Getting there and "The Run".

San Diego; in III parts.
Part I shall be: getting there and "The Run".
Part II shall be: after "The Run".
Part III shall be: the "Mini-moon".

Mikey and I had a wonderfully lovely get away last weekend; we went to San Diego! We stayed one night with extremely nice friends of Mike's parents in the La Jolla area and the next night near downtown and the Gaslamp Quarter of the city. As mentioned above and so as to spare you, dear reader, a longer post with many pictures {kind of boring if you're not me or my husband} I'm splitting this little vay-cay into three parts. Also, it makes it easier on little ole me to organize it this way.


Ahem...without further ado - Part I.


We left bright dark and early Saturday morning. After a blessedly short flight of 80 minutes San Diego's airport greeted us with the fluffernutter {no, not the sandwich, though a few of those would have been nice too...} that can be seen in Monday night's post.


When we got to our hosts' house we geared up for 19 miles. 

Our digs for the first night.

Yep, you heard read it, 19 miles. Marathon training plans include mileage like this with some even going up to almost 30 miles so please stop looking at me in shock and horror...it really is quite natural to be running for several hours...NOT. But I still do it and love it.
The run was epic. 
I've done a marathon {and am training for one in December, hence the 19 miles...more on that soon} but long runs are still...for lack of a better word, long. We also made the choice to run starting from the house instead of driving to a local walking/bay/park area which meant that there were many hills over those miles. "Oh well" we thought...that just puts less time between finishing the run and the local sandwich shop which was on our agenda for afterward.

Setting our watch for the big run...thrilled about what was waiting ahead for us.

I'll ll just say that those hills made the sandwich, chips and two cookies I devoured taste that much better. At least that's what I'm telling myself and my sore knees {not something I encountered in my youth...a recent realization}. But really, it was so much fun...I am super-dee-duper lucky to have someone to run with and over eat with at the end...and we have fun chatting along the way.

The first mile was flat along the water; refreshing! Then the second mile was completely uphill...a long and slow 5, 280 feet {give or take a few}. We enjoyed flatness for several miles afterward but that up-hill turns into downhill on the way back and with 17 miles on my legs already, going up almost would have been more welcomed at the end of our run.

After a few miles we came to our first "stop"/"sight-to-see". A few years ago the Mr and I met in San Diego {back when we were long-distance} and he told me we were going to go hang-gliding. I was NOT excited about it but didn't want to hurt his feelings so I didn't say anything; hanging in the air, no matter what is holding me up, is not natural and I don't like it. It turns out that Mike was just teasing me {which I soon came to learn is to be my lot in life as his wife ♥} but we did drive to the outlook which affords a fabulous view. 
This was as we were running up to the spot.

Then the big lot where potential hang-gliders park their cars before jumping off into oblivion.

Then the view. I'm so lucky in many ways including having grown up in California, near-ish the coast, and having spent a fair amount of time at the beach in my life. Thus, I can be hard to impress with pretty coastal views. It might have been the scary prospect of 16 more miles left to do but I was floored by how pretty the shore looked. Look! 

So Pretty!
Then we ran and ran and ran. We passed Torrey Pines golf course and all sorts of nice walking paths. We descended a very steep hill back to the water at Del Mar and turned around after a much appreciated Gu and water break. The jog up said hill was tortuous...but we did it. Though it wasn't the last hill, that's for sure.
I got kind of delirious...not really though...towards the last few miles. I told Mike how much I love him and how appreciative I am of having a husband to run with and yadda yadda yadda. Then we hit the downhill that I mentioned. The long and meandering mile long down hill. We had tackled this dude on our way out when our legs were fresh but a mile downhill after many previous miles does not feel well on one's knees {or hips}. 

  

The pictures really don't do the severity of this hill justice. Just imagine.

  

Somewhere along the way we passed this sign and felt the need to take advantage of how appropriately it described our sojourn that day.

Don't worry...he's just hamming it up for the lens.

When we were done we feasted on sandwiches, chips, soda, gatorade and cookies at this delightful establishment. 
Check out all of those specialty sodas; 

three coolers worth! I thought this one was pretty funny; it looked good too but I didn't try it.

Ignore my dirty fingernail and nasty hangnail; for shame Nathalia!

That night our hosts shared a Breaking of the Fast dinner with us in honor of Yom Kippur; a first for me and I really enjoyed it.
Oddly enough it's hard for me to sleep well after that many miles so I was still pretty pooped the next morning but most definitely ready for the next leg of our mini-moon/getaway weekend!
More to come tomorrow...thanks for making it this far {supposing you didn't just skip ahead ;)}.
Also, if our hosts happen to be reading this : thank you SO SO SO much...we had an amazing fantabulous splendfierious time and are really, truly, appreciative of your kindness and and thoughtful hosting...¡muchas gracias!
xoxo, natty ♥