Thursday Thoughts

by Rachel

This last weekend a big storm whipped through San Diego, bringing snow with it up in the mountains - long story short, the Oriflamme 50K was cancelled :(

It's been rescheduled for April 7th though!!!

We are very happy about this :)

Paul was disappointed, but immediately started working out a 50K run with friends in the same boat - and they ended up doing a run at Lake Hodges on Saturday morning instead! So Paul got his 50K in regardless - running in the rain with friends - I'd say that's a great way to spend St. Patrick's Day!

My sister was in town for a few days - NOT LONG ENOUGH! She took us to evolution (don't know what the area is called - just West of Balboa Park). It was really good and 100% vegan! Paul had a pesto burger w/ sweet potato fries, my sister had a bacon cheeseburger and regular fries, and I had a breakfast burrito... then Paul had a brownie for dessert that rocked! It did take awhile to get our food (for calling themselves "fast food") but they have a bunch of already-made food you can just grab and go - I will definitely be going here again! :)

I didn't get a chance to go out for a long bike or run this weekend - but I did go out for 4.5 miles with our teen - I was worried! He is faster than me - and I didn't want to go out too fast and burn myself out. But it was actually fine - we went on a fairly flat trail run but he got a headache about halfway through so we did a fair amount of walking trying to sort that out.

Paul's got a race on Saturday - Old Goats 50 Mile Trail Race - I think he will have a great race - he's been fine tuning a lot of variables that go into running an ultra and Saturday is the day to put it all together and kick butt!

Finally, today the blogiverse was astir because of a fellow blogger's post - which I totally missed because I'm trying to stay off Facebook during the day! Vanessa talks about the post and Pearl Izumi - and now that I've read it, here's all I have to say: I saw the PI ads awhile ago - and my first thought was that it was a very empowering message - like it makes you feel strong?? But then as I thought about it more, a little voice inside my head started pulling it apart - like, I must not be a runner - I like to be able to breathe while I'm running - I like to comfortably enjoy my "run" - which makes me slower and I don't push as hard as I maybe could... so I must not be a "runner" because I don't really connect with the ads in that way...
Anyways, it really became for me a way for my brain to try and convince me I'm not really a runner and don't deserve to call myself that... which sucks! and is really kinda ridiculous!
Every year I get a little faster and my body can handle more speed without dying - and for me to go from 12 minute miles to under 9 minute miles within the space of 4 years is just crazy and I would never have believed I'd get that fast... I'm proud of that!
No stupid ad campaign can define me - I decided. And I think that's the most important thing I got out of that PI campaign! lol
(Thanks Vanessa for posting about the ad campaign, even if we have might have different takes on it - always good to put these things out there to discuss)
I am a runner! And PI's ad can go suck it!