tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-209021622009-11-03T00:41:37.669-08:00Life in the SLO lane. After 16 years in Minneapolis, I recently moved back to California. I'm 56 and have been running for six years. I've finished five marathons, with a 5:50:10 PR. I'm working on beating that.Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-64030658412956565712009-10-23T05:46:00.000-07:002009-10-23T07:41:11.744-07:00

Had a wonderful time at the Nike Women’s Half marathon on Sunday and it had nothing to do with speed. I finished the race in 2:50—definitely not my fastest time, but with the NYC Marathon two weeks away, I wasn’t trying to be speedy.Several of us SLO Runners drove to San Francisco for the event. SD and I went up on Friday and stayed in S. San Francisco, thinking It would be quieter and we could

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-84440809691467404862009-10-12T11:02:00.000-07:002009-10-14T22:29:46.691-07:00

Three weeks till marathon and I'm so happy I get to taper. I ran 21 miles yesterday and am relieved to say it wasn't too bad. My legs were fatigued, but I could have gone another 5.2 miles if I had to. I was worried about it, because my 18 miler last week was the run from hell. I was holding up my running partners and felt really bad about it. But yesterday, I held my own.Belated congratulations

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-32008061467467212832009-09-27T14:27:00.000-07:002009-09-27T22:35:01.681-07:00

But luck was on my side today for the Heritage Oaks Family Fun Day. I decided to run the 5K, cuz my running friend had to leave town unexpectedly so I offered to buy her number. I have never done that before, since I'm used to the big races where they'll arrest you for that. But I did and it came back to bite me (sort of.)I thought this was just a fun run, but it turned out to be chip timed. I

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-4318660399287515712009-09-24T14:50:00.000-07:002009-09-24T16:08:38.850-07:00

I was reading my latest copy of Runner's World this morning when I came across an ad for Road ID. You know the one's I'm talking about--"Warning. Driver cut himself shaving, 500 feet" or "Warning. Teenage Driver Ahead making out with girl friend while texting with his toes." It made me think of yesterday's long run, where a car passed by and I got a lung full of second-hand reefer. "Warning:

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-58493012785755149782009-09-20T13:42:00.000-07:002009-09-20T15:03:10.314-07:00

Hey there! Where on earth did the summer go? It's been almost three months since I've posted anything; it wasn't an intentional hiatus. I "talk" to you on my runs, but when I get back feel like I don't have anything to say. I feel like I'm always running around and never catching up.My summer was spent training for New York. I was doing pretty well for a while, following the Bart Yasso training

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-39879885152960582812009-07-02T23:00:00.000-07:002009-07-11T22:21:43.306-07:00

The Rock 'n' Roll Seattle Marathon and Half-marathon sold out at twenty-five thousand. Of the marathon, there were 5633 finishers: 2564 male and 3069 females. I'm proud to say I was one of them! Official time 6:10:59. Not my best time, and certainly not what I had hoped, but it's not my worst marathon time either.This was my fifth marathon finish (!) and I hope I'm learning from them. One of the

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-73923429097997525092009-06-04T15:39:00.000-07:002009-06-04T23:44:31.522-07:00

Yours Truly was selected in the lottery for the New York City marathon! This will be my 6th marathon and it's one I've had my eye on. Although I was raised in California and consider myself to be a Californian, I was born in the Bronx and figured I should run New York sometime. It will be interesting to run through all five boroughs. I haven't step foot in the Bronx since I was a teenager in 1969

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-30686759720082741702009-05-30T14:31:00.000-07:002009-05-30T15:46:01.083-07:00

Today is the Rock n Roll Seattle marathon and Irene is running it. Go Irene! Actually, by this time, she ran it but I don't know her results yet. It won't be her fastest marathon, but she is recovering from a serious injury and the fact that she can race at all is a miracle.It's been a good week and I ran a total of 36 miles. My running confidence is restored after running 15 miles on Tuesday.

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-51993984328548387642009-05-25T12:20:00.000-07:002009-05-25T23:31:48.584-07:00

Sadly, that title does not refer to the distance of my latest long run. I ran a whopping 9 miles on Sunday, but I plan to run long tomorrow. I'd love to be able to do 14, but that may be too ambitious. I want to get my mileage up again but not at the risk of injury. Bunny, M.A. and I are running at the beach tomorrow for a somewhat flat distance.What the title refers to is the Avila Blues

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-56352349608148970222009-05-21T11:03:00.001-07:002009-05-21T11:27:28.015-07:00

Bicycling magazine held a contest to give away a new bicycle. To win, you had to send in a video groveling detailing why you deserved a new bike. The staff came up with the top 10 and the public gets to vote on who deserves the best bike. They video's are very creative, but this one was among the best. He's not the one I voted for, though. I voted for this guy, because I have a soft spot for the

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-2271430377071169912009-05-08T14:01:00.000-07:002009-05-08T15:27:51.458-07:00

Bonjour.Still in France but through the magic of WiFi, I've been able to keep up with most of your blog posts. So before I get to moi, I want to send out good wishes to those of you running Fargo this weekend: Beth, AmyBee, Nat, and ShirleyPerly. Also to Marlene in Canada, running her fifth half-marathon and maybe setting a PR. I'd also like to bring to your attention that Danielle ran the Boston

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-53607047365561522822009-05-01T13:51:00.000-07:002009-05-01T14:36:15.223-07:00

Bonjour!Writing this on the last night in La Maraval, our vacation home away from home. We've had a wonderful time here and it flew by. Here's a link if you'd like to see pictures of the property and read about its history.Yesterday we drove to St. Emilion, a wine region in Bordaux. The town itself is ancient and one of the oldest vineyards in the world is located there. While the guys went wine

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-50235845510682665572009-04-26T14:03:00.000-07:002009-04-26T14:43:44.263-07:00

Bonjour! Writing this from St. Front a la Riviere, in the Aquitaine. SD and I landed in Paris on Wednesday and joined two friends for a fun-filled adventure in France. We spent three nights in Paris and drove to our 17th century manor house in the French countryside yesterday, stopping in Chartres first to see the magnificent cathedral. Our friends rented this house and it's way cool and will

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-41425442991135044002009-04-14T22:47:00.000-07:002009-04-14T23:14:10.809-07:00

Thank you all for your condolences. It does mean a lot to me. Life goes on and I have a marathon to train for. Today I ran 18 miles in incredibly windy conditions. Bunny ran with me and we pushed the pace a little bit. When it got really hard, I thought about all my cousin Gwen had to deal with. When I questioned why I put myself through this, I came up with three answers: because I can; because

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-89004115508635101332009-04-13T13:45:00.000-07:002009-04-13T15:56:08.037-07:00

My cousin lost her battle with ovarian cancer yesterday morning. She was in the hospital for 48 consecutive days. She leaves behind her husband, baby girl (pictured below), parents, siblings and numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. I didn't know her well. We are several years apart in age and she grew up hours away from me. Still, I remember her and it's a sad day. The picture above was taken at

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-26945797440121909192009-03-31T22:30:00.000-07:002009-04-01T15:30:18.631-07:00

Time: 2:29:32.170 Pace (Min/Mi): 11:24 Overall Rank: 384 Female Rank: 214 Female 55-59 Rank: 3 That was one tough race! The course itself was relatively flat, but there was some wicked wind blowing and the sun beat relentlessly towards the last three miles. Plus, there was that awful hill at mile 13. Ugh! I'm still sore.So, I didn't get my 11 minute miles as I hoped. This was actually only my

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-49361614514341119632009-03-28T18:50:00.000-07:002009-03-28T19:40:22.021-07:00

Today I attended the San Luis Obispo County Track and Field Meet, for high school boys and girls. I had never been to a track meet before, but had two good reasons for going; one was to see Bunny's son, Jack, run the one mile event. Jack is a freshman and he shows strong promise. The other reason I went was to see senior Jordan Hasay run. Bunny gave me a heads up that Jordan would be running and

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-39616635203229965962009-03-17T14:32:00.000-07:002009-03-17T16:09:56.437-07:00

Today's run was a 16 miler, same as I did last week. Last week I was supposed to do 15, but took a wrong turn which added a mile. So today I was saying 16, but thinking maybe 17.Not! Although the course was relatively flat, we had a couple of killer hills and it was all I could do to run 16. Bunny and M.A. ran with me, although mostly they ran ahead of me. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, I wore my

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-85188652010670261252009-03-14T16:41:00.000-07:002009-03-14T18:21:34.871-07:00

I made the cut! I submitted a story in Steve Stenzel's Tales of a Virgin Athlete contest and I'm in the top 10. There were 34 submissions, so that's a big deal to me. I was actually nervous about it and was hesitant to open Steve's email naming the finalists.I read all the submissions and they're great! Some are funny, some are poignant, many are inspiring. Steve had ten people judge the entries

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-12474432786917941552009-03-07T22:18:00.000-08:002009-03-07T22:43:29.960-08:00

As of Wednesday, I had run 28 miles for the week. I skipped my run yesterday, because a friend was visiting and she was leaving sometime in the morning. I normally run in the morning and even though I promised myself that I would run later, I didn't. I did manage to catch up on some Brothers and Sisters episodes, though.So instead of cross-training today, I ran on the treadmill. I decided to do

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-52169754608371850592009-02-27T21:29:00.000-08:002009-02-28T18:38:18.044-08:00

Don't hate me because I live in California. ;-) I heard Minneapolis got 6-8 inches of snow today. Yikes! Remember that old adage, "March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb." It's almost March and soon it will be spring and another winter will be behind you.It's just as well that I didn't take pictures on today's run, because it was absolutely gorgeous. No rain in sight and I actually had to

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-84630727705488233612009-02-25T19:06:00.000-08:002009-02-25T19:30:25.809-08:00

Where life's such a groove, you blow your mind in the morning*SD and I have spent the last three days in Mendocino. The coast is rugged and reminds me of the Oregon coast. There's even Scotch Heather in bloom. I went on a couple of morning runs, which were pretty good, if not mind-blowing.Yesterday's run was a 5 miler around town. Part of that consisted of the Headlands State Park. I actually did

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-38167409041775619292009-02-20T22:38:00.000-08:002009-02-20T23:49:33.354-08:00

It was a fun but exhausting day. I'll tell it in pictures.I drove SD to Justin Winery, where he was participating in the first, annual, Justin Tour of Paso Bike-a-thon. It was a 16 mile fun ride from the winery into downtown Paso, and a fund raiser for the North County Wellness Community.Then I headed into town to check in for my volunteer assignment as Course Marshal. There I met my friend M.A.,

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-35081353236486844792009-02-18T16:38:00.000-08:002009-02-18T17:54:26.604-08:00

Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California will finish in Paso Robles tomorrow! I've been watching it on TV all week and this morning there were flags from all the participating countries flying on the Niblick Road bridge. That brought it home for me. I'm so excited that quiet little Paso Robles will be on a world stage!Yours Truly will be a course marshal. Look for me on Charolais Road, near River

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20902162.post-91549182642671204702009-02-11T14:18:00.000-08:002009-02-11T14:50:37.637-08:00

On Monday morning, SD returned home from the gym and exclaimed, "There's snow on York Mountain!" Frankly, I don't care if I ever see snow again, but this is a rare enough occurrence that we went out to take pictures. Unfortunately, the good camera is not working, so I didn't get as good of a shot as I would have liked. If you squint and use your imagination, you can see the snow. Of course, it

Dorihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12489181738411546254noreply@blogger.com3