putting the knit in shizknitz

With another 5 K coming up next week and a nod toward’s the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco this fall, I decided to pick up a new running route in the area. An old coworker and neighbor is a run-aholic, she often does 17 mile jaunts in the area - when I asked how she gauges distance, she gave me her advice - drive. Huh? I asked. She said, drive where you want to run, and gauge your distance on your odometer. Oh, that’s simple.

My current run has been with Mia (yes, she seems to like the running), typically in the mornings and we have a specific route we take within our neighborhood, just up and down certain streets. There is a slight grade towards the end of the run, but not enough to really work as a “hill”. I’m not sure the distance, but I speculate it to be around 2 miles. Yesterday we went on a car ride (Oh, Mia LOVES car rides) through the Cheviot Hills neighborhood, around the golf course and came home. I wrote down the mileage for certain areas and notes about the area (1.2 miles, hills up, hills down, dirt path, etc) to give me some idea what I was looking at.

With my 10% off coupon for Sports Chalet I received from the Revlon Run, I picked up a nifty hydration pack - I was really particular about size and fit, since I’m finicky about carrying anything extra when running. This particular one by Ultimate Direction is quite nice, there’s a small pocket large enough for my cel phone and keys, as well as this nifty water canteen that is easy to wash (those who know me well know about my water issues).

This morning I was up a little late (I love running in the cool mornings, around 7 AM) but alas, at 8:30 I left not really knowing how far I would go. I felt guilty as I put my shuffle on, and Mia came running out of the bedroom to get suited up - even though we had just gone on our morning walk. I let T know that I may call him to pick me up in case I get too tired. The first mile is flat, with a huge hill at the end which leads into mile two, which is again full of hills. I just kept going. I eventually ended up around Rancho Golf Course, going around the park which was mostly cement but there was a large area of dirt as well (my running shoes traction didn’t work well with that) and with occasional water (the pack worked well - didn’t even break stride) I actually made it all the way home (5.9 miles) in an hour.