Where the White Things Are: Super run

This post has three parts:

I. Thoughts about marathon training, courage, selfies, and sunrises.

II. Details about my latest long run adventure.

III. Post-run fun.

Marathon training is lonely, especially when your training buddy gets injured. My friend has decided not to run the October marathon we signed up for. She kept getting injured and the clock was ticking so she decided to pull out. I decided that I have already put in so much work that it would be a waste to pull out now, especially since I already paid the race entry fee. So the miles keep on piling up, but I'm running them alone. Thankfully I have a running-obsessed husband to talk it all over with and whole lot of new territory to explore, so I'm nowhere near bored. Nearly every run uncovers another hidden treasure in this valley!

I am just finishing up week 7 of 20 of the training plan Jeff put together for me. My husband is my coach! I am loving his training plan. It is flexible enough to keep me sane but challenging enough to whip my booty into shape! Each week, I do a workout, a long run, and as many filler runs as it takes to reach my weekly mileage goal. I have gained a whole lot of endurance and fitness over the past seven weeks, and it feels amazing!

All of this focused running has amped up my already high metabolism into overdrive. I have a long history of failures to fuel myself sufficiently for intense training, and this time I am determined to break the cycle. I have learned a whole lot about a distance runner's dietary needs in general and my own needs in particular in the ten years (!) since college running, and I am using it all. So far, so good. I usually eat six meals per day and sometimes another snack in there. Jeff is training for a marathon too and let's just say our caloric intake is drastic. I have had to increase our food budget by 50% since we started training! I have joked that marathon training is like being pregnant without the nausea: I am always hungry and I never know what to eat--a conundrum complicated by my decreasing ability to tolerate dairy products and four-legged meats. I am getting better at prepping healthy substantial foods at all odd hours of the day, though. I even took a $30 gamble and bought a plant protein powder from Costco this week in a desperate attempt to get more quality, stick-to-the-ribs calories into my belly. It is a bit gritty but does up my smoothies' staying power significantly.

That is more than anyone ever wanted to know about my marathon training. If I accomplish what I want to in this marathon in October, it will either be my last marathon or I'll love it so much I want to do it again another year. I can see the balance tipping either way, and I think a major deciding factor will be how well I manage to rest and fuel my bony body throughout this training. Right now I think it will be my last marathon, just because the time commitment to prep for such a long race is huge, and I have better things to do. But someday when I am still young with an empty nest (sniff), who knows?

The morning after I was officially on my own with this marathon training (Monday, July 24th), I took some lonesome melancholy sunrise pictures. I have always run alone, ever since I graduated from college, so this is nothing new. And I only had a running buddy for one week. But sneaking out of the sleeping house before the sun rises to log my miles alone is still a bit of a lonely feeling, no matter how pleasant that sunrise is to look upon.

I have been taking lots of pictures of myself and even more of the scenery I see on my runs lately. It feels weird/selfish to take so many pictures that are OF me and FOR me, because the other 95% of the time I am only taking pictures of my kids, kids, kids. But I'm not going to feel lame or bad about taking stacks of photos-on-the-run anymore, because for one thing, it's something to DO while running 40-50 miles per week, and for another, THIS PLACE IS GORGEOUS!

Propped my phone up against a telephone pole in the dirt on the side of the road for this slightly unbalanced picture. I love a good sunrise silhouette.

That water! Running alone at dawn feels like worship. The beauty of nature is a manifestation of God's love, and I feel it most keenly in the quiet pre-dawn glow, jogging alone with my thoughts and the view.

My dog bite bruises are on the mend. I got some pepper spray with a hand holster this week, and my courage began to return. I have only run with it three times so far, but I felt so much braver and safer while carrying it. Dogs, truck drivers, you name it--I am ready. Bring it on, country roads! Not really, don't bring it on. I will be ready for the scary if it comes, but please keep it to yourself whenever possible!

Courage is not the absence of fear, I've found. It is clutching the pepper spray for dear life and running past the scary house again because that sunrise is irresistible, then a few miles later yelling and nearly spraying a benign quiet dog for twitching. I finally talked to the bite dog's owner this week. She promised me to lock her dogs in a kennel and never let it happen again. But dogs are sneaky so I will probably always be jumpy when I run past that house. At least the police will get rid of the dogs if they ever chase me again. And I will pepper spray them blind!

Two geese swam across the canal at the opportune moment. Thank you, fellas, for the artistic addition to my sunrise picture.

Orange-gold sunrise light and a lonnng leg shadow.

II.

Lots of Sunnysiders like to hike up a hill past a big ole graffiti-ed Superman symbol. I've heard it called Snipes Mountain, but that must be unofficial because it does not show up on maps. I have seen pictures of its...modern art for years, and finally decided to go check it out for myself today during my weekly long run. I accessed a waypoint tagged in one of my friends' Superman Hill pictures in Google Maps to guide my journey, attached my pepper spray to a toggle on my handy hydration utility belt, and set off in the general direction at dawn this morning. After some roundabout running and a wee bit of semi-trespassing, I was up in the hills above the vineyards and orchards south of Sunnyside, drinking in breathtaking 360 degree views of the valley. It was gorgeous and tranquil, and I actually stopped running for a few minutes to properly take in the enormity of the panorama below.

But Superman Hill seemed to be as real as the Man of Steel himself. I couldn't find it! I ran up one vertical hill and looked around: nothing but amazing views, although that was marvelous. I shimmied down that steep hill, slipped in the deep dust, and fell smack on my bum, whacking my half-healed dog bite bruise on some rocks. I regained my footing and proceeded with more caution down the hill, around, and then up another likely looking steep, dusty hill. No Superman. A glance at my trusty Garmin informed me that my run was half done, so it was time to head homeward. So I picked the path that pointed the most homeward-ish and followed it down, up, and over. Wow, the view over those vineyards! It fed my soul. I abandoned my quest for Superman and gave myself over to the sheer enjoyment of breezing along the backbone of Sunnyside. I did not know what road I was on, but I could see Sunnyside down to the left in the distance, so I knew I had the right heading. It was fun and free, navigating by sight and flowing downhill on foot. Like reading a book for the first time, the unknown was fresh and exciting (my pepper spray armor did loads to enhance my feeling of invincibility).

Early morning sunshine, turning the vineyard gold--that's no photo filter.

Steep slippery dusty hill.

Atop hill #1, with Mt. Adams and Rainier on the horizon.

I LOVE THIS PLACE! My phone was too low, propped against a rock in the grass, to capture the valley below, but Mt. Adams is to the left (partially obscured by a blade of grass) and Mt. Rainier is to the right.

Atop hill #2.

Heading for the next hill.

This was so much fun to cruise-run down.

A vineyard overlooking a vineyard.

All of a sudden, as I descended further down the gravel road in the heart of a vineyard, grapes on all sides, Superman appeared! I was in such scenic raptures that I almost missed it, but I pulled over at the last minute and admired the famed landmark with a photographic tribute. It was super, although I was underwhelmed at its official location. I was under the impression that it was atop a mountain, when in reality it was partway up an average hill, tucked away to the side. But it was still big and colorful!

After pausing at the big S, I turned my toes homeward in earnest. As I entered the fringes of civilization, I felt my belt for the reassuring lump of my pepper spray. Alas! It was gone! I thought back and decided that my fall on the dusty hill must have dislodged it from the bungee on my belt. It was three miles behind me somewhere, lost in the dusty sagebrush. I actually considered going back for it, but my mileage was maxed out for this run and adding six hilly miles roundtrip to it did not seem like a good use of my waning energy and water supply.

All of my solo-female-runner fears came flooding back and I very nearly called Jeff to come pick me up right there. I was alone in unexplored territory with unknown dogs possibly prowling the country roads! Somehow I swallowed my anxiety and soldiered on. The natural high from the scenery and victory of locating Superman after nine miles of searching evaporated. Now six miles stood between me and my safe house, and I was unarmed. Thankfully, I only met three unrestrained dogs along the way, and they were content to stand in the middle of the road and bark without chasing. I still freaked out sufficiently with every dog-sighting, though. I stopped and plead with one dog, saying "please don't bite me!" before noticing a lady standing in the flower bed behind him, staring at me like I was a crazy person. Lock up your dumb dog then, lady! I ran away. My nerves were fraying at the ends when I entered Sunnyside, where I took the business route home to avoid any other potential dogs.

Highway 82 stretching off into the distance on the right, with Sunnyside nestled in its curve on the left.

III.

I stopped running when my watch hit 15.1 miles and walked the last quarter mile back to our house, reclaiming my inner zen while I walked. Jeff left on his run when I got home--tag, you're It! The kids gave me an enthusiastic welcome home and we played on the trampoline together.

Did I mention that we replaced our trampoline this week? We lived for four months without a trampoline after our old one blew away and got all bent up, and we finally decided it was time for another. Amber is in heaven.

Amber disappeared this morning and after a brief panic, I looked out to see her happily alternating between jumping and snuggling with her pillow, blanket, Wub monkey, and Jay's orange pistol on the sunny trampoline.

Jay, Rose, and I thought that looked pretty fun so we joined in and relaxed in the sunshine together--me bouncing the kids and playing peek-a-boo with them in their blankets, and the kids all trying to share one pillow. It was a giggly vitamin D-rich twenty minutes.