Running – Page 34 – My Thought Spot

Running the beach

Yesterday I had one of the most incredible runs of my life.

Before I could get started, I needed to run by the drug store and print some pictures. I went to a Rite Aid that is just a few blocks from the hotel. The plan was to drop off the pics and pick them up in an hour or so. I took my memory card and ordered the digital prints. Before I finished filling out the paperwork on my order, they were done printing! I asked them to hold the pictures and I would pick them up after my run.

I then left the pharmacy and headed down Redondo Street in Long Beach towards the water. It was an enjoyable 77 degrees. It was about the normal temp that I run in back home, but this was refreshingly different. The two biggest differences were that I was running at 3:00 in the afternoon and it was only 77. Also the humidity was only 50%. We normally would have 100% humidity on my early morning runs. The lower humidity actually gave me chills at times during the run.

Some time was lost due to the fact that I had to wait to cross many streets. In my morning runs here I have been able to run right through most intersections because there just isn’t much traffic in the morning. Not so in the afternoon. I also spent some time taking pictures. I felt like Adam Tinkoff. When he does his program, you more often than not hear him stopping to take pictures.

It took about 20 minutes to arrive at the beach. I was at Shoreline Drive and Bluff Park when I went down to the beach. I ran back towards the main downtown area of Long Beach on the concrete path. I knew I was getting close to everything, but did not realize how close I was to all the beach attractions until today when I was down at the Aquarium.

I then turned around and ran down to the water and back towards where I started. I ran under the long pier in the photo and then came back up to Shoreline Drive. I spent probably 20 minutes down there and then headed back to Rite Aid to get my pics.

When I handed the man my money, it was soaked. I apologized for the wetness of the money. I am sure he has seen it many times. People go to the beach with money in their pockets and come back all wet. I am not sure he realized that the water was not ocean, but sweat. The bills dripped. It was kind of disgusting.

My time was 1:11:00 for a 10:38 pace per mile. That is a great pace for that distance for me.

Running hills

My 3.3 mile morning run today included a 1/4 mile hill that had a 109′ elevation change in it. Going out on the run was downhill, coming back was up. Why did they have to put my hotel at the top of the hill?

It does not look like much of a hill in the picture, but it really was quite a hill. Especially for someone who is used to running on zero hillage.

I was looking for the Krispy Kreme on my run this morning. I had seen it a couple of days ago while I was out with someone else. We were in a big traffic circle and went off on one of the spokes when I saw the KK. Today I ran down that way and did not find it. On the way back from the run I convinced myself that the KK must be down one of the other spokes. I am pretty sure I know which one now.

I will head out there tomorrow morning (if I have time). That will let me kill 2 birds with one run. I will get my run in and I will also be able to eat breakfast. I know it can’t be healthy for me, but it also cannot be much worse than the hotel breakfast. I never noticed how much processed white flour is in everything they sell as breakfast food these days. I skimped by with a bowl of bran flakes, banana, bagel, boiled egg and apple today.

Tomorrow will be KK donuts.

My trip to Road Runner Sports

Today I had one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. If you hang around me long enough you will see that I am cursed. Actually, I have turned my curse into a never ceasing source of entertainment. The curse is that I am constantly plagued by idiotic (I will try to avoid the word “stupid”) salesmen. I now entertain myself by seeing how bewildered, and bewildering, they can be.

My trip to Road Runner in Anaheim did not give me that sort of entertainment. Rather, I had one of the most enjoyable service experiences of my life.

I went to Road Runner to get a gait analysis and see which shoes their fitter recommended for me. My Fit Expert was Mary (real name withheld since she has such an unusual name, it would be easy to pick her out).

Before I go into my shopping experience, let me say that the store was not all that big. Much smaller than I pictured. On the other hand, how much room do you need to hold a bunch of shorts, shirts and shoes? I really expected more of their on line presence to be at the store. There are many more products available on the web site.

Mary, and another girl (whose name I failed to get), greeted me warmly and allowed me to look around without getting in my way. Unfortunately, the looking around only took about 2 minutes.

I asked Mary if she could do a gait analysis for me. She carefully explained what all the machines were looking at. I have lots of questions. She probably was glad to have someone ask the questions. Otherwise she has all this knowledge that she does not get to share with others. It is not like a group of girls get together on Friday night and talk about pronation, motion control and the collapsing of the metatarsals from heel strike to toe off.

She showed me shoes that were my size and fit (stability plus). She explained all the details as to why she chose that style of shoe for me. She then told me a bit about each of the shoes in the category. She showed me 2 different models. One in my preferred brand, New Balance, and another one from Saucony. The NB 1222 was a good fit and felt very much like my NB 857s that I just bought. The Saucony shoes were the Hurricane 9. They felt a bit lighter, but still very sturdy.

I ended up with the Sauconys. That will give me a different manufacturer that I can test out and it will give my feet a break from potentially running in the same shoe all the time.

I bought a few other things in the store and had a bizillion questions about various items.

When I was done, I told Mary that I was looking for a particular store near her location. She did not know where it was, but took the time to look it up on the Internet for me. I have never had anyone go out of their way like Mary and the other girl who helped me today at RR Sports.

I wrote a letter to their manager. It is quoted below. I will let you know what the manager has to say about his workers.

Manager, Road Runner Anaheim,
I want to tell you what a wonderful experience I had in your store today.

I live in Mexico and have not yet found a store that sells running shoes in my size there. I was thrilled when I found out last week that I was taking a trip to California and that you had retail locations. I recently (April) bought a pair of shoes through the Road Runner website, but wanted to get a gait analysis today and possibly a second pair of shoes so that I would be set for a while.

The two ladies who helped me with my shoe purchase were phenomenal. While “Mary” was helping me pick out shoes, she was very interested in answering my questions. And I had a lot. When she had questions of her own, or did not know the answers to my questions, she was willing to get help from your other staff members. That gave me even more confidence that I was getting the best help that was available.

I did not get the name of the other lady who helped me, but she was equally interested in helping me have a good experience in your store. It thrilled me more than she will know that when I asked for a product that you did not carry, she wrote that down and said she would try to see if you could stock that in the store. As a customer, I felt as though my comments were being taken seriously. Thank you.

Your staff is doing a great job. My two other encounters with RR Sports were equally satisfying. Both of those were with the Internet division. The people there were able to help me pick the closest store to my location so that I could make best use of my limited time while here in your area.

Thank you to you and your staff.

A very long 30 minute run

Today I went on a short run at 6:00 in the morning. It is a lot colder at 6 am in Long Beach than it is in Mérida. Long Beach: 64 degrees / 80% humidity. Mérida: 79 degrees / 100% humidity. Big difference.

I had planned to just run for about 30 minutes. I did not sleep well last night and just wanted to make it an easy run for the day. I was planning longer runs for later in the week. I started to think about heading back to the hotel and looked at my watch. By that time I had already run over 20 minutes. Needless to say, my run was well over 30. I did 4.92 miles in 50:36 for a pace of 10:17 per mile.

When looking at routes on a map, it really helps to know the area so that you can see about how far you need to go to get somewhere. I thought I would just run down the road and hit the beach. According to the map it should not have been too far. I ended up running to within 5 blocks of the beach, but did not know it at the time.

I saw 3 other runners out with me. I plan to leave the iPod at home and take the camera with me tomorrow. I hope it holds up OK with all my sweating. I have already water logged 2 iPod Shuffles. One was replaced under warranty. The second one died even though I had it in an Otter Box when running.

The reason I did not sleep well was 2 fold. The important one was that I was excited about running in the cooler weather. I could not wait for the sun to come up (when I got up at 6:00 it was plenty bright). Secondly, I am not used to sleeping in a bed. I think I will have to hit a drug store and buy some pain killer for the bed pains I am going through. I don’t know how you people do it all the time, but a hammock is much more comfortable.

Trouble free flights

I got into California this afternoon at 12:00 California time, which is 2:00 Merida time. That meant that when I got up at 4:00 this morning in Merida, it was 2:00 in California. Now that it is 10:00 in CA, my body says it should be midnight. Not much of a problem since I don’t normally go to bed till around midnight.

I am going to try and get up early in the morning for a good run. Lots of big hills here. I have not decided if I will run left and go down the hill to Krispy Kreme or go right and hit Taco Bell. Either way, it is up hill coming back to the hotel.