Merry Christmas!!

I started my morning with an early morning run in my favorite place. The morning was absolutely gorgeous!! I met up with my twisted sista for a short time and then ran home. Have a wonderful weekend filled with lots of good food, good conversation, and lots of love.

You're still young....if you want to be.

Cold in them thar hills!

Today was an early morning run up to Bald Mountain. It was FREEZING! There was snow on the ground and the trees had a light dusting of powder. Suz and I both felt like shy-zah. Our legs felt like lead, our motivation to push, gone. We ended up running about 9 miles and then called it a day. I am glad that we got out together, though. It is nice to be out on the mountain before anyone else. I loved seeing all the animal prints in the snow and breathing deeply the cold morning air.

From the time I was a little kid, we had a game that went like this: On our way up to Lake Tahoe to ski, we would all anxiously watch for the first sighting of snow. Whoever saw the snow first, would yell out, "I'm the prettiest!" My sister and I, and my Mom, had so much fun doing this as my Dad and my brother just laughed at us. Today, on my way up the mountain for my run, seeing the snow covered trees for the first time, I whispered to myself, "I'm the prettiest". It made me feel warm inside :)

After a busy day I came home to a house filled with explosive diarrhea. Our 17 year old Aussie had let loose. No pun intended. I think she had been storing it up for a week. What a mess, I felt so sorry for her. She is getting so old and I keep thinking that her days are limited. So... after what seemed like forever, the mess was cleaned up and Courtney and I headed for Starbucks. Starbucks makes everything seem better.

My foot doctor told me that he could inject the fluid from a roosters comb into my toe for some lubrication. I am going to think on that one. My bad, "good toe", is feeling better, so maybe I will not need to inject chicken fluid into my body. The thought of that is kinda gross. Have a wonderful day!

Western States lottery and run

Yesterday was the Western States 100 mile lottery. What a day it was, too. No, I didn't get in, but I enjoyed watching many of my good friends hear their name announced. We all stood, nervous at the back of the room. We anxiously awaited while each name was pulled out of the bucket. I was afraid to use the restroom. I didn't dare leave the room. What if my name was called and I wasn't there to bask in the glory? But, alas, it was not to be. When the last name was called, all I had was plan B. What is plan B, you ask? Heck if I know. I need a few days to figure that one out. I do know that I have lots of friends to train with and that makes me smile. 14 members of Team Diablo will be toeing the line in June for WS. That is really exciting! Everyone of them will be there adequately trained and ready. That is just the way they are. I am proud to be part of that group of runners.


After the lottery, a small group of us went for a run. We started at Robie point and ran to the Hwy. 49 crossing and back. It was a great run and we shared a lot of laughs as usual. I got to meet and run with Amy, an amputee, who was selected in the lottery. She is so excited to run this spectacular race. She was quite an inspiration for all of us. Amy also only has one lung. She lost her leg and a lung to cancer years ago. I hope she has a great race.




"Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still." Chinese proverb

Western States lottery GOD

From Scott Dunlaps blog

An Ode to the Lottery Gods

Oh, great lottery God

Those who control my destiny

You awesome powers who choose my fate

Who in one act of will, make me a participant in Western States, Miwok, Ironman Hawaii, Way Too Cool, or none of the above

Your gifts fills my life with adventure, my soul with new experience and friends, and my calendar with endless workouts that build perseverance and gratitude

I honor thy choice with this promise

To respect the event(s) you choose by living them fully

To train to the best of my ability, and put it on the line on the chosen day

To meet every smiling face at the start, at every aid station, and at the finish, and return those smiles with authentic appreciation

By taking pictures, retelling stories endlessly, so that your legends live on

Or perhaps to honor the gift of being chosen for none of the above

And be forced to seek new races and adventures to fill my soul in unexpected ways

I will respect your guidance, and the wisdom of your blessings

But please make it Western States ;-)

Good luck to everyone who is in the Western States 100 mile lottery. Tomorrow is the day in which we will celebrate or not. Either way, we will all have an opportunity to plan out our racing schedule for 2010.

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Happy Turkey Day!

My kids are home! They rolled in at 2:30am after driving about 9 hours and I am so happy to see them. We all sat and visited with each other until about 3:45 and then I hit the hay until the alarm went off at 6am. I was suppose to meet Suz at Sugarloaf for an early morning run, but as I was leaving she called and canceled. I sat at the computer until 7:30, and then headed out for a run in my favorite park. I ran up to the top of the mountain and the sky was so blue and the morning so crisp. I overlooked my town and saw vineyards and pretty barns, I saw beautiful spacious homes and green meadows. I had to take a few minutes and just be quiet. I ran on, reflecting on all the things I am thankful for. I think the thing that I am so thankful for, is that of all the people I could be, I am so thankful for being who I am. I wouldn't want to trade me for anyone.


My run went great and I am so happy to live so close to a great place to run. As I was running, my good, "bad," toe, or is it my "bad," good toe, anyways, it was killing me. I ran along trying to decide if I should get another cortisone shot in it, or have it amputated. Whichever procedure is the least painful is the way I am going to go. Seriously.

I am going to include some pics from this mornings run with my sister, both sister's in law, and my friend, Karen. Have a Great Thanksgiving Day and don't eat too much pumpkin pie!

"There is no passion to be found in playing small - in settling for a life that is less than what you are capable of living." Nelson Mandela

I hope for comfy shoes and soft trails

Yesterday Matt and I went to a wedding that was in a beautiful church in S.F. It is the same church that Marilyn Monroe was married in. I think it is called St. Peters and Paul. I felt like I was in Italy or somewhere very far away. The Architecture was just amazing.

For all of you that know me, you know that high heeled shoes are really not my thing. Combining fancy shoes and messed up toes creates a fiery reaction. By the time the wedding was over and we had walked to the parking garage, I was practically crawling. It was hysterical now that I am thinking about it. I am sure I looked ridiculous trying to walk across the busy streets with every step horribly painful. I tried to act casual, with a smile on my face, pretending I was on a runway. Did I say that I was in excruciating pain? Wow, I changed into my comfy shoes and jeans so fast that I am sure I broke some kind of record.



We then went to the Sports Basement and shopped around and then we went to Tamara's for a TEAM DIABLO party. It was so much fun visiting with all of my running friends and talking about our plans for 2010. Western States, Hardrock, Mont Blanc, San Diego, and Wasatch were just some of the races planned. We discussed some "epic" adventures we want to plan, like running some routes in Yosemite, Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. We even talked about a few stage races. So many trails so little time. We are all waiting until December 5th for the WS lottery to find out who is in and who is screwed for 2010 Western States. After the 5th we will make our plans.



Today was a short run with Wally and a relaxing Sunday. I hope you all had a weekend of comfortable shoes and soft trails.

Back to running

I have totally sucked at blogging lately. It just hasn't been a priority, I guess. I hate to continually go to a favorite blog only to find that they have not updated anything. I am guilty as charged.

I have been back to work for a couple of weeks now. It's been nice to be back and see all of my friends and to do what I do best. Nursing. My running is going well, but I am still working on building up my speed and endurance after six weeks of no aerobic exercising. My toes feel really good. My big toe, which was not touched surgically is now one of my Achilles heel. It is really bugging me. My Doc says it has a lot of arthritis in it. Gosh, that sounds so old and decrepit doesn't it? Arthritis! Wow.

So today Suz and I ran my new found 12.6 mile run that has me all excited. We ran up the trails talking about life, cool people, new races, and nutrition. We never are at a loss for words when we are together. She is a great friend and I enjoy running with her so much. I had just gotten done telling her that I had not turned my bad ankle since I started back to running, when all of a sudden I turned my ankle and heard a loud crack. Crap. Five minutes later it happened again. Crap. My right ankle and my right big toe are really pissing me off these days. Maybe tomorrow will be a swim day. :)

Have any of you ever smelled ammonia in your perspiration after running? Every once in awhile I notice that horrible ammonia smell after my run. I looked it up today and it seems that when you release ammonia in your sweat you are dipping into your protein reserves and burning protein instead of carbos. I don't think we should be burning protein for fuel and I am wondering if it is because of my low carb diet. I have been trying to cut out breads, noodles and other "white stuff". I do feel better eating this way, but I guess I need to research this topic more.

So, it's late, I am working in the morning and I should take my ammonia smelling body, with my sore ankle and my messed up big toe, and hit the hay. I do want to say that 19 years ago today, my Dad went into the Hospital at age 60 and never came out. I thought about him today when I was driving home from my run. He wasn't able to join us for Thanksgiving and he died on Dec. 10th. I miss him everyday. I just felt like sharing that with you all.


"Even the fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of not having lived authentically and fully." Frances Moore Lappe

Happy Halloween

Halloween started early for me with an 18 mile run, (stupid), and then a night of handing out candy and having a neighborhood Halloween party! We probably had over 2500 trick or treaters and that is not counting all the people who just come to check out the hood. The street was closed off to traffic which allowed 1000s of people to dance and celebrate Halloween. We hula hooped to a huge audience, we danced to Michael Jackson songs, we watched many skits in front yards, listened to a marching band, enjoyed a handcart regatta and ate. Every year it seems to get better! People come from all over to enjoy the neighborhood. What a blast we had. I hope you had a great time last night. We sure did.