I spent the better half of last week traveling through Northern California, and I went on some great runs. It was the first time I’ve been in the Bay Area in quite a while, a fact that itself makes me a little sad. My maternal grandparents lived in the Bay Area for 20-plus years, and when my grandpa died in 2018, nine years after my grandma, there was no need for me to go there regularly. I’m still at an age where the cumulative years that I would visit my grandparents make up more than half my life, which is to say, I’m still transitioning to this new normal.
My earliest memories of running take place in Santa Cruz, where my grandparents lived. My mom would take my sisters and me there every August, the time of summer when high school cross-country coaches send pre-season training schedules. I know I’m obsessed with running now but I hated cross-country, and it wasn’t even because one of the coaches was a racist who once asked me if I was on “Baghdad time.” (What does that even mean?)
I didn’t follow the pre-season training schedule, except when my mom would lure me on runs with her in Santa Cruz, promising me a muffin from the coffee shop by the beach afterwards. She once tricked me and my sister into going on a five-mile run and we started crying at the Boardwalk when we realized it wasn’t the three miles she had said it would be.
I stopped in Santa Cruz for one night last week, and I had high hopes of running along West Cliff Drive, a scenic path that overlooks the ocean there. Unfortunately it was down-pouring and because I’m a real baby about running in the rain, I didn’t do it. I did go on a beautiful trail run in Marin County a few days prior, and a not-as-beautiful but still enjoyable run through downtown Berkeley before that. (In terms of baked goods, I had a blueberry muffin before the run in Marin and a croissant before the one in Berkeley.) I’ve been finding runs using Strava routes, a map feature that makes paying for the premium subscription worth it to me.
In other news, I’m trying to get a pushup challenge going over on the Run the Shoes Instagram. I’m always trying to incorporate more strength workouts into my running routine, and consistent pushups seem like a good place to start. Even if you aren’t a runner, doing a few pushups a day seems like a harmless habit to get into. I hope you guys will join.