The story is long so I will try to minimize details, but a delightful day of fishing on the Sea of Cortez ended with not being able to pull the boat out of the water because Arturo's Boat Launcher was broken. Loving Man does not like to leave his much adored fishing boat in the water at night because you never know... But due to Arturo's problema, he had to anchor his boat at sea and swim ashore. Being the smart Loving Man that he is, he threw an extra anchor overboard and tied to it with a second rope. Just to be double sure his boat would not break free.
Me... I am just excited because I am looking forward to a good night's sleep and a great 14 mile run early the next day...
Fast forward to 2:00 am. Big wind storm. BIG WIND. BIG Darkness. Big-Time-Frantic Loving Man. Many trips to the ocean edge with the spotlight to see if boat is still secure and watch BIG WAVES tossing about BIG Boat as if it were a small toy. BIG FEAR of loss of Expensive and much Adored Boat. Big Lumps in stomach. Lot's of pacing until the sun broke and Loving Man and a pal put on life vests and dove in for a swim in BIG WAVES to get to BIG BOAT that is being tossed about BIG TIME. Finally aboard, they were able to get the boat to different facing beach where the Westerly Winds were not making the water so rough. They dropped anchor(s), swam to shore and got Arturo out of bed to weld the dang driveshaft on the Launcher and get the boat back on the trailer and on shore safely. All I can say about all of that, was I feared for Loving Man's life when he jumped in to swim out to that boat. And because he is a smart loving man, those 2 anchor lines saved his boat from heading out to sea... or into the rocks. One of those anchors ended up becoming unsecured during the night. CRAZY!
And there was no way I could slip away from all this excitement and do my Big Run!!!!! : (
So - like all well made plans - I had to re-organize. Big Run was delayed until Sunday. Which turned out to be ideal, because all of the BIG WIND on Friday and Saturday, dropped the temperature and humidity! So I departed this morning at 6 am under cloudy skies with 76 degrees and 35% humidity! At Sea Level!
Had the best run of all of my training days to date! Ran a good pace (for me) - 12 minute mile average, heart rate averaged 144, and not a single car passed me until mile 13.5. My dirt road heads out from the edge of the ocean through pretty desert coastal mountains. While it is an up and down type of run, it probably climbs a net 600+ feet in elevation out to mile 7. So it's uphill for the most part out and downhill for the most part home. I felt great.
And guess what? I just ran a little farther than a half-marathon! Two short months ago I could barely walk/run 2 miles. Today I ran 14 and my legs are getting strong. I could feel the quads and hamstrings pull me up and down those hills. It's great to feel your body working. It's great to realize that following a training schedule actually does what it promises - delivers you to higher levels of fitness. Muscles, ligaments, tendons, heart, lungs - everything is working better than it was in August.
All of that and Loving Man lives to fish aboard his beloved boat another day! What a great Sunday!
Here is the view at the 7 mile turn around~
Here is a bit of the magnificent Sonoran Desert along side my running road~
Click on the pic and make out the light house way down right by the water - that's the finish!
40 miles of dirt road - just think how much running can be done down here!
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