Wind

After non stop pouring rain all day yesterday, I awoke today to hear an odd sound.....silence. Well, not quite silence as I could still hear the wind blowing through the trees, but there was no pitter patter of rain, no drips falling from buildings and trees. And there was a curious light coming in through my blinds.

I immediately reached over to my phone and called Ed. "Honey...it's not raining!" "thinking about a run?" we both agreed that we should take advantage of this break and within a half an hour (okay, 45 minutes...I was still sleepy!) we were on our way down to west cliff to do our usual 5.

As we approached the run, the trees in our sight were being whipped around and it became apparent just how windy it was. Hmm...perhaps shorts were the wrong option today? Stepping out of the car, it was cold, and I was glad I had a running partner to make sure I didn't just crawl on home.

What made this run amazing was the state of the ocean next to us. This run is great because you are running pretty close to the edge of the cliff (hence the name "west cliff") and are quite close to the water for most of it. Usually the waves here are pretty subdued since we're still in the bay. However, today the ocean was alive with its forceful waves. The water was a brown slate with white froth a constant. The undulating surface kept rolling more and more powerful walls of water towards the cliff, pounding them into the rocks. Sea foam was literally flying through the air, like a mix between a snowball and bubbles, getting caught in the plants or floating across the road. Perhaps this is the coastal version of snow. A small clump of sea foam danced around my feet as we ran.

Before we knew it, we had reached our normal turn around point. I really wanted to hit 20 miles this week, which meant that I needed 11 this weekend. My leg was feeling okay, so I asked Ed if he wanted to keep going. "Oh! we're already here?" He was doing great too (and, might I add, pushing me at quite a good clip) so we continued on my old normal route, going around Natural Bridges and up across some train tracks. I was intially thinking of just going out for another 5 minutes to add on a mile out and back, but time was going quickly, and so I decided that doing 7 for the day sounded perfect. With just one minute until the 10 minute turn around, Ed started getting hungry and ready to go back, but I guilted him into sucking it up for that last minute. His main concern was that that extra minute had us running a relatively good downhill and he didn't want to go back up. But he stuck it out.

The journey back was tiring (mostly, I think, from the pace) but once we got back to the ocean, the weather was a perfect distractor. Lots of people were out, equally entranced by the ocean. I'm not sure I've even seen water like that before, but it was mesmerizing and beautiful. The ocean spray misted us multiple time as huge sheets of whitewater seems to be propelled straight into the air. I've never enjoyed running in wind before but this was amazing.

About a tenth of a mile from the end, Ed looked to me and asked how much further we had to go. I pointed ahead and explained that we parked, not at the big blue house, but the block after that. "Do you mind if I run back?" he asked. "Go for it". And like that, he was gone. Of course, I like to think that what I was doing was running too, but I let that point slide :) Apparently he was just ready to be done. The speed he put out getting to the car reminded me of how much faster than me he really is, and makes me appreciate even more him running with me. As he sees it, though, he pushes me physically, but I push him mentally, since his mind gets tired of running after about an hour :)

I'm hoping to put out an easy 4 tomorrow to get me my 20 miles a week total. It's not much, but its amazing to be running this much again. I'm definitely trying to be careful with the leg (Icing it as we speak) but running just makes life seem so much better. Ed always thinks I look best after a run, and he explained today that he thought it was because running makes me so happy that after a run I just seem to glow.

Still glowing here on this blustery day :)