet).

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Oh those lazy days of summer...NOT

Summertime should be full of lazy days and long nights...Alas, that has NOT been my lot in life so far this summer and by the looks of it, it's not gonna be.

On the other hand, I suspect I'd drive my family nuts if I really had days on end with nothing to do. Although I like to admit that I am quite lazy, that admittance would be quite false. Having nothing to do SEEMS like such a lovely plan, but I know from my own experience, that lazing around is something that I can do for a little while (like when I have a good book to read or something like that), but even then, I go a little stir crazy after awhile (unless it is a REALLY good book...and the trouble with that is that I read pretty fast, so most REALLY good books are finished pretty darn quickly)...

So, where am I going with this?

Oh yeah...Why I haven't blogged in a week...

Instead of blogging, I...

• Went to a Heffer Happy Hour at Mona's house (aka The Vortex) in which we did arts and crafts and drank Mona's very dangerous Sangria.

We did "Shaving Cream Art"

Which resulted in some really cool cards and stuff that looked like this

Despite this... (full disclosure...we did the crafts early in the evening)

• Hosted a Father's Day Brunch at our house for all the Dad's in Walter's family

All the Dads...and Walter's sister Sally...in hats.

• Ran 9.5 miles with Betty on Monday (if it's summer in SoCal, Betty and I are running at The Bay)...actually a respectable 9.32 miles in 1:39:29 (10:33 pace)

• Met this guy who was wearing an AMAZINGLY BRIGHT DAYGLO PINK HAT (and matching shorts which you cannot see...but trust me, they matched the hat) after running and agreed to have picture taken with him.

He said he "liked my bright hat." I guess it's a good thing we weren't wearing the REALLY BRIGHT FLORESCENT DAYGLO-LIME GREEN shirts!

Pink-hat guy promised me he'd tag me on Facebook (uh...no you won't dude, cuz I'm really NOT telling you my name), but if you see a picture like on YOUR friend's page, then yes it was me. Pink-hat guy was from Kentucky, or at least that's what Betty and I surmised from the plates on the car he got into. 

Speaking of the car, Pink-hat dude and the girl he was with went back and sat in aforementioned car with KY plates for several minutes. Car off. Windows up. Doors shut. AND it was FREEKIN' HOT outside (questions about what Betty and I were doing running in the mid day heat will be answered at a future time). 

Back to bullets...other non-bloggy things I have done include:

• Playing the role of Personal Assistant and Hair Stylist for DramaGirl, who is in a youth theatre production of Once Upon a Mattress.

DramaGirl...getting ready for the play...gotta love the hot-rollers, yes? They are OLD SCHOOL!

• Have volunteered to move set pieces for two of the play's dress rehearsals this week...will work at two of the "real shows" tomorrow and Saturday.
• Tried to run on the 'mill last night (2 miles...GAH!) and it was so HUMID that I had to stop (even indoors it was), that and I had to hurry to get to....

OPENING NIGHT!!!! (some seriously camera shy teenagers)

• Ran at Lake BP tonight...for anyone local, the temporary fence is down and you can go all the way to the bullseye! (I didn't). My legs felt like LEAD the whole way, but I still ran a respectable 4.6 miles in 49 minutes (10:30 pace)....BTW...a really good way to run FAST at the end of a run is to park inside a park that says it closes it's gates at 8pm...and realize that you have less than 10 minutes to run the last mile to get back to your car. Yep, that'll do it!

• I may rue the day I said this...but I don't think the city REALLY closes the park gates at Lake BP at 8pm...I left the lot at 8:04 tonight and I didn't see a park person ANYWHERE. Liars!

OK...so that's what I've been up to...trying to keep up with the running (after all, we have another half-marathon to run in three weeks!) I'm gearing up for an 11 mile run this weekend.

I'm going to try to catch up on my blog-reading tonight (although, I will admit that HBO-GO is a VERY DANGEROUS TIME SUCKING APP...and I'm still staying up way too late watching shows that I'd missed.

A Little Bit of Randomness

There's no rest for the weary since the herd has another half-marathon, the Napa to Sonoma half, to do in about a month. So last Saturday, Betty, Elsie and I ran in Balboa Park. It was a beautiful, overcast morning, which definitely left me thinking WHERE THE HECK WERE ALL THESE CLOUDS for the Rock and Roll Half?

Previous weekend, I was running on that road...

No blue sky (on the Laurel Street Bridge going into Balboa Park)

I managed to eek out about 7 miles, which wasn't bad a week after running a half. Elsie and Betty got in five miles! After our run through the park, we met at Elsie's house for breakfast and as an added bonus, we got to meet Elsie's newest grand-calf!

Everybody gets some breakfast. (No, we did not offer mimosas to the baby...geeesh)

Is she gorgeous, or WHAT! (Betty loves babies)

Somehow, however, once the week started, even though it is summer, I managed to get in very little running--just two short runs on the mill. It's getting warm now, so I've really got to get in the habit of running earlier in the morning. I just really can't do more than 30 minutes on the mill.

We've got 8 to 9 miles planned for this weekend and Mik and I also have a plan to do more circuit training (squats, lunges, and core work) to train for this race. I'm hoping that doing strenght training will help me get past that 11 mile barrier that I've faced the past several half-marathons.

Ihave no doubt that Mik has been diligent about her strength this week, but me?

Kinda like the running...Not so much.

In other life-randomness, in this post that is in search of a point, or an overarching theme, or hopefully, at least, a reasonable transition from one idea to the next, I can share the following:

• HBO-GO may be the most evil iPad AP ever because now I can watch ALL of the episodes Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm as I lie in bed, which has kept me up and away from sleep too many times these past two weeks.
• I've started wearing a mouth guard because, apparently, I clench my teeth as I sleep (surprised by this? I didn't think so). I don't like it.
• Father's Day is this weekend, and for the first time EVER I am prepared and will NOT be running around in a panic on Saturday!
• I can loose 6 pounds in 10 days on the South Beach Diet, and gain most of it back in two when I start eating carbs again. I know this because this is what I did yesterday and today.
• Betty got a bib to the Napa to Sonoma half...and is all legit because she paid the transfer fee and so she gets to run as Betty this time, and not as Tiger or some other random pseudonym.

Speaking of the Napa to Sonoma half...We almost had a major debacle in our travel plans...luckily I discovered my own epic-almost-failure as the herd travel organizer which lead to this email last week.

Hey Herd, 

It was bound to happen eventually...you're booking agent and travel organizer has made a whopper of an error. 

I THOUGHT that I'd made a reservation for all of us at Embassy Suites in Napa. I have several emails to all of you saying that I was going to do that...

Then we got the email that we got into Nike, and so I switched my attention to booking rooms/flights to San Fran.

Oh...then I probably went and taught a class or something.

Anyway, I was checking to confirm things this morning, and I couldn't find a hotel reservation for Napa. I called Embassy Suites, and they don't have a record of it either AND they are sold out!

So...I booked two rooms at the Double Tree in American Canyon...although I may change it. It's not in Napa...it's in American Canyon, which is farther away, although it looks nice...  GAH!

The truth is, I think the herd would stay in a Motel 6 if I booked a room there. I'm the one with the "minimum hotel" requirements.

Stay tuned. Our trip to Napa should be quite the adventure!