10 Year and Still Running!

I guess I should write once every two years or so?

Betty made me promise that I would update the blog - only because we (the running heffers) celebrated an anniversary this past weekend - 10 years of running the "End of Summer" run from La Jolla to PB.

I'm not going to recap the last 10 years of running this event because it appears that I did that two years ago in my last post, and anyone who is TRULY interested can absolutely go back and reread that epic post (not really epic).

The main reason to write this today is mostly to post some photos (even though most of them are already on Facebook - we could write tomes about how FB has destroyed blogging).

Same crew - Betty, Elsie, Mik and Walter before race...some things don't change

Another post-race breakfast at The High Dive

Another stack of breakfast beer glasses (no mimosas this time) 

Some things never change... We even went out on a Sunday night (much easier now that Turbo is about off to college in about 2 weeks, and DramaGirl is already going into her junior year at Boston University!)

A night out with the girls!

and Walter at The Casbah (no there's a place we hadn't been to in ... a long time!)

OK... maybe some things change. My hair is a little whiter, and I'm a little slower (my goal was just to finish the race in less than 40 minutes, which I did, but far off my 4 mile PR!), but the herd is still running and having fun!

The Tradition - 8 Summers

For my herd - Yes, it's blog post! Don't faint!

We started running in 2006. Wow, almost 9 years ago. It still amazes - that we ever got this crazy idea to start running. 

In 2007, Elsie, Betty and I decided to do the End of Summer Fire Run for the first time. I have no idea why. Do you remember why we did this? Betty and I had run the AFC 1/2 Marathon for the first time the previous weekend. It was our first half. Maybe a four mile run sounded like fun? Maybe we signed up for the race before the half, not really thinking about what we were doing?

We hadn't run a marathon yet, so there was no Hefferblog to record the event. I was pretty surprised that I had a photo. Thank goodness Millie was there, or I probably wouldn't have any photos!

Fire Run 2007 - Elsie, Betty and D2... before she received her Heffername - Millie

Fire Run 2008 - I guess we convinced Mik to run with us this year. It looks like it was cool, but it probably wasn't. 

Fire Run 2009 - The years of the neon, day-glo, glow-in-the-dark, lime green shirts. We ended up on local TV because of them!

Fire Run 2010 - Must have been another cloudy year, thus the sweatshirts. After-run breakfast at The High Dive with Irene and Michael. Apparently no Mik that year, but Walter decided to join us!

Fire Run 2011 - Elsie and I are committed to the neon, day-glo, glow-in-the-dark, lime green shirts.

The only year we missed the Fire Run, was 2012. Actually, we had signed up for it, but the girls decided that I needed to see REO Speedwagon for my 50th birthday, so they kidnapped me for the weekend, and we missed it.

 Fire Run 2012 - DNS - We sent winetasting and REO Speedwagoning instead - An excellent tradeoff!

So, for the last two years, I guess it's really become the end of summer tradition! 

Fire Run 2013 - We were BAAAAACK! Big Crew at the PB Bar and Grill. You have to know that there would be no link to a previous blog where I wrote about the race ...the Hefferblog was clearly in decline by last year. I guess I could note here that there were quite a few PBs last year - myself and Walter included.

Fire Run 2014 - I guess we are kinda over the bright green now.  Beautiful and sunny morning. We have certainly gotten a little lazy about our pre-race prep. Shout out and THANK YOU to Betty for carrying my and Walter's gear since we missed the bag check...GAH! (had to get one GAH! in there!!!)

Here's to 8 more years of Fire Running!

Here's one more - From PB Bar and Grill.

Love you gals! 

Hugs,

Alice

Run then Ride - Senorita Century Ride Report

Tooth update: I no longer look like Quasi or Marlon, but I still have to go back to finish the root canal, so stay tuned, that may change.

Despite my dependence last week on painkillers, I still did manage to get in a pretty nice run over the weekend, and one pretty challenging 40 mile ride.

First, the run, briefly. My goal was to meet up with Mik and Elsie with the track club at Coronado. The club is up to 2 hour long runs. I am no where near that, but they were running around Coronado, which is lovely, so I figured I could do one lap, about 6 miles.

Sadly, the Tylenol 3/Ibuprofen combo interfered with my plan to get up early on Saturday to meet Mik and Elsie, so while I managed to pull my ass out of bed EVENTUALLY, I missed the actual start of the track club by about 20 minutes and didn't see EITHER OF THEM on the run.

That being said, there may be no place better in all of San Diego County to run than around Coronado. The homes are beautiful, the streets are wide, and there is precious little traffic other than when we cross 4th street, which is the street that goes into the naval base, and this particular Saturday morning there was plenty of this...

Ahhhhhh. I love running by the ocean. I'll never get tired of it. Never.

Beautiful weather...Clear. Cool. Sunny. Perfect place to run an easy 6 miles.

But the big story of the weekend, had to be the Senorita (sorta) Century. This was the inaugural event of this all women's metric century ride. Our Heffer team consisted of Mik, Betty, Wilma, Alberta, and Me.

We learned that we CAN put four bikes in the back of a Honda Pilot...and also have four seats for riders (this is VERY important information) 

At the start, Yours truly, Alberta, Mik, Betty, and Wilma. It was Wilma's virgin organized ride. 

My initial plan was to do the metric century - 64 miles. My longest ride so far this season has been 36 miles, but I figure, if I can do 36, I can do 64 right?

We took off from Torrey Pines High School and headed down some nice hills toward the coast (oh yeah...we'd have to get back up those hills at the end). I was cruising along, about 15 miles into the ride, with a nice group of women. Alberta and Mik were a little bit ahead of me (we'd gotten separated at a light), and suddenly, I see Alberta's daisy shirt. She was on the side of the road, bike upside down, with a flat. So OF COURSE I stopped to help, even though, as we all know, I am not a fast tire change. We examined the tire for awhile, and I'll admit, I didn't try that hard to deal with it because this was an all women's bike race, and so I called the SAG bus to see, and a really nice guy showed up to change Alberta's tire.

Yes, I was a wuss. I admit it. I didn't want to break a nail.

Our own personal tire changer...and yes, Alberta was texting someone about it...or maybe she was posting it on FB, or maybe that was me doing the FB posting. 

I'm not sure how long Alberta and I were dealing with the flat (or more accurately, watching our SAG guy deal with the flat), but I knew by the time we started riding again, that there was no way I was going to catch up to Mik, and if I didn't catch up to her, that I wasn't going do the full 64 because I'd be doing the hardest part of the ride, all the hills, by myself...and with all the meds I'd ingested all week, I thought this was the excuse I needed to just take it easy.

Quite frankly, as we found out later. Alberta's flat was a very good thing.

We made it to North Carlsbad and to Magee park, the first rest stop. I'll just say that the Rest Stops were AMAZING. This one had croissant sandwiches, cucumber water, too many different pastries, coffee, tea, freekin' quiche...who could eat all that and get back on a bike? I have no idea. I nibbled a little bit, drank a lot, refilled my water bottles.

I did walk in on a guy in the men's room. I mean, it was an all women's race. The line to the ladies room was long. Who would expect there to be an actual DUDE in the men's room. His back was to me. I didn't look. I am a lady after all.

Mik, of course, has no patience with long rest stops, so she'd already taken off for the hills, and so I decided to ride the 40 miles and head back to the start with Betty, Alberta, and Wilma.

On the way back we advantage of the photo opportunities. Forgive the inside joke, but Betty knows that I was thinking about a snorkel and flippers for the rest of the ride after we took this shot.

So...now that I've gotten past the spoiler alert (I didn't do a full metric century), Here's my route

Uh...remember that nice downhill part at the beginning? To be honest, neither did I...but I do remember the up part now...I think it's mean to make riders climb in the 39the mile of a 40 mile race...really I do.

Wilma crossing the finish line...which brings up the observation...THAT'S the finish line? I missed it...I wasn't the only one. It really wasn't well marked 

As for the finish line festivities? Well, unlike the rest stops, there was a food truck with what they called Thai food (white rice with some chicken stuff or beef stuff over it...I mean really. It was called The SENORITA Century. Don't you think that warrants a taco?

Also... huge props to Wilma. There were some pretty long climbs...maybe 8% to 10% grades at places, and she's still pretty new to cycling. She hung in there. She finished the race. I'm so proud!

She really deserved a taco...and probably a margarita, but that would come later.

We were the main cheerleaders for all who came in after us. We do look happy to be finished.

And that's Mik... She is such a stud. She finished a really, really, really difficult 64 (she called it horrible, which coming from Mik is something) only about 20 minutes after we all finished our 40. Here was her climb.

See those little descents and climbs at that I was just complaining about at the beginning and at the end of the ride...then take a look at what Mik did between Miles 50 and 90...we just rode the flat part. Again...she's a stud.

We figured we needed something more than meat-type foods on rice, so we ended up at my house, where we consumed beverages and snacks and relaxed about the day.

I know...it's not a stellar shot of any of us...we were tired and VERY focused on food, drink, and relaxing at that point.

So..some observations about the Senorita Century.

The Good Stuff

1. The 40 mile route was beautiful and for this beginning rider, challenging enough
2. The 64 mile route was very challenging, and I'm glad I didn't do it at this point of my training, but I'm proud of Mik for doing it for us.
3. The rest stops had great food, maybe too much good food.
4. The race organizer was super nice and answered all of my emails, sometimes within an hour or so.
5. It was a small field, and for an inaugural, that's probably a very good thing

The Not-So-Good

1. It was kinda expensive. The full registration fee was $125.00. No race jersey. The medal at the end was kinda cheap. I'm glad we got in on a "tres senoritas" discount, so it was about $65 a person to ride. The only reason I ended up with a race jersey (it's a nice one) is because I signed up 6 people, and they messed up our registration once, so the race organizer sent me one. Let's just say that if it wasn't for the discount, we'd have never done it.
2. The race end was really disappointing. A food truck? The food was cold? There was no beer garden (granted...we were in a high school parking lot, so of course there was no beer), but still. The finish line was completely unmarked. I felt bad for the race organizer (who was EVERYWHERE that day. As individuals crossed, she would chase them down and hand them a medal. 

So, we enjoyed the ride on the coast, and of course being with friends. We are all signed up for the Gran Fondo San Diego in about a month, so more fun will ensue then. 

Full Disclosures... Big Waves, Running in January Heat, and Zipp Fizz

On Friday morning(ish) I decided to go run at the beach. There's been some big surf due to the latest southern swell (10-20 foot waves), and I thought it'd be a good distraction while I did a 4 - 5 mile run.

Full Disclosure - It was really closer to 11am by the time I got to the beach, so it almost doesn't count as a morning run.

The other reason that I went to the beach is that about a month or so ago, I got some samples of Zipfizz with a request to review the product. I don't do many product review for several reasons including, 1) I don't get asked to; and 2) even when I do get asked to, I don't blog with enough regularity to feel comfortable agreeing to do a review in any timely fashion.

When Zipp Fizz contacted me the first time, I was busy (remember November? Me either) and didn't answer the email, but when they contacted me a second time, I said sure...send me your stuff and I'll try it out.

For those of you who don't know, Zipfizz is an Energy Drink powder that you add to water. It makes the water a little fizzy and is supposed to give you 4 to 6 hours of energy. It comes in a groovy little tube that makes transporting it convenient. It does give water a little bit of a fizz, but not as much as a soda. If you want gobs more info about what's in Zipfizz, you should go here.

Full Disclosure - I'd used Zipfizz prior to being asked to review the product. In fact, it was one of the reasons I agreed to use it. That beings said, Zipfizz did send me some product to review.

Generally, I use Zipfizz in the afternoon when I'm feeling especially tired instead of drinking coffee. Even though (according to their their website) it has some caffeine (about 1/4 the amount in a Starbucks Tall Coffee), it doesn't seem to affect me like an afternoon cup of joe does. I find that if I drink coffee after 2pm, it's guaranteed that I'll never fall asleep before 1am, but Zipfizz didn't seem to have that effect on me. 

But I'd never used it as an energy drink or electrolyte replacement beverage during or after running. The San Diego Track Club uses a product called Vitalyte at its aid stations, and I've gotten rather used to using that. Vitalyte reminds me of  how Gatorade used to be when I was a kid. Not very sweet...and I like that. 

In any event, I decided to give Zipfizz a try during a run on Friday. 

Here's how it came packaged for me... I think it was supposed to be like a holiday gift.

I'll be honest...I'm really excited about the BP free bottle. I needed one of those (for work...for water with Zipfizz) 

They also sent me a flash drive...along with five different flavors of  "the fizz." I think there was grape, lemonade, orange, citrus, something called orange cream and some others. 

I decided to use the citrus flavored, thinking it would be the least sweet. Because my hand-held running water bottle holds 12 oz, and the directions say that one tube of Zipfizz is enough for 16 to 20 oz of water, and because I know from experience, the stuff can be pretty strong, I used less that 1/2 the tube.

If you use this, be warned...it does fizz up, so if you put it in bottled water, make sure the water bottle isn't 100% full, or you'll have fizz all over the place.

And I was off...first I ran south, toward South Mission Beach. Although it wasn't as warm as Thursday (it hit about 80F at the beaches on Thursday...crazy January weather here...who says there's no Global Warming?), the sun was in my face, but still running at the beach always makes me happy.

It's about 1/2 mile to the Jetty at South Mission, so I stopped to take some photos.

The important thing to know about this photo is that those waves are breaking in an area that is between two jettys (A jetty is built to protect a beach from violent waves.

There are two jettys in this area...one that protects Ocean Beach (in the photo) and one that protects Mission Beach (which I'm standing on). There's about a 1/2 mile area between the two where the San Diego River dumps into the ocean.) For the most part, waves don't generally break between the two jettys unless they're pretty big and really strong...which was the case on Friday. 

Not like this they don't

Full Disclosure: I stopped to take photos for several minutes. Do you blame me? 

As I headed North, back toward Mission and then Pacific Beach, the sun was at my back, and you would think that would be fine, but I was also running with the wind, which made it HOT. I started sipping from my water bottle, and was pleasantly surprised that, even though the Zipfizz made the water a little fizzy, I didn't immediately burp it up.

However, it was still pretty sweet. When I got to Mission Beach, I stopped at a water fountain and filled  it to the top with more water (I'd drank about 4 oz at that point), which made it about perfect strength wise, but because it was in a hand held water bottle, and probably because it was getting warm outside, the water/Zipfizz mixture also got warm, and I'll be honest here, it wasn't very pleasant.

By the time I got to Pacific Beach (I'd run about 3 miles), I decided to turn around and head back to the car. It was hot. I was tired of running. Maybe it was the heat, but the Zipfizz wasn't settling so well. I filled up my water bottle with more water (it was down to about 10% Zipfizz at this point) and headed back. Running back into the wind made me feel much better.

Full disclosure: I stopped one more time to take some more photos...I mean really...do you blame me?

As I finished running, I let out a HUGE BURP.

Full disclosure: I do this after every run. Ask Betty or Walter. I can make the walls shake with my burps, so I can't really blame that on the Zipfizz.

After the burp, I felt much better, and I walked back to the car, grabbed some dry shorts, shirt, and bathing suit top, went to the restroom to change, then grabbed a beach chair and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at the beach, watching the waves and the crazy tourists in the ocean (water temp wasn't nearly as cold as I thought it would be), and was mostly entertained by a mother who let her kids run into the waves, but who hadn't brought any towels or dry clothes with her. ((shakes head))... Rookie mistake.

Ahhhhh

So...some notes on running with Zipfizz

• It's super sweet...too sweet for me to use full-strength while running. If I'm going to use it, I will dilute it to only about 30% of the suggested strength.
• I like it better when it's cold which makes me think that I should try it when cycling. On my bike I use a Camelback insulated water bottle, which should help it stay cold.
• I don't like it much when it's not cold. 
• The packaging in the tubes is really convenient, which is why I want it to work! On long runs when I have to carry my own water, I'd like to be able to carry an electrolyte replacement with me as well.
• I will continue to use it as an occasional afternoon energy drink when I go back to work....and I LOVE the water bottle Zipfizz sent me.

As for the rest of the afternoon at the beach?

Let's just say, it wasn't painful 

But that water...was still cold! For all of you, I went into the water so that I could get a better shot of the waves (the tide was a negative tide and the waves were breaking pretty far from the beach)...the things I do...

Full disclosure: The cold ocean water was sort of like an ice-cold whirlpool bath for a twitchy tendon that has been begging for me to pay more attention to it.

Later that day, Walter, Turbo and I went back out to the beach to see the sun set at Sunset Cliffs (south of where I was earlier in the day)

My boys

In the background is south side of the Ocean Beach jetty, and the Ocean Beach Pier... Waves, typically, do not reach the bottom of the pier when they are breaking. 

Full disclosure: It wasn't high tide yet, which made the size of the surf that much more surprising. 

It really was quite beautiful

Well...that was one sure fire way to lose weight over the holidays...

After all, it had been one HECKUVA BUSY WEEK, following one HECKUVA BUSY MONTH.

To start off the holiday season, last Tuesday, we hosted the family Hanukkah dinner...which included frying a whole lotta potato latkes (18 pounds of potatoes this year. I have no idea how many that ended up being) AND included roasting this puppy...

16 pounds of brisket...and because I know you want to know how I cooked a 16 pound briket - Kinder's prime rib rub and worcestershire rubbed in (Thanks to the Kardos's). Double wrap in heavy duty aluminum foil. 9 hours. 325F oven.  Perfect!

We had about 30 people over this year. It was a great event! I was glad I'd gotten in a 3.5 mile run in the AM to counterbalance some of the potato consumption!

Putting teenagers to work - washing dishes! (Turbo, Nephew-Sam, Daughter-like-DramaGirl friend-Rachel)

On Wednesday morning, we decided to go for a bike ride (I figure I'd carb-loaded sufficiently on brisket and latkes the night before...so why not). 22 mile out and back from Coronado to Imperial Beach and back.

Betty on her new bike at the very ugly foot of San Diego Bay.

Followed by...

Serving lunch at the Senior Center. That's my nephew Jordan and my BIL.

An then we...

Went to a party at Betty's and made the kids go caroling (not sure the neighbors were THAT happy about it!)

On Thursday, I'd PLANNED to do a leisurely run at Lake BP, but ended up running 7 miles at a 10:04 pace, thanks to Mik's pacing. 

Then, DramaGirl and I went with my SIL and her daughter to see The Nutcracker. 

It was wonderful!

By Friday, I was feeling pretty tired, but went for a 23 mile ride with the herd from Hospitality Point to Gilman Drive and back...all of it done with only a front brake because somehow the back brake cable came loose. 

Believe it or not, on Friday night we stayed home, ate more latke's and lit candles.

DramaGirl and I bought a new menorah this year...very pretty.

The next morning was Christmas Eve-Day and we got up early to do the annual cousin-photo-with-Santa-and-final-shopping-effort.

Yep...we've been making the cousins sit with Santa for 16 years!  Yes we light candles and sit with Santa...it's all part of our family Chrismakkah!

Not sure Santa was ready for Turbo's request for "a pound of gummy worms"

After the Santa trip, some last minute shopping AND a stop at the mechanic for an oil change, I wasn't feeling particularly great, so when I got home I thought I'd take a short nap, then wake up, wrap a few gifts, then head off to my SILs house for Christmas Eve Dinner.

My body, however, had other plans. It was ready to say STOP! NOW! 

I didn't wake up (other than the one time I woke up to throw up) until 7 the next morning--Christmas Morning.

Which is a problem when you still have gifts to wrap. Thank goodness the kids are teenagers now, and they're not up at the butt-crack of dawn to open gifts, because there I was wrapping gifts (and still feeling relatively nauseous) at 7am. ((shakes head at self)), but I rallied and we had a wonderful Christmas morning--Walter, DramaGirl, Turbo, and me. 

I love these moments and continue to recognize how fleeting they are. My kids aren't so little any more, so Christmas morning is more leisurely. They are as interested (or at least they are much better at feigning interest) in what they gave to each other and to us, than what was waiting in the wrapped packages for them.

DramaGirl surrounded by Hollister clothes and Flavor-blast goldfish...her faves...

I could have stayed on the sofa all day.

But...in true Alice-family style, we had places to go, people to see, things to do, so we set off for my sister's house in Manhattan Beach (about 2.5 hours north) for more COUSINS, and FOOD, and BEVERAGES, and CHEER.

My beautiful niece and her equally beautiful mama (my lil sis) 

My parents, who are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary this week. My dad got down on one knee and asked my mom if she'd marry him all over again...which was one of the best moments of the night (She said, "YES!")

Mandatory whole-family photo!

Dad says, "Every salad is better with BACON! "

Cousin Jake and DramaGirl got to sit at the "grown up table" this year! Jake's question to me..."Is THIS what the adults usually talk about?" (I think we were discussing the Penn State situation) Me: Well...we the topics vary, but we usually end up talking about something that's going on in the world...isn't that what you talk about at the kids table? Jake: "Uh...no"

The next day, we all went down to the beach. It was a great day. I ran about 5 miles.

Sweaty me and OTHER my lil' sis after my run on the beach...it was a GLORIOUS day! 

DG...enjoying a Jamba Juice

 (from the right) My lil sis, her husband and his mom at sunset at the Manhattan Beach Pier. 

Walter and me at the pier.

Despite the tummy issues (which are still plaguing me somewhat), it was a truly wonderful Holiday. After Hanukkah, I mentioned to Walter how wonderful it is that we have such a great family (both sides), and such wonderful friends that we get to spend time with. We are truly, truly, truly blessed!