Last weekend I headed to Medford to get in a long run with my mom and to enjoy a bit of time with my parents. It went by very quickly, but was a nice treat. Saturday morning my mom came in and woke me up too early to head to Home Depot where we left a car and then took a an 11 mile ride to be dropped off so we could run back to Home Depot. I was overjoyed to have people to run with, as evidenced by me chatting away most of the mileage. For the last few months I've been training, I've been running by myself (more on that in a minute), so needless to say I was thrilled to have other people to run and talk with.
It was a beautiful morning to run, and we were out in the hills so we could look out over the valley. After doing so much running in the city, it was a nice change of pace. All in all the run was great. I tried out a new hydration belt that I picked up at the Nike outlet store on the way down and it was a great way to have water along the way. The last mile was especially entertaining thanks to my mom's making up songs game she plays. I have to admit I felt kinda spoiled because when we got to Home Depot (that's right, we ran to Home Depot) two of the other ladies we were running with had mini muffins, bananas and some crazy recovery drink waiting for us. Usually I'm by myself on the long runs, so no treats for me at the end, although I will admit I've done little celebratory dances at the end of a long run.
Sunday I got to hang out with my parents a little more before I took off for the drive back home. It was nice to spend some time with them, although it was short.
The drive home was going great, until I was almost to Woodburn, talking to my sister, and suddenly there's a loud noise and my back driver side tire has blown. I quickly hang up with Brooke, get to the side of the road, get the flashers on, check my tire to see the damage, get back in the car, lock my door, get my heart rate back to normal, and call my parents. When my mom answers the first thing I tell her is that I'm okay, but my tire is blown. She hands the phone to my dad because he's more familiar with all things car and AAA. Now once upon a time my dad showed me how to change a tire, but it was probably 8 years ago, and the thought of me trying to do it on the side of I-5 at dusk is not appealing. So I proceed to call AAA and they send a tow truck out to help me. Thank you mom and dad for AAA - I know you were grateful for it the other night, I'm so grateful for it too!
The rest of the drive back was slow seeing as you can't go faster than 50 to 55 mph tops on the spare, but I was thankful I was 4/5ths of the way home at that point. Two new tires later (my other two are good for a few more months) my car is back in business. Buying tires is sooo much fun...
So back to running on my own -- I've been training with my mom (by long distance) for a 10 mile run Easter weekend. That has required me to go out on runs by myself frequently, which I've actually come to really enjoy. Lately I've been listening to two audiobooks. I only endorse one of them. The first book I listened to was The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I highly recommend it - I also highly recommend listening to good audiobooks while running. The audiobook I do not recommend is The Funny Thing Is... by Ellen DeGeneres. Generally I find Ellen funny, the book I barely chuckled at. I had thought I'd be running down the street cracking up.... nope, not a bit. It held my attention which was nice, but no laughs. So the next time you're looking for a good audiobook.... check out The Last Lecture.
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