Thank You for Reading

Thank you for reading this in advance. It's hella long! And, it took me pretty much all day to catch up on the blog reading. I didn't realize I was "following" so many blogs. Phew! Good thing I'm not that busy at work these days. :-) There's so much to write about, I had to make myself a list (kinda in chronological order):

Halloween
Rain on Saturday
Russian River Wine Tasting
18 miles in Santa Rosa on Sunday
Luna Moons
Accountability
Madonna - Sticky and Sweet Concert Tour
NYCM on DVR/Lottery

Halloween - No trick-or-treaters at all. Zero. Zip. Nada. Good thing because we didn't even have any candy to pass out. We had a feeling no one was coming to knock on our door, though. I had no Halloween spirit this year!

I'm sure by now, you've heard that it rained most of Saturday. All over the West Coast, I think. On Friday afternoon, Aron and I had tentatively planned on doing our long runs together on Saturday morning (Aron 20 miles, me 16) but we both knew it was going to rain. After all, it rained most of Thursday and Friday and so rain on Saturday was no surprise. I got up around 6am on Saturday morning and heard the rain falling. I text'd Aron to see if she was going to run in the rain but she text'd me back saying she decided to go run on Sunday (and she's been sick all week). I was secretly glad because I really didn't feel like running 16 in the rain and really really wanted to sleep in. I got my wish! I slept in until 11am. (Yes, I also ditched my 8:30am run with my running group. I had already made up my mind to run on Sunday by the time Aron texted me. And to be honest, I had thoughts about skipping out on this long run altogether. And hoping to make up for next couple of long runs. But, I knew my online accountability group was waiting... That'd be you! You guys are the best accountability group I ever had! I couldn't let you guys down after I said I was going to do the run, you know?)

My husband and I drove up to meet our friends on Saturday afternoon for the Russian River Wine Tasting up near the Healdsburg area. We left a bit late (due to the sleeping in) and it took us a lot longer to drive up there due to the rain and traffic. We missed most of Saturday's wine tasting activities, unfortunately. Not that it stopped us from eating and drinking with our friends at a restaurant in downtown Healdsburg. Our friends were already a bit tipsy from the 8 wineries that they checked out but ready to imbibe some more. I was a little disappointed that we missed out but we figured we still had Sunday to partake on the wine tasting.

Sunday morning, I got up at 7:30am refreshed (thanks to Daylight Savings) and set out for my 16 miles. Well, I ended up doing 18 because I found a great route on Mapmyrun.com that started very near from our hotel. And really, I felt I could do 18 comfortably. I was pumped. I love waking up excited about my long runs. Maybe because I knew this was going to be a good route to run or maybe because I knew there was so much eating and drinking ahead of me on Sunday. I even have the handy 18 miler map right here:



It was mostly flat route, uninterrupted country roads, mostly paved and quite beautiful. There were some parts that were on the "highway" with very narrow shoulders and kinda isolated areas but other than that, it was a great run.

My husband came out on the run with me but he decided to turn back around mile 8. Poor guy has been suffering from Achilles Tendinitis all year and it was acting up pretty bad around mile 7 mark. He didn't think he could finish 18 miles with me so he turned around at that point. Up until mile 12, I was thinking, "This is a piece of cake! I'll be done in a jiffy." I underestimated the 18 miles, or rather, overestimated myself. I ran out of water around mile 14 and it was kinda downhill from there, so to speak. I was s0oooooo thirsty around then. As you can see from the photos, the patchy clouds provided cool temperatures but as I neared back into town, it got very warm. I got very parched when the clouds parted, too. Right around mile 14 when I ran out of my water, I got really tired and super dehydrated. All the wine from the day before didn't help, I'm sure. I struggled the last 4 miles in pain but I was SO happy to finish. Even if I ran pretty slow at the end and walked quite a bit:

First 11 mile pace: 9:10
Last 7 mile pace: Ranging from about 11:00 to 13:45
Average pace: 10:24
Total miles: 18:03
Total time: 3:07'43

Santa Rosa/Sebastapol scenery was beautiful and with so many wineries and vineyards, I really enjoyed the run. I did see some gnarly roadkill but I tried not to look at it. Eeek. But here are some photos that I took while I was out running:




Side note: Holly! I did think about you on my run! I belatedly realized you live in Santa Rosa (around mile 10)!

Another thing, I decided this weekend that I really don't like Luna Moons very much. I have tried them on various distances and I just don't like having to chew for that long. And I don't like how they stick to my teeth. I spend more time trying to get them out of the teeth crevices than chewing them. So, I need find another alternative.

The wine tasting/food pairing on Sunday was amazing. We must have hit 10 wineries in 2 hours. The first few we lingered and tasted all the samples but after while, we just wanted the food. And I was starving from the run. My post run meal consisted of a Luna Bar, which was not quite what I had hoped! Just to give you an idea of the type of food the wineries had, here's a short list:

Truffle Mac & Cheese
Biscotti with Chocolate Fondue fountain
Pulled Pork Sandwiches
Mushroom Ragout with Mezzo Sauce
Beef Short Ribs with Olives
Blackened Tri-Tip Sandwich

One of the wineries that we stopped at

And that's not even all that we ate. There were so much more and we didn't even get to hit all of them! Next year, we need a better action plan. Less drinking, more eating.

Did I also mention unlimited wine tastings??? I was tipsy after 2 wineries. ;-)

Anyway, enough about the wine and food. I'm sure I gained back all of the 2000+ calories that I burned off during the run.

After the event, we drove home and got ready for the big concert!! Madonna - Sticky and Sweet Concert Tour came to Oakland Coliseum this weekend and we had tickets! Yes, we had two pairs of $100 tickets (each)... way up in the nosebleed section. I could not believe how expensive the tickets were for those crappy seats. As you can see from my poor quality Blackberry Pearl camera that we were pretty far away. But thank goodness for the big screens! I'm not too crazy about the new Madonna stuff (although, some of them are not bad), I'm a huge huge fan of the Immaculate Collection days. And she sang them to the audience's delight and mine! She put different twists to some of them but still, brought back great feelings! The concert was definitely entertaining although, not as scandalous as some of her earlier concerts. Not sure if it's worth $100 for the nosebleed seats, though.

Yes, the Material Girl herself on center stage! Too bad we're so far away!

While I was out running, I did think about all of your who were racing on Sunday morning. Although, I was out doing my training run, it felt really good knowing there was a community of runners out there that I can support and be supported. I also got a call from my friend Jason who completed his 3rd ING New York City Marathon with his fastest NYCM course time! Congrats Jason! I figured out how to DVR the NYCM online and so I plan to watch it when I get home later. I am really inspired by the NYCM itself and plan to throw my name in the lottery early Spring for 2009 NYCM!