It may sound like a joke, but it’s not. I have had many close calls with cars, especially because I live in a very populated area. I usually always try to run in the daylight, but I live in an area where there are a TON of cars, everywhere, all the time. Crossing the street to get anywhere always involves pushing the cross walk button and I’m no expert on life-saving techniques or safety, but I know that I do a few things while running to make sure that cars see me and that I don’t get run over. I thought I would pass these along to blog land so that if you weren’t already doing these small techniques you can implement them and see if they work for you.

Don’t chance it by running across the street fast. I always have to push the button and make sure the light isn’t a ‘stale’ light. Meaning I came up to it and it’s been the current color for more than five seconds. There have been times when I think, oh I’ll just go quick and half way through the street the light changes and I’m caught in the middle, or having to hustle to get to the other side safely. Not smart at all. Make sure you get to the light and if you have to WAIT! Better waiting than getting stuck or the light changing on you half way through the intersection.

Don’t step off the sidewalk until you are sure that you know it’s your ‘turn’ to go. Never wait off the sidewalk and make sure you stand back from the corner of the intersection. There are always freak accidents and you don’t want to be a part of them at all. People are careless and cars are big and could easily injure you with one wrong thing happening. I only step off the sidewalk when I am sure that everyone is certain that I am going to cross the street.

Always make eye contact. I ALWAYS make sure to make eye contact with the driver(s) of the car. Sounds simple, but then you are SURE that you see them. Then, they acknowledge you and you know that they won’t purposely run you over. Once you do that, they seem to recognize that yes, you are a human and you are out for a run. It’s then when things start going better because they either give you a wave to go forward or nod their head to let you know that they’ve seen you. This is especially important on unprotected right hand turns when the light is red for them and they turn and you are trying to cross.

Give the friendly wave. I always try to give the friendly wave as well when running and drivers do pay attention to me. It also shows that I acknowledge them. It makes things easier for other runners down the road as well, because next time they might pay more attention to a runner when they see them out running! I always make sure to do this because it shows also that I appreciate the fact that they took the time to let me cross, even though I have the right away.

We all know pedestrians have the right of way, but that doesn’t always work out and make sure you are safe while running and there are cars around. Especially in the busiest traffic time, the Holiday Season, it is important to take extra caution when crossing the street. I’m working on a post for running in the dark and I’m kicking off the month of December with a giveaway tomorrow!

Do you have the same car problem? What tips do you have?

xoxo

I did it last year and I’m stoked to make another round for what I’m thankful for in 2010. Though not too many things have changed this year, I’m still super thankful for tons of things in my life. I still love the Half Marathon distance  (excited to run another one the day after Christmas!!) and I’m excited to share 13.1 things I’m most thankful for this year! Cliche, yes, entertaining, maybe, better than last year? I’ll try! Every day when I wake up and shake out these 25 year old legs and open my eyes I realize that a new day has dawned and I’ve made it! I try to live every day to it’s fullest and without breath in my lungs it just wouldn’t be the same. I’m thankful for the chance to live each day to its maximum potential and am grateful that I have that opportunity to start fresh each day.  What else am I thankful for? There are so many things to list but check out the 13.1 things I’ve got down below!

1. It pretty much goes without saying, but I’m so thankful for the fact that I’m alive. I can wake up every day and do what I want and I’m so grateful for the freedom that I have living in this country. Life is so short and I’m glad I’m constantly free to do what I want and when I want. I’m thankful for my safety and the free choices I can make. Thank you to the troops who make this a reality daily, and I never worry about my daily life.

2. I am so thankful for my friends that I have met online! Crazy, I know but they are some of the nicest and most encouraging people ever! Every time someone comes up to me at an Expo or at an event it means so much to me! I love meeting new people and everyone is so nice and genuine. Surprising, and kind of weird, but so glad that they have come into my life in so many different ways. I am so encouraged and inspired by so many people out there.

2. I am SO thankful for my roommate Shea! Without her, I wouldn’t be as happy or in such a great place in my life today. She encourages me, loves me and makes me laugh SO hard. With our move to a new location this year, we have only bonded more and I’m glad she’s been one of my best friends for more than 10 years! I can always count on her for some delicious junk food splurges and a trip to get a slurpee. :) She has introduced me to some great people who I also consider friends and it means so much to me! Her family treats me like their own and I love spending time with them.

3. I am thankful for my family. My little brother, who has the craziest stories ever and constantly entertains me and loves me. My cousins who are like sisters to me. It’s such a fun dynamic when we all get the chance to get together and I’m grateful for all of them!

4. I’m so thankful for the chance I get to run. I can walk, I can run, I get to work out and have fun while doing it. I’m so grateful for the chance of movement and the ability to work out and go to the YMCA and enjoy it there! I love working out and it’s well known that by working out you release endorphins and endorphins make you happy, right?! :)

5. I am so thankful for FOOD! I LOVE EATING! I can’t even put into words how much I love it and mmmmm delicious! So today, after I get off work, you know I’ll be grubbin’ on potatoes! Yum-skiddie-umptious!

6.I love my job. Seriously. Love. May be the craziest, busiest, weirdest job ever but dang. I’m just a happy little clam there. So much fun with my co-workers, aka, ‘the family’. Working 60 hours straight, crying between the  portapotties and the dumpsters, picking up endless trash and the laughing was never something I thought would be my job, but I can’t imagine doing anything else. Even when I work longer hours than I ever thought was possible doing the most random things possible, like getting yelled at Thanksgiving morning by crazy runners.

7. I’m thankful for forgiveness. Every day when I wake up and have my fresh slate, I’m glad that I believe in Christ and my sins are washed free. I’m glad the people around me and love me enough to forgive me. I am thankful for God for always being there for me throughout my life because he’s shaped me to the person I am today by giving me struggles that made me a much stronger person.

8. I’m so thankful for new friends and old friends! They continue to make my life what it is today and help me enjoy everything throughout my life. Dinners, laughs, running and just being the listening ear, is pretty much all I could ever ask for. Thank you!

9. I’m thankful for volunteers. Seriously. At work you make my life so much better. Thank you for volunteering.

10. I am thankful for inspiration! So many stories and people inspire me and just learning more about these people make every day more interesting and make me want to challenge myself more. It’s so exciting to see more and more people doing such amazing things.

11. I’m so thankful for living in such a great area where I can ride my bike, enjoy the warm weather (most of the time) run freely and have many different areas to visit from the beach to the mountains! I am so excited to do some of this again this year!

12. I am thankful for running clothes, supplex and capris. I have been living in work out clothes lately and man, they are the BEST. I am so thankful for all the advances in running clothes, chafing is sometimes rare, my shoes work out great now and I love, love, love wearing my running clothes, everywhere.

13. I am thankful for races where I can run! Even though I’m now on the opposite side of the spectrum, I’m so thankful for those races that I can run and still have fun and not worry about anything. With my job, I know I can’t run any of the races we put on, but I’m so thankful for Race Directors, Event Staff, Security and everything else that goes into a race now, especially when I have nothing to worry about.

.1. Same as last year, I know this is the most important part of a half marathon, because this is the part of the race that takes you to the finish line! If you didn’t run the last .1 you wouldn’t run a half marathon, it’d just be another training run. I am so thankful for the person my mom was and who she helped me become. Even though she isn’t here with me today I know she would be so proud of me and loves me so much. As I grow ‘older’, I realize more and more how great of a person she was and how she helped me in so many different and incredible ways. Looking back on something you lost really makes you realize how special your time with them was. I am so glad she was a part of my life and am thankful for the strong willed person she helped me become.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

xoxo

This morning I got up early and left my bed that was warm and cozy, shedding the sheets that had enveloped me for the past six and a half hours. I pried open my eyes to put in my contacts. Blinking a few times, they were in place. I pulled the long gray sleeve shirt over my head and peeked out the window. The dreary, drippy morning greeted me and I doused my face with cold water, making sure I wouldn’t crawl back into bed. I laced up my shoes and took a deep breath. With the shoes on there was no turning back.

I opened the front door and made sure the screen door didn’t slam behind me or catch my Achilles like it usually does. On the driveway, I waited for Claude to beep, beep, beep and find satellite. A minute later my legs were carrying me on the sidewalk, towards the intersection by the park. There is always a split second at that intersection where I don’t truly know which way I’ll run. Over to the nature path, or to the park where that leads to the small lake by the city college. It isn’t until I reach that corner that I decide which way I’ll travel that morning.

The fog was enveloping everything, like a slow moving monster. Cars were only visible by their yellow beam headlights shining through the grayness. The red light of the intersection ahead that lead to the park lit up the path in front of me almost guiding me there. As I ran, my eyelashes became damp with fog kisses and my my face, wet with condensation. Some passing might have mistaken those fog kisses for tears, but they were just drops that gathered and gathered and with every blink, a drop would slide down my cheek. The whole time I’m running and not even realizing that my legs are moving. I’m infatuated with the fog that surrounds me and the dampness in the air. The stillness of the morning that is creepy and serene and unique. I breath in the cool air and it burns my lungs in such a distinct way.

Under the cover of the trees at the park, I keep running effortlessly for once, and every now and then a fat drop of water falls on my shoulders and head from above. The leaves are crunching under my feet. Sometimes I go out of my way to step on a big, crunchy leaf. I don’t know why, since I can’t hear it crunch with my headphones in. As I’m looking around me, there’s barely anyone on the roads, many must have seen the fog and decided it was a nice morning to sleep in. The trees keep dripping on me and I notice leaves falling all around me. It’s borderline magical as the leaves here don’t change much in the fall. They go from greenish yellow to brown. They don’t have much color. The trees have leaves one day and the next day they are naked sticks.

I finally get to the small lake, I make a quick loop around and the ducks squawk at me and wonder why I didn’t bring them bread. They waddle to get out out of my way. I head back the same route I came. The roads are filling up with morning commuters and the fog is slowly billowing away. My whole face is wet with mist and my ponytail looks like a mop after cleaning the kitchen floor, a tangled, stringy mess. I round the corner back into my neighborhood and finally realize I had an effortless run. I never realized I was running. I was so distracted by the surroundings that the four miles that I just put on my shoes were almost a dream.

It’s those great runs, short and long, where you get lost in the moment and your feet just take you someplace, that you realize you are a runner and what you are doing is magical.

xoxo

I was contacted to try out a new fitness gadget, the Ellipti-go. We planned what day I would be free to travel up to Hermosa Cyclery. It’s about a 30 drive from my house and I knew that it would be best if I did it on a day off. I took a friend from work with me and they had two Ellipti-go’s for us to try.

Me, being the skeptic I am, didn’t really think that these guys would be much of a workout, none the less something that I would literally want to buy.

They basically are mobile elliptical. When I first got on it I was a little nervous about staying on and having trouble riding it. I have really bad balance and was scared of falling, especially on the Strand, a beach path where we tested them and there were quite a few people out. We went up last Friday and was a BEAUTIFUL day it was! We couldn’t have picked a better day. We both just wore workout clothes and neither of us had any idea what to expect. After signing some waivers we were off!

When we first started, it was really very easy to get the hang of it, and once I was on, I was not scared of falling off at all. It’s really easy to balance on and you glide along, totally controlling your speed by how fast you are moving your legs. You can increase and decrease the ‘incline’ that you are on as well by a simple changing of the gears. The first mile we only had it at incline 3, but we wanted to see how we could push ourselves and if it could be a good workout. After two miles we were on the max incline 8, and we really felt like we were getting a great workout.

The best thing to compare it to is a bike, your just standing up and peddling that way. It was really fun and then next day we were both really surprised at how sore we were!

Here is a video to show you how it works. Don’t mind my man voice.

It was really fun and really works out your butt and legs a lot more than I thought. I would rather do this any day than the boring elliptical at the gym.

Here’s much more information and pictures on them as well! The only downfall is that they are pretty expensive, but my friend and I both agreed that if we had the money, we would definitely consider purchasing one. They are great for just traveling about and give you an excellent workout. They are really low impact and I could see it as a great recovery tool as well if you were injured from running. Another fun thing was that EVERYONE we passed by stared at us and wanted to know more information! It was really a fun and different way to work out. I also thought that it would be cool just to rent them for a day or something. That would be an awesome idea!

Totally loved the Ellipti-Go and if you have a retailer by you, check them out! Thanks again to Hermosa Cyclery and their kindness for letting us test them out!

xoxo

So I’m starting to get antsy. I haven’t run a race, at all, since October 3rd, my last marathon. It’s that time of the year where everyone is running races every weekend and the fall leaves are crunching under your feet when you run and I’ll admit, I’m getting a serious case of race jealousy! I think it’s that maniac coming out in me. :) So I’ve decided that I want to run a 5k in about two weeks. I think it will be a small around town 5k somewhere nearby but I’m excited to have a goal and to train for something again. After that I think the next up will be a half in January and Surf City Half, to join the Longboard Legacy Club, in February. Then we have March. I think this is keeping my racing itch at bay because I know I’ve got a lot of training to do. I have three marathons that I’m thinking about in March. Doing all them is a different story, but I think if I stay consistent with a good base it won’t be a problem. A few are up north too, which makes me excited because that means it’s a kill two birds with one stone situation since I get to see all my friends up there and I LOVE running up there!

It’s strange how seeing other people get out and race makes you want to do the same. I have been reading so many race recaps and inspiring stories that I want to get out there and race again. Finally having a little downtime I think I  can squeeze a short race in, perhaps in two to three weeks.

I think it’s also last weekend that I missed this.The Malibu Marathon. I don’t know why, but I truly was really upset that I missed it. I’ve never had that feeling before.

and this

And seeing everyone else out there enjoying Malibu and running made me jealous. I also went to a small race this weekend for work and it was fun to see everyone getting ready to run. So now I’m searching for a 5k. I’m fully back in the swing of things and ready to scratch that racing itch! I also got these pictures from the Camarillo Marathon for free since the race was so bad. I guess free pictures make up for no bathrooms, no cups and no food at the finish? :)

YAY! I can now visually remember the craziest race ever! :)

xoxo