Beach Run With My Girls

Monday was our great beach trip, and it lived up to the hype. I had wanted to make memories, and I did, and I also gave myself something to look forward to and keep me wanting more of the beach.

However, the day also brought some flashbacks and they were nearly shudder-inducing flashbacks.

When we got to the beach, the sun was trying to peek out from behind some clouds, and as it wasn't quite 10:30 a.m. yet, it wasn't quite warm. Immediately upon arriving, I got the girls' bikes off the truck and we gathered ourselves for the first-ever beach bike ride.

Now, I'm not a late-morning runner. If I don't get started by 8 0r 8:30 for the most part, I lose some motivation and running becomes much more difficult. I'm not sure why that is but that's just what I have to deal with. As it was well past 8, I immediately worried that I wouldn't be up for a run. But once I got out on the beach path I felt okay. I'd run 10 miles on Sunday and it wasn't a great run, so my legs felt a bit more tired than normal. Of course, it could have also been because of my 60-plus minutes in the truck that caused that feeling.

The girls were doing well, mostly, and so was I. About a half-mile in, I felt like I'd be good for more than just a few miles. But the girls probably wouldn't be up for that much so a little past the 1.5-mile mark (I had my Garmin on) we turned around.

Now, this whole time we were on the Huntington Beach bike path, you know, the same bike path I ran Marathon Nos. 1 and 3 on, or at least, the last 10 miles of those marathons. So while I was trying to keep an eye on the girls, I also had memories of Surf City flooding back - the feeling of fatigue setting in on me when I was headed towards the turn-around point, remembering the mass of people moving along PCH, that feeling of try-to-keep-it-together when I approached Mile 18 and 19. I had other memories once we turned around.

First, this was part of my view:

These memories were also positive and negative: feeling as if I was going to collapse of fatigue around Mile 24; knowing the finish line was ahead and trying to feel the rush of such a sight; trying to maintain my legs in motion; thinking 'I've already ran more than 23 miles - insane!' and other such crazy thoughts that raced in my mind that late in the race.

I wasn't sure if it was a good idea to have run there and I'm still unsure about it. But the girls were trudging along without too many issues. For the first time on a beach bike path, they did great. They weaved in the middle a little too much and stopped at odd places - Yvie doesn't like downhills, for instance. But all in all, it was a great run, the best 3.5-miler I've had in quite a while.

The last portion of it, though, Kennedy kept saying she just wanted to go in the water and that was tough because I knew she'd had enough. But I ran slightly in front of her, hoping she would see me and try and keep up with me or pass me. She's competitive at times and that seemed to work.

We got back to the truck, got the bikes loaded inside (yes, they fit inside if I lay the back seats down) and headed out to the sand.

The girls had fun playing in the sand for hours.

All in all, a great way to spend a day.