As Seen in Sideways
Today's run: Medium-Long Run of 10 miles at 8:43 pace
29 miles this week. Marathon is 1 week from today!
Spending the weekend in Santa Ynez Valley, stationed in Solvang, has the advantage of being close to the wine country lovingly depicted by the 2004 movie, Sideways. Those who have seen the movie may recall the Hitching Post, the restaurant where Miles meets Maya. We saw this restaurant while driving to a winery yesterday.
This morning, I was running by 6:00am, just about 10 minutes after the sun came up. I took the road out of Solvang and headed North along Alamo Pintado Road. The reward was a stunning sunrise display over the near hills, a parade of ranches, farms, and wineries (including a place where they were raising minature horses).
At one marker along the road, I saw a memorial for a young man who, riding his twin brother's motorcycle, laid it down and died in the process. I knew this only because a man I met the night before mentioned the story, explaining that when the brother bought the motorcycle, he had implored his twin to learn how to ride it because he knew that he would one day choose to ride the motorcycle. He didn't learn how, he did ride the bike, and he died.
This road was nice and quiet. Very few cars at all. One farm had some early morning activity on it, probably very wise because the heat we are expecting later today will top 90 degrees, easily. However, the morning was cool.
The slope of the road on the way out was deceptive. I knew from having plotted the route that it was largely uphill on the way out, but to the eye, it appears flat. Only when realizing that the effort required to transverse the stretch of road seemed a bit much for the pace (and a quick glance at the heart rate) did I recall that I was heading uphill.
Not long before I reached my turnaround point, I saw a sign for the Blackjack Ranch, a winery. A small green sign had been tacked on that read "As seen in Sideways". I looked up a bit and thought I recognized the building as the place where they met Stephanie (where Stephanie, played by Sandra Oh, flirts with Jack).
On the way back, it was refreshing to take a route that is mostly downhill. Usually, it seems that the way back includes more challenges than relief. Today, the quietness of the road, the beauty of the scenery, and the view of the Santa Ynez Mountains made the return on this out-and-back enjoyable.
Pulling back into the kitchy town of Solvang, I felt like I was getting going. However, as part of tapering, this run was limited to 10 miles. I won't run more than this again until marathon day!
• • •
By the way, United can blow me. My scheduled return flight was cancelled, and they didn't call to tell me. They made me change airports to get on a flight three hours later, and then that flight was delayed by over an hour (perhaps more: I haven't left LAX yet!). If you need to fly anywhere within the state of California, don't bother with United. This would never be so bad on Southwest.
29 miles this week. Marathon is 1 week from today!
Spending the weekend in Santa Ynez Valley, stationed in Solvang, has the advantage of being close to the wine country lovingly depicted by the 2004 movie, Sideways. Those who have seen the movie may recall the Hitching Post, the restaurant where Miles meets Maya. We saw this restaurant while driving to a winery yesterday.
This morning, I was running by 6:00am, just about 10 minutes after the sun came up. I took the road out of Solvang and headed North along Alamo Pintado Road. The reward was a stunning sunrise display over the near hills, a parade of ranches, farms, and wineries (including a place where they were raising minature horses).
At one marker along the road, I saw a memorial for a young man who, riding his twin brother's motorcycle, laid it down and died in the process. I knew this only because a man I met the night before mentioned the story, explaining that when the brother bought the motorcycle, he had implored his twin to learn how to ride it because he knew that he would one day choose to ride the motorcycle. He didn't learn how, he did ride the bike, and he died.
This road was nice and quiet. Very few cars at all. One farm had some early morning activity on it, probably very wise because the heat we are expecting later today will top 90 degrees, easily. However, the morning was cool.
The slope of the road on the way out was deceptive. I knew from having plotted the route that it was largely uphill on the way out, but to the eye, it appears flat. Only when realizing that the effort required to transverse the stretch of road seemed a bit much for the pace (and a quick glance at the heart rate) did I recall that I was heading uphill.
Not long before I reached my turnaround point, I saw a sign for the Blackjack Ranch, a winery. A small green sign had been tacked on that read "As seen in Sideways". I looked up a bit and thought I recognized the building as the place where they met Stephanie (where Stephanie, played by Sandra Oh, flirts with Jack).On the way back, it was refreshing to take a route that is mostly downhill. Usually, it seems that the way back includes more challenges than relief. Today, the quietness of the road, the beauty of the scenery, and the view of the Santa Ynez Mountains made the return on this out-and-back enjoyable.
Pulling back into the kitchy town of Solvang, I felt like I was getting going. However, as part of tapering, this run was limited to 10 miles. I won't run more than this again until marathon day!
• • •
By the way, United can blow me. My scheduled return flight was cancelled, and they didn't call to tell me. They made me change airports to get on a flight three hours later, and then that flight was delayed by over an hour (perhaps more: I haven't left LAX yet!). If you need to fly anywhere within the state of California, don't bother with United. This would never be so bad on Southwest.
posted by Brent at
9:11 PM
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