Today was our third wedding anniversary. Now some couples would plan a romantic getaway, maybe Hawaii, or failing that, Palm Springs, maybe Las Vegas, or Lake Tahoe – the possibilities are endless.
We spent ours in Ridgecrest, California running the High Desert Ultra 30K. Do we know how to have a good time or what?!? Could have been worse, we could have opted to run the 50K. My personal training base was all of 10 miles a week, with my longest run since August being about 5 miles. Idiot that I am, I just figured, “Hey, it’s only 30K. I can WALK a 30K, for pete’s sake!”
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was quite nippy when we started at 6am. Our friend Skip and Chuck and I got a head start on the runners trying to actually place. Along with a bunch of other folks we headed out before the sun came up. Brrrr!!! I had a Polartec cap, gloves, and two long-sleeved shirts and running tights on. The first hour from 6am-7am was in the pre-dawn darkness. Once the sun came up it warmed a bit though I never did shed the gloves or hat. By mile ten I was really feeling the utter lack of training with pretty much every bone and muscle in my body crying out for me to stop. I took that pain and channeled it into feelings of deep resentment towards Chuck for dragging me into this thing. I, of course, had nothing to do with it – it was ALL HIS FAULT! This kept me going for a couple of extremely grumpy miles. By then we were near enough to the end that I knew I’d finish so I mostly came out of my snit (this relieved Chuck who had that look of “I know something’s wrong, what can I do to fix it?” on his face).
We finished and received very nifty finishing medals. Our friend Diane got first place in her age group, damn her. We arrrived home late in the afternoon, sat in the hot tub for a bit soaking our aching body parts, then went out for a very nice dinner at a semi-fancy-shmancy restaurant called L’Opera. For gifts, we both (without mentioning it to the other) went with time-based items. I got Chuck a Garmin Forerunner 301, a wristwatch-sized GPS. Chuck got me a very pretty clock that is wound with a key and has a Weight to keep time and chimes every half hour. Weird coincidence, huh?