The Gillens.net

My sister, Cyndee, finally moved out of the state about 2 months ago, and this weekend was the first time I had an opportunity to go visit her. She found a really nice 2 bedroom apartment in just a couple of days of searching. It’s in a great location near Balboa Park, the zoo, and couple of major highways. Her commute is about 30 minutes which seems long for her, but it pretty reasonable for SoCal. In short, she’s done quite well for herself, and I’m really proud of her.

I drove her to work on Friday AM, and then I drove to Del Mar and walked around the beach bluffs. It was very pleasant despite the overcast skies. It was my first time to see the California coast since I used to live in the San Jose, and it brought back found memories of many hike/jogs along the coast. I then drove up to Encinitas and walked around a little more and saw some high quality beach volleyball play at 9:30am and I thought that was really cool and something you’d never see in Texas. At 10am, the triathlon shop, Nytro, opened up, and I went it. It had a lot of very nice and top of the line tri bikes, but it was quite a bit smaller than Richardson Bike Mart. After the tri shop, I drove south to Torrey Pines State Reserve and went on a really scenic hour long hike along the coastal bluffs again. After grabbing a little to eat, I drove back east to the Poway area, and went on a nice 2 hour trail run that had incredible views of the Poway and Ramona Lakes nestled up high in the mountains. It was definitely one of my most scenic trail runs.

I picked Cyndee up and drove to La Jolla Cove. Cyndee and we threw the frisbee around for little bit, and then I changed into my wetsuit and prepared for my first ocean swim ever! I was a little nervous, but honestly, I was more excited because the ocean wasn’t that rough and they were plenty of people out there swimming, so I was pretty confident that I’d be safe.

After diving in, the very first thing I noticed was how cold the water was on my face and forehead. It was a very sharp and intense pain right on the top of the head as it moved through the water. I was really worried about this, but thankfully it went away after about 4-5 minutes, and after that it didn’t even really feel that cold. We regrouped at the quarter mile buoy and it was nice to rest for a few minutes and chat with the other triathletes. I was shocked how little I had to tread water b/c the wetsuit and the salt water. It was really quite pleasant. Just hanging out there in the middle of La Jolla cove, treading water was really cool and one of the highlights of my trip.

On Saturday, Cyndee and I slept in and then walked 100 feet to a really nice coffee shop and had great Californian breakfast. We then drove to Balboa Park and walked around. We went to the photography museum which turned out to be really small and little disappointing.

Balboa Park in and of itself is the best attraction. We had great time just walking around. We then drove over to Point Loma and the Cabrillo National Monument which had incredible view of the entire San Diego area. This was definitely another highlight of my trip. I absolutely love walking around areas with scenic overlooks of a city!

On Sunday, I drove to Del Mar again and swam with the San Diego Triathlon Club again. This swim was quite different however because the surf was really up. Some of the breakers were about 8-10 feet, and swimming out past them proved quite difficult, and some of the swimmers didn’t make it. I just tried to dive under them, but they seemed to just keep coming and coming, and after what felt like 15 minutes (4-5 minutes real time) I was still battling them. I knew wasn’t make much ground, but I kept on pushing and eventually I made it past them. I was still pretty rough past the breakers, but this was good practice for the Alcatraz swim b/c it’ll be rough there too. Getting back in thru the waves was just as difficult. They’d crash over your head and you’d get washed around for few seconds. Then I’d try to come up and swim, but then the undertow from the wave seemed to push me back out to sea! It really felt like I was caught in the trough of the waves, getting pummeled from one side and sucked out by the undertow on the other side. Again, I knew I wasn’t making much progress on getting to shore, and I almost started panicking and I wanted to swim frantically against the undertow, but somehow I remained calm and I just thought that I’m not in a real hurry, and I’ll get to shore eventually. Just relax. You’ll make it! I felt much better once I relaxed, and I did in fact make it to shore! One the triathletes put a GPS unit in his swim cap and it measured 1.07 miles. Afterwards, some of the locals said that it was a unusually rough day for the area!

More pictures here.

I had kind of put races on the back-burner since classes, work, study, and home-life have kept me very busy this spring, but it was finally time to get out and get a couple more races (and, hopefully, awards) under my belt before I move into a new age group. Over the past few years, I have gotten comfortable being in a fairly non-competitive age group (women 25-29). However, turning thirty next year means I move into one of the most competitive age groups for women - ages 30-34. I’m hoping to learn a lot about getting stronger and faster from this new group…but it will be humbling.

So, the Big D Texas Half came up as a race to compete in because a fellow-student, Adeil Sanchez, from my Chemistry I class was running in it, too. It was his first, large organized road race, and I thought it’d be great to see him on the course and at the finish line.

David drove me to the Fair Park grounds, and I’m very glad he was there. Because of a very sad, unfortunate car accident that killed one woman and injured another man on I-30 only two hours before the race start, the highway was shut down. David did a great job, though, navigating through trucks and other cars to get me to the start on time.

The race start was delayed 15 minutes because of the highway conditions, but David and I visited, walked around, and stretched until the event started. And at 7:45 a.m, we were off!

I felt really good the entire race, slowing down to take Gatorade every now and then and to stretch a little. I conserved enough energy for the end, and I really tried to keep a consistent pace throughout. Early on, though, somewhere around mile 3, Adeil, the “rookie,” flew past me on a down-hill, looking very focused and strong. After another 6 or 7 miles, he was pretty much out of eye-shot!

The 13 miles really sailed by, and I’m always surprised at the end of a half marathon how quickly they really seem to go. At the finish line, I heard David cheering for me and saw him snapping photos. I also heard the announcer call my name. For probably the first time ever, I actually looked over at the clock to see what my finishing time was. I remember it reading something close to 1:43:05.  Unofficially, though, I was listed as second in my age group out of 148, and I received a medal at the awards ceremony.

Adeil finished 10th in his age group (males 20-24), with a time around 1:40:38. David and I look forward to seeing him at more events.

I really enjoyed this race for a number of reasons. 1) It’s just the right size to not feel overwhelmed by people before, during, and after the race. 2) The awards for best aid station really seemed to get the volunteers motivated and energized when we came through. 3) The Fair grounds are a great venue because of plenty of parking, lots of space to walk around, and plenty fried snickers bars and hot dogs. 4) The announcer/director, whose name we still don’t know, is a genuinely nice man and very encouraging to the runners at all his events we’ve attended.

You can see photos here.