Saturday March 1, 2008 - Hilly Hurts

So today I am in San Diego and it is gorgeous. It's mid 60s and sunny and fantastic, I'm thinking of never leaving. I'm here for 4 days for work, a fun conference called Graphing Social Patterns with all the lovely social networks, Google, Yahoo, etc. But that doesn't start until Monday so I have 2 days of enjoying the weather.

Like I thought, I wasn't able to run yesterday due to late work times and my Dad coming up. It also started snowing and being shitty again so I'm glad to be out of there. Today, I did a VERY hilly 8 miler. It made little snake, big snake, and cobra combined look like a joke....and that is no joke. The hills were long and steep both ways because it was rolling. Therefore, it kept me at a nice easy pace (I couldn't have gone faster if I wanted to).

It was along a gorgeous route though. My friend's house, who I am staying with just for tonight before heading to my hotel for the next few days, was one of the houses on the fire line during the bad fires this past fall. Fire fighters literally posted up in their back yard and were fighting the flames away from their lawn. So the entire area around them was charred. A few houses were completely destroyed, others damaged, and the grass and trees were either gone or charcoal black. So, when I was here at the beginning of Jan everything was still completely black, but before I got here today it had rained a lot, its the circle of life....I hear it moves us all. So the landscape is really cool because there are still the charcoal black trees and large brush but all around it is emerald green grass, it's really cool looking.

The hills surrounding the area are amazing, steep, rolling, jagged with lots of peaks. I was imagining the fire trying to climb the hills up to the houses and fire fighters trying to push it down, like a war, just a giant struggle both ways. Towards the end of the first 4 I saw this completely charred tree, just a perfect jet black, I don't know how it was still standing. But growing from it about eye level height was a short green stem and from that a bright red flower. The contrast between the jet black and the bright red and green was really cool and the metaphor so deep....whatever it may be.

I felt like shit during the run though. 50% of me was like this is great, hills for strength, beautiful weather and amazing scenery. The other 50% of me was like, hey A Hole, way to be dehydrated as hell, exhausted, and tight from sitting on a plane for 6hrs, solid move going for a run and not stretching. That half of me is a jerk.

Afterwards I did abs and lots of push ups in the grass over looking san diego from their back yard (they have an incredible view).

Quote of the day:
Ron Burgundy: Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego, which of course in German means a whale's vagina.

Obviously