Yesterday (Friday) a day off from my regular job, I would have spent resting, or running. But, I took a substitute assignment for K-2nd grade special education children. I’ve subbed this class before. I know the children. They are precious. Just like all children, they are a “handful.” I returned home more tired than if I had run for 6.5 hours instead of subbed. I mean, I WAS WIPED OUT. How can that be? How can working with children for a day tire me more than running for a day.
Still, I packed my gear, set out my shoes and clothes for a 14 mile mountain run this morning. Then I walked outdoors barefoot. You’d think I would know better. We have these trees, in fact three of them, called Tristania Conferta. They are lovely evergreens with yellowish flower clusters. Its fruit is a woody capsule, a pointy, sharp, hard, woody capsule. These litter our front and back yards. My husband wants to get rid of the trees but hasn’t due to my protests. I think they are beautiful. But those woody fruit capsules have taken me down many a time. They hurt! Well, I stepped on one last night. As I sensed my foot come down on the point, I wiggled my body in some crazy contorted way, such that I pulled my inner thigh muscle. I walked around the remainder of the night, kind of dragging my left leg, hunched forward like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
To cut an already too long story short, I woke at 4:00 AM, made a two cup pot of coffee, sat on the couch, then decided I could never do this. I couldn’t get myself out to the car and drive to the mountains for a run. I was much too tired, and my inner thigh still wasn’t quite right. So, I fell back asleep, this time on the couch.
This does not mean that I didn’t run today. I decided to cut today’s 14 miles in two. I decided to run what I could this afternoon, then run my planned day off (Sunday) the remainder of the 14 miles.
At 1 PM, I set out the door for a road run. Yes, a road run! Two whole miles passed before my shins felt painless. Good news though, my inner thigh felt good from the start. I came upon dozens of runners, walkers and cyclists, most smiling or nodding a recognition or “hello.” I felt out-of-shape for most of the run, perhaps because I’m so tired, perhaps because I’m not in tip-top condition. And I also came to recall the many differences between the road and the trail. First off, there are cars on the road – lots of them. Secondly, stop lights dictate when I can go and when I must stop. Thirdly, people smoke cigarettes in town and at the beach. I pretty close to never smell cigarettes on the trails. Fourthly, children and adults alike, meander back and forth along the sidewalk or road, and without notice step right in front of me. Also, I run past poor homeless souls who have manufactured make-shift homes out of umbrellas and towels. And on another note, no dirt bikes blow dirt into my face as they race by on the road. There are no dirt bikes and there is no dirt on the road. There are also a multitude of drinking fountains during a road run. I don’t even need to carry a handheld (but I do). Okay, that’s enough of that. I could go on and on, but it’s close to bed time. (I’m an early to bed, early to rise gal.)
In all, I managed a tad over 7 miles this afternoon.
Where is the local campground? Look for the flags . . . 
I want one of these! Imagine all the different trails I could run. 
An unlikely, yet interesting, Laurenontherun elevation profile (The question is, how did I get 80 feet below sea level? Must have been while running behind the jetty):
With my mood lately, you’d think I would have used the heavily drizzling weather to zonk the back-to-back notion. But I headed out anyway, arches taped, shins rolled. And I took off running into Wood Canyon beneath gray, lovely wet skies. 
