hey girls, i posted this on my personal blog, but found it to be totally applicable to all of you! so please, don't hesitate to comment!

-holla back girl

i love running in san luis.

i can't tell you how many times i've been so ready to dedicate an entire blog to all the sights and scents that spell home to me.  from the smell of wet asphalt at my old elementary, to the myriads of all those flowers i don't know the names of (yes i still pay $100 a month for the B.S in horticulture i received at cal poly).

SLO has it all, and then some.  

today that 'some' came in the form of my personal safety.  for those of you that are female, who run or hike, personal safety is never far from your mind.  i have lots of friends who only run/hike with someone else, or carry pepper spray, or some other form of defense-- but then there are those of us, myself included, who are naive enough to think that they are immune to any sort of calamity.  its SLO  after all right?!

i live in osos.  i do most of my running in osos.  MDO is my backyard and it doesn't get much better trail running than out here.  of course there have been a few isolated cases of attack in the park, but for the most part it feels pretty darn safe- our biggest threat being ticks, snakes and oak.  i've had my run in with all three, including the time a baby rattlesnake blocked my path and i had to be rescued by st. francis of montana de oro, or as i later found out the checker on aisle 4 at trader's. but that's another story for another time.  i'm used to the park, and when i get my music goin' and my stride dialed, i rarely feel frightened, or consumed by the idea that mariska hargitay  will have to discover my body later.

so the other day when my mom offered to watch the kids so i could go on a run, i agreed immediately. after dropping the kids off, i got my shoes on, turned up the gaga and hit the pavement. one of my old running routes from my days in SLO involves meadow park.  growing up, meadow was my old stomping grounds.  i had a bunch of friends in elementary school who lived there and i spent countless hours in that neighborhood doing paper routes, playing softball, and hiding in the bushes to spray innocent bystanders with a water main.  there were some good times for sure.  so when i passed the obligatory homeless man i didn't think much of it, till a few hundred meters up i thought, that guy wasn't just collecting cans in his shopping cart- there was more- he had that look that crazy couldn't contain.  it gave me a little shiver as i made my way onto the path in meadow park.  of course just as i turn the corner i almost hit another (male) runner, and then we do that super awkward like who's gonna take the lead bit- there are only two of us on this single track path, and i'm having thoughts like 'if i'm in front he'll probably attack me from behind, if only my hand could automatically turn into a switchblade when i'm provoked...' you know all the normal stuff.  once  i safely get away from him, i notice a 'work crew'- you know the kind.  yeah, the CMC kind.  of course they are hardly working and seemingly very loosely supervised.  i keep going, and just as i'm getting ready to exit the park altogether and get back on the road, i see a creepy white van that unfortunately i've seen at other parks one to many times.  next time i see it, i'm totally calling the cops.  i'm not one to judge *ahem* but that thing has got amber alert written all over it.  i tell you what, i'll take the cat ladies any day in their ratty ol station wagon parked in front of meadow park. at least they loved animals, even if they were the reason the show 'hoarders' came to be.  so i make it out of the park, back on the roads, and have a pretty uneventful rest of the run beside some questionable rabid dog that i was convinced would attack if i ran by to fast.  but then i remembered i have that fear every time i run by a dog after being 'for real' attacked while running when i lived in ediburgh.  

so the rest of the way to my mom's house i thought about how i could prepare myself next time for all of these 'situations.'  and then it came to me... a flash of pure genius.  picture it, me 12 years old, in a hot sweaty building near franks famous hot dogs.  the room was packed to the gills of women of all ages from 15-75 all awaiting their chance. 'next up, we have connie mcnoble...'  i hear someone shout.  everyone starts cheering.  i wait anxiously as my mom comes out with her war cry.  next thing i know a huge thing comes chasing after her- likely a man dressed in a hockey/football combo uniform with what looks like an nasa astronaut mask on his face.  next thing i know my mom is hi-ya-ing and ka-booming this fool.  the crowd goes wild.  my mom has him pinned... all 110 lbs of her.  handled. i'm confused, but incredibly proud. who can forget... model mugging.

no, that's not dark vador, just your local model mugger.

so the real question i know you are dying to ask... am i going to re-start a chapter locally?  i know, so very tempting, but even with all my free time, i think i'm gonna pass.  in the meantime we gotta figure out a way to stay safe in this urban jungle called SLO.  so here's where you come in...

'how do you best protect yourself when you go running or hiking by yourself?'

13.1 Miles. No problem.

Today after our run we discussed getting ready for the City to Sea Half Marathon, coming up this October.  Like Lealah said, you'll need to commit to running a few times a week to get your body ready.  And we'll all eventually work our way up to long runs on the weekends... 8 to 10 miles or so.  The thing is, anyone can run 13.1 miles.  You just have to commit and be realistic about it.  If you wanna do it, you have to train.  Not only should you look at it as, "I'm gonna run 13.1 miles!!!  Holy crap!", but you should also go into expecting to have a good time doing it and not feeling like you wanna die.

This is the training schedule I used to train for my first half marathon last month.  It's super simple and easy to follow.

HALF MARATHON TRAINING SCHEDULE.

And it'll have to do until we'll get a little training schedule up on the website.

Good luck ladies!  Let's do this!

-Erin

Keep on Keepin' On

So we officially completed our fourth event together this past Sunday (Miracle Miles, Walk Way from IPV Run, Hike for Holly, Strawberry Stampede). And although the Strawberry Stampede left much to be desired, I still felt like we had accomplished so much and ALL of us had so much to be proud of!

Since I was able to be around you ladies a bit more the past few days, I was getting a good read on where you're all at. And there kind of seemed to be a common thread: "I've been loosing motivation lately." I thought that this would be a great time for one of those Team Mom pep talks (remember I did get the "most loving mom-ish" award, so these talks are expected). I really just wanted to encourage you ladies...to inform you that that lack of drive you may be having is SO NORMAL!

Sometimes I have likened my relationship with running to that of some new boyfriend. You meet and he's freaking HOT! and you're feelin' really good about yourself because you've landed this great dude and he is bringing out the best in you and everyone's complimenting you because you got that new love glow and then, a few months later, when he starts getting super needy and you're thinking, "oh, wait, I need to nurture this thing? I'm tired!", then that once perfectly coifed hair you were so attracted to looks ridiculous and kinda metro and his desire to be with you now feels juvenile and annoying! You begin to realize that once the chase is gone, he's not as attractive as he once was. Well just as super hot, needy boyfriends can get old, so can your love affair with running. Welcome to adulthood.

This is the maturation element you need to be a great runner. You're not going to just "land" running and be able to walk away from it and reap the same rewards as if you dated it, fell in love with it, married it, had a few kids together with it, and still wanted to kiss it goodnight (I kept it PG). Running is truly like any great marriage, it takes WORK! And it hurts sometimes and it's boring sometimes and it can be the last thing you really wanna do sometimes, but I can say that after 20 some odd years of running (on and off), 9 Half Marathons and at least 10-15 10K's, I've put a ring on it...and it's freaking amazing!

Now don't get me wrong, my love can grow cold sometimes. But I've learned that when this happens I need to romance it a bit again. You have to give to it in new ways...no more Firestone as a "date" with your two (or three) kids, it's Roma or Novo or Tsurugi's, alone! So when I'm feeling this way with running sometimes, this is when I buy myself a new running bra, try new Bloks, make a new playlist on my IPod, or find a new route to run...or start a running team:) More often than not it's the little bit of motivation I need to get my booty out the door again.

Also, know that it is completely okay to say that you're "taking a break" from each other. HOWEVER, put a cap on it. Don't let your break be more than two weeks (unless you have an injury and need to heal), because like I learned in one of my crazy psych classes, distance doesn't make the heart grow fonder, it simply makes it grow colder. You wait too long and you might as well just order Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred cuz you're never leaving the house again. But I promise, if you keep nurturing it he'll be faithful to keep lovin' you back.

So anyway, I hope that this helped some of you...to run more, not find a new boyfriend. I'm proud of all of you and look forward to a lot more runs together! Keep on Keepin' on!!

Fight Apathy,
Her Broyle(s) Highness