Saturday Outside of the Zone

Saturday was another adventure outside of my comfort zone. The Monkeys & I spent a few hours out at Folsom Lake volunteering with TBF Racing. We got to work the One Mile Aid Station at their New Year's DUathlon. We got to see everyone through on their first mile out and as they began their last mile back. It was lots of fun and I'm looking forward to my next experience volunteering with them.

Which is next weekend!

And I'll totally be honest with you that the main reason I signed up was for the $40 Entry Certificate you get for completing your shift. They've totally got a trail run series I'm itching to do and y'all know I'm a broke ass state worker! So, yes, any chance I get of mitigating running expenses, especially when it involves having fun & meeting great folks, I think I'm gonna hop up on that bus.

Wouldn't you?

I'll need to volunteer for three more events to be able to run the entire Trail Race Series for free, but I think I can do that. I am pretty crafty.


If you've been around The Verbosery long enough, you know my dirty little secret*, but I was totally geeking out on all the bikes. And being in a line up of athletes all waiting to go to the same event. So maybe I wasn't going to do the event, but that only kind of matters.

Right?


More bikes!
After we were done, we grabbed some lunch and then headed out on a lunatic's mission. Because I had seen a face on a website and got it in my head that I just had to know if hers was, in fact, the right face. Because no matter how unsure I am that I am really ready for a second dog, the whole in our lives left by Tatiana continues to be a gaping wound, in my heart, and something I'd like to be able to close.

We ended up at two different shelters, the face I'd seen having already gone home. We saw lots of lovely faces but none that really spoke to my heart. None that really felt like ours. But, oh, such adorable, lovey faces. I wanted to smooch so many. Take home? Not as much.

After our second stop, we cut Gomi loose in the huge dog park at the Sacramento County Shelter. There was a six month old Doberman already in the park and, of course, they made fast friends.




And, of course, by "fast friends" I mean "he wore my dog out good". It seems my sweet, funky dog is finally that "old lady" dog that needs a break well before the young pup does. It made me think of how she was with Tatiana, always so ready to play, doing the bounce and bark thing, and Tatiana, well over "play" years ago, would play for awhile and then get tired and just knock Gomi on her ass.

Sure, we'll play, kid. Let's play Mind Your Rump.

In slightly different news, I think I've found the race I want to run for my first marathon. The 40th Anniversary edition of the Portland Marathon. It was in Runner's World as a top race for first timers. It's about the time frame I'd planned to run my first, and it looks like fun. We can drive there & back, and that just leaves figuring out where to stay.

Oh, and the training part.


Training Schedule

We're going to continue to look into the logistics of it, and I may be registering around the beginning of February.

I'll let you know how that works out.

*I actually don't know how to ride a bike. Which makes my plans to start doing duathlons and triathlons next year a little complicated. Yup. I went there.