On New Year's Eve, I decided to set some fitness goals. I blame it on the bottle of wine I was drinking, but I felt like it would be a great idea to run another half marathon! I need to have a goal to work towards when running, cuz let's face it, I would fizzle rather quick if I didn't have one. I think Aaron had also been drinking, because he told me to sign him up too! So, I signed us up for the Santa Barbara Wine Country half marathon. I realized two things. One, never sign up for anything while under the influence of alcohol. And, two, check the course elevation changes of the route prior to signing up. The next day I realized that it was mostly uphill! Well, we found a great 16 week half marathon schedule and started training. I had to do most of my runs on the treadmill at 5am, but Aaron and I did our long runs together on the weekends while Brittany watched Elsa. Our neighborhood is EXTREMELY hilly, so it was good preparation for the course. Somewhere in the process, my parents mentioned they wanted to come out for one last visit before we moved. I mentioned they could come out during the half weekend--they could see Santa Barbara/Monterrey and watch us run the half (and watch Elsa while we did so). And, it worked out great because it was Mother's day weekend too! oh, and my Mom broke her ankle right before the trip, so it was interesting watching her try to get around.
We drove down the day prior to get our race packet and explore Santa Ynez (race finish). It was a cute town with a dutch influence.
The next day, we woke up at the crack of dawn for the half. It was a rather dreary, cloudy day, but the course was beautiful. There was a very steep hill (appropriately termed corkscrew hill) that most people walked up. You could definitely tell Aaron and I did our training in the hills, because we ran the entire way up. And, we ran the entire course. My previous halves, I started out way too fast and had to walk after the 10 mile point. I was so proud of Aaron for finishing and it was so much fun to run together!
Then, we enjoyed the wine festival afterwards for an hour and then took off to Monterrey. We LOVE Carmel/Monterrey. I think if California wasn't so expensive, I would have tried to find a practice in that area. We stopped at the Elephant seal viewing area. I have never seen so many seals in my entire life! There were hundreds of them laying on the beach. Elsa was so fascinated by them and threw quite a fit when we had to leave.
We did the 17 mile drive through Pebble Beach.
Here is Elsa smelling a flower. It cracks me up how she says "pee-eww" for anything she tries to smell. And, rather than inhaling the smell, she blows out her nose. Crazy kid.
