RAIN!

We finally had the start of the rainy season this weekend in sunny California. It started Thursday evening and there was a nice light rain for my Friday morning run. I really enjoyed the cooler temps, but there were "leaves" that turned out to be FROGS on the road that had me jumping hurdler style :P over them. Thank goodness for my head lamp that allowed me to spot these ickies before I stepped on them! We had a nice evening and handed out candy on Halloween night. We did not have nearly as many kiddies, but we had dressed Bella up and had her tied near the door so the kids could see her. We even had parents come up from the sidewalk to see her once the kids raved about her! She was quite the entertainment, and I am thinking she will forgive Chris and I ;-)
Saturday was set to be an "off" running day, but also a Cal football day. I was really dreading the game as sitting in the stadium with rain has been none too exciting in the past.....no matter how prepared you are, you will get drenched! Last year we followed the weather predictions which called for rain at night and ended up being soaked and not at all prepared. Luckily, this year we had plenty of warm and dry clothes to change into afterwards. The game was quite good and Cal came out on top! Next week USC......gonna be a big game!
This morning I was set to get a 20-mile run as a training run. We had carefully mapped out the course (on a really cool site I found www.geodistance.com) on-line, so we knew we were in for a long morning. We were blessed with dry but cloudy skies and the sun peeked out once in awhile. The conditions could not have been better. At any rate, I managed to do good with my hydration (with my amphipod belt) and replenishing with vanilla GU and jelly beans (thanks Bubba!). I finished 20 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes, so I should be on pace to improve my previous marathon time......but the course in Seattle is gonna be tough......so I'm trying not to get too attached to a time to beat.
We also discovered a new favorite place to shop. On our way to Berkeley on Saturday we stopped at Nugget Market in Vacaville and decided we would check out the new one that opened in Rocklin. We went today and were pretty impressed with some comparable prices to our normal market, so I might be switching for certain thing. Always nice to find a hidden treasure in your own neighborhood! So tonight should be nice with a good dinner and icing and resting my body for the week. Only need to do about 35 miles total this week :)