running diaries- 10 miles saturday morning

the alarm goes off and my thoughts immediately go towards the task at hand. I have made it my goal to run 10 miles this morning, 10 good hard miles! The most until now is 8, so I feel ready but still nervous. I quickly change, grab some toast with PB, grab a bottle of water, prep the ipod and the GPS and am out the door. A quick stretch of everything and now its time to decide which direction to head in. I don't want tons of hills but quickly realize that this will happen regardless, especially near here... I don't want to drive somewhere, so I head towards South Park... Up Robinson, down Florida, up Upas and the two hills there are KILLER- steep!! There are some people out and the air feels fresh and clean, a friendly "good morning" to the little old man outside his lawn and I continue. I turn South on 30th going through South Park, I love this cute little neighborhood, Rebeccas coffee shop is packed as always

(and they freaken rock- one morning while out on a semi long 6 mile run, I didnt take a water bottle I ran in hoping they would let me have some and they immediately handed me a disposable cup full of ice water- right at that moment I could have married the coffee shop, talk about customer service),

 but I totally digress, passing through the neighborhood, I head down on 30th until I am down in Barrio Logan I think I cut across K street, I continue with my breathless greeting of, "good morning!" or "buenos dias!" to anyone I encounter. It really disarms people when you acknowledge them. Its sort of great and all most people really want, and its also great for me to get an ackonwledgement. I get tons of strange looks, what is this crazy woman doing running through the neighborhood? people must think. Over onto 28th street and now I am on Imperial ave in Barrio Logan---here, there are tons of people out early and I continue my greeting blitz. Not many runners head through here and here I am I am heading down, waiting for the GPS to mark 5 miles so I can turn around.

 Thats when I decide that I am  very close to Chicano Park. How cool would it be to have run to Chicano park and back all the way from my house? Fucken cool I respond to myself. Head down towards Commercial st, somehow end up on Julian st, and on Cesar Chavez Parkway... down cross the freeway entrance and BAM!!! Run up to the Kiosko, touch it and turn around! VICTORY! Halfway down! I Stretch out everything that is tightening up and keep going. At this point, if I walk to much, I will just stop.

Must keep going.... there are hills tons of hills on the way back...ouch... keep going... now theres three miles to go, ooop- now its 2.7, so close... two miles...and slowly it winds down... 1.5 miles... 1 mile...  done!!!!!! All this running to the soundtrack of a crazy person involving everything and anything from rage against the machine, bad hip hop (hey its got good rhythm), el gran silencio and tons of other random goodness.  I slow to a sort of drunken walk, my muscles have had enough, I drink the last of my water bottle and slowly head back. I have a few blocks to go after I hit ten miles, so I walk and start stretching everything out...tight shoulders and calfs. Get home, continue the stretching, shower, eat food at a near daze and pass out into a delicious, calming deep sleep for three hours... wake up, POWERFUL