As I stood on the ledge of the cliff overlooking the ocean blue
full of life’s infinite possibilities,
I turned around and looked at you.
I asked, “Are you going to take the leap
of faith along side me?
Or are you going to just sit there and enjoy the view?”
I’m a huge fan of national parks and one of the parks that I had wanted to visit for a while was Joshua Tree National Park. When the stars aligned and I got a deal on airfare and lodging to Palm Springs, California during my daughter’s spring break, I knew the time had finally come for me (and my daughter) to visit the park.
Joshua Tree National Park is of course known for their Joshua Trees but also where the Mojave and Colorado Deserts meet, creating a unique ecosystem. Joshua Trees are found in the Mojave Desert throughout parts of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona besides southeastern California. If you’re lucky you may also see Bighorn Sheep, Desert Tortoise, Chuckwalla, Greater Roadrunner, and Gambel’s Quail. If you’re unlucky, you may see a rattlesnake or mountain lion.
One of the first things I did when I got to Palm Springs was go to the visitor center to ask them about visiting the park. They had many helpful pieces of advice, like which entrance to go in (West Entrance Station), to bring enough water and snacks for the day since there’s none in the park, and to fill up with gas in advance because there are also no gas stations in the park.
We were also advised to stay in the northern part of the park since the southern part wouldn’t have anything unique to offer that time of year and “it simply wouldn’t be worth the drive,” in the volunteer’s words. Some “must-see” spots included Keys View and Cholla Cactus Garden. Honestly, there were plenty of trails in the northern part that we easily filled our day there anyway. Perhaps if we had been staying at one of the campgrounds we would have ventured further south. I also read the post on Joshua Tree National Park from the Daring Dayhikes blog, https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/156167110/posts/1381. He stayed there for three days and was able to go more in-depth than I was.
I thought surely there would be a grocery store just before the West Entrance to the park, and there are a handful maybe in Twentynine Palms, but if you’re staying in Palm Springs, you’ll have a much greater selection of groceries in Palm Springs than Twentynine Palms. I overpaid for what I got and couldn’t even find any crackers in the store, it had such a limited selection. Still, it was enough and more importantly, I was able to get plenty of bottled water for the day.
There are picnic tables scattered throughout the park and some grills as well. We ate lunch at Hidden Valley and hiked around there. There’s a cluster of spots worth checking out in the area, including Minerva Hoyt, Cap Rock, Oyster Bar, and Hall of Horrors. There are some bathrooms at some of the more popular areas, but don’t count on them being at all of the trailheads.
When I was there in March, there was no need to purchase a national parks pass online in advance but I would check before your trip, especially during busy months. I had to wait maybe 20 minutes to get into the park, which I didn’t think was that bad. I’ve read online that some people have had to wait a couple of hours at the park entrance because there’s so much traffic. No matter what time of year, or what park I’m going to, I’ve found it’s always better to go early in the morning if possible, to beat the crowds or at least get a head start on them. According to the National Park Service, October through May are the busiest months, but maybe we got lucky since we went there on a Monday morning.
Although there are some parts of the park that are for four-wheel drive and high clearance vehicles only, the vast majority of the park is easily accessible by most vehicles, including sedans. I had a mid-size SUV but saw plenty of cars at the park and never saw any areas where a car would have struggled.
Climbing is available and you can find information online and at park stations. We also saw many cyclists and an option is to bike the 38-mile California Riding and Hiking Trail, which runs east to west and is considered challenging, partly because you have to bring all of your water in with you (or drop it off in advance). Since it’s considered a point-to-point course, you’ll also have to arrange for transportation back to where you originally parked your car, or go with a company that arranges cycling tours in the park.
Although we had talked about going back to the park another day later in the week, since our park pass was good for a week, we didn’t end up going back. It’s about an hour drive to the park from Palm Springs, and that’s just to the entrance, and doesn’t include wait time to get into the park. We decided we had seen plenty in one day and didn’t want to spend another full day to go back. Still, it’s one of the most unique parks and I highly recommend going there and loved my time there. Sometimes, a day is enough, though, especially when there are many other places you want to visit in an area.
Have you been to Joshua Tree National Park and if so, what did you think? Anything I missed here that should have been mentioned? If you haven’t been, would you like to go?
For more info, go to the US National Park Service website: https://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm
Happy travels!
Donna
Disclaimer: I received an entry to the Savannah Women’s Half Marathon to review as a part of being a Bibrave/Vibe Ambassador.
When I had the opportunity to run the Savannah Women’s Half Marathon as part of the Bibrave/now Vibe community (ie free race entry), I jumped at the chance. I had been to Savannah before, but only briefly, as a day trip from Hilton Head Island, and I always wanted to go back. This was my perfect opportunity. Plus, I hated the half marathon I ran as my half marathon for Georgia, the Run the Reagan Half Marathon, Georgia-14th state, so I viewed the Savannah Women’s Half as my redemption race for Georgia.
The Savannah Women’s Half Marathon and 5k was held April 6, 2024 and the expo was most of the day on April 5. In the emails before the race, it said we would receive a “gift” along with our packet pickup, so I was curious about what that would be. It was a nice black zippered bag that could be worn as a waist pack or small crossbody bag with the name of the race embroidered on it. I also liked the shirts but was disappointed to learn they had already run out of my size, even though there were still three hours left to go for the expo, so I had to get the next size up. I didn’t linger around, but there were vendors selling shirts, shoes, and the typical other vendors like a chiropractor and similar running-related vendors.
Race morning was a crisp 47 degrees at race start, 7:30, with some wind gusts but not awful. Runners self-seeded into various paces, such as sub-8 minute mile, 9-minute mile, 10-minute mile, etc. There were also pacers and I tried to stay near the 2 hour pacer. The announcer did a good job of slightly spacing out the runners at the start by waiting a bit after letting the sub-8 minute runners start and telling the next group to wait until she said go, and so forth for the other groups. The 5k and half marathon runners started together but the Girls on the Run 5k (the group this race supported) started after the rest of us.
The race course wound along the downtown area and went through two parks. I was warned about the cobblestones by a friend who had run this race before, but I didn’t find them difficult to run on at all, and they were only minimally on the course. I thought the entire race felt pancake flat. It was especially scenic with the tree-lined areas draped in Spanish moss.
There were plenty of porta pots and first aid stations throughout the course, likewise there was plenty of water and electrolytes on the course. Where appropriate, roads were closed and/or monitored by volunteers or police officers. The course truly did highlight the most scenic parts of Savannah and wound around a couple of parks and finished at famous Forsyth Park, going by the fountain first.
Although I had been dealing with Achilles pain in the couple of weeks prior to the race, and fully expected the pain to start around mile 2 or 3, somehow, I managed to run the entire race with no Achilles pain. The weird thing about my Achilles problem is it had been sporadic, so I could run 2 miles one day before I was brought to a walk, and even that was painful, but on another day, I ran 8 miles with no pain at all. I couldn’t link the pain to shoes, hills, speed work, or anything else, so I never knew what to expect when I went out on a run.
Honestly, I found myself struggling mentally during this race, starting early on. I’m not sure why (actually I’m going to go through my theory about this in another post), but I just wasn’t in the right headspace for this race. Pretty much for the entire race, I had to keep up the positive talk, telling myself everything from “It’s ok if you have to drop out,” “Just see how long you can go,” “The faster you go, the sooner it will be over,” “Just keep moving forward,” and “Just f*ing keep going.”
Despite my negative attitude during the race, my mile splits were pretty consistent, hovering slightly under 9-minute miles for every mile except miles 9 and 10 (they were 9:02 and 9:04), which is where I often struggle during half marathons. My watch decided to shut off completely somewhere around mile 11.2, even though the battery was fully charged. This had happened during a training run so I wasn’t completely surprised. I had even thought about buying a new watch because I know mine is probably due to be replaced, but I didn’t. I was able to start my watch back, but I lost a couple of minutes and somewhere around 0.4 miles, so my Strava time looked like the course was short, when in reality, it was a bit long, or at least the way I ran, it was longer than 13.1 miles.
Still, I had no idea what my chip time was until I got the email with my unofficial finish time, which was lightning fast after I finished. My unofficial time turned out to be my official finish time, 1:57:54, seventh in my age group, with an average pace of 9:00. BTW, this is a fast course, with the top two women in my age group finishing in 1:45 and the first finisher’s time was 1:21:21. In case you’re wondering, the race was open to males as well, despite the name, and for 2024, there were 61 male finishers, compared to 1,131 females.
At the finish line, there were volunteers handing out medals that looked like the famous Cathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, bottles of water, and a clear plastic bag with fruit, a fruit and grain bar, a bottle of water, and chocolate milk. We had 2 tickets for beer on our race bib. The grassy area of the park was filled with runners and areas for runners like the VIP area, gear check, beer, and more, plus there was a band playing on a stage that was really good. It was a sunny day and many people were hanging out with friends chatting about the race.
This race truly is a beautiful, well-organized race that I highly recommend. Even though I didn’t enjoy it as much as I would have liked, that had absolutely nothing to do with the race itself, but more what was going on inside my head. You can sign up for next year’s race or read about the logistics of the race here: https://www.savannahsportscouncil.com/our-events/savannah-womens-half/
Have you run the Savannah Women’s Half Marathon or want to run it? If so, please share your thoughts!
Happy running!
Donna
I’ve been all over California since I started traveling as an adult, from San Francisco and Napa Valley a few times to Los Angeles and Long Beach, to the Santa Monica area a couple of times, to stunning San Diego (one of my favorite places anywhere), I’ve hiked all over and backpacked multiple nights in Yosemite (went there a couple of times), Redwood National Park, and now Palm Springs. There are still more places in California I’d love to go to including Big Sur and Death Valley National Park. As you can tell, any time I get the chance, I return to California, but back to my main point here, Palm Springs.
One thing I didn’t understand before I arrived in Palm Springs is just how windy it is here. I’m talking wind mills going like crazy, dust storms blowing, feels like you’re running uphill when running into the wind kind of windy. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing. In general, wind can be kind of nice, especially on a hot day, but I wasn’t prepared for the severity of the winds in Palm Springs when driving through the wind mill area in the northern part of Palm Springs. It was fine but it did make me feel like I should be more aware when driving, not that there was anything I could have done differently.
I also didn’t fully appreciate just how compact of a city Palm Springs is, especially if you’re primarily talking about downtown Palm Springs, which is only a couple of miles long. One day on a long run, I literally ran the length of the city of Palm Springs on a 14 mile run. It was a straight shot along one of the main roads, Palm Canyon Road, so I didn’t venture off through any neighborhoods, but still, I was shocked when I saw the city limits on both ends during my run. There were sidewalks the entire way and since it was in the morning before some of the shops and restaurants opened, the downtown area wasn’t crowded yet. One of the best ways to explore a city truly is by foot.
One of my first stops in Palm Springs was to the Visitor Center. The two women there were helpful and full of advice and tips. When I asked about rattlesnakes in the area, both said they had never seen one here and they had both lived here decades, so that made me feel a bit better. They also said snakes are much more active during the summer months when they’re seeking water, and with it being March, I felt like as long as my daughter and I stayed aware when hiking and didn’t touch anything like a tree or rock, we should be fine.
Although I was aware of how expensive Palm Springs can be before coming here, I discovered there are some affordable options. I found several cute, locally-owned restaurants and cafes with delicious food at reasonable prices. We also ate in the hotel room a couple of nights, with food from the deli of a nearby grocery store, which made up for the other more expensive meals we had. We’ve always enjoyed picking up something for lunch at a grocery store and eating it along the way while hiking, and of course we did that here as well. As with restaurants, there are hotels in the area with a huge range of prices from several hundred dollars a night to ones that are half that but still clean and safe, albeit not with a spa and other high-end offerings.
Speaking of safe, I never felt unsafe whether I was running by myself in the mornings or walking around the city. I’ve always followed the basic rule of not walking alone at night, no matter where I am, but especially in an area where you don’t live. My daughter and I were out past dark one evening at a street festival and I felt perfectly safe.
The people of Palm Springs seemed friendly and courteous, whether it was shop-owners or just people walking or running on the sidewalks. Most people said hello or waved when going by. Many of the people working in local shops and restaurants thanked me for coming and chatted a bit as well. I also found Palm Springs to be an easy city to drive and navigate in general. The grid system the streets are laid out on are easy to figure out and I was able to figure out where I needed to go for the most part on my own without using Google Maps after the first day (running did help as well).
I appreciated and was aware of the mid-century modern style of the houses in Palm Springs the city is famous for. What I was surprised by was the abundance of classic cars everywhere, although perhaps that shouldn’t come as such a surprise in hindsight. Apparently Palm Springs even has its own style called Desert Modernism, named for the combination of mid-century modern with the dramatic mountains that surround the area.
Speaking of mountains, Palm Springs has not one but three mountain ranges that wrap around the city, the San Jacinto, Santa Rosa, and San Bernadino Mountains, with the most famous being the San Jacinto Mountains. The San Jacinto Peak is the sixth highest peak in the United States, and the most popular way to ascend the peak is via the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Once at the top, there are trails you can hike plus there are two restaurants, observation decks, a natural history museum, two documentary theaters, and a gift shop. If you’re hard core and want to hike to the peak on your own two feet, there’s the strenuous 17.5 mile Cactus to Clouds Trail that goes straight up to 10,834 feet from the desert floor.
While I knew there would be epic hiking in the Palm Springs area, I had no idea there are literally dozens of trails, many that are accessible directly from Palm Springs, plus all of the trails at the top of San Jacinto Mountain. If you’re willing and able to drive about 30 minutes outside the city, there are even more hiking options in Indian Canyons and Tahquitz Canyon. This isn’t even including all of the trails in Joshua Tree National Park, just about an hour’s drive from Palm Springs. Plus, Palm Desert, which is about 30 minutes from Palm Springs has many hiking trails.
Palm Springs was one of the few cities I’ve visited where I could see myself living and the cost of living doesn’t appear to be that much higher than where I live (thanks to the skyrocketing cost of living in my area). I would of course want to look more into it and visit during various times of the year, but I have plenty of time before I retire. In short, I definitely see myself returning, maybe to another city in the area like Palm Desert, to see what it’s like there.
Have you ever been to Palm Springs and if so, what did you think of it? Do you want to visit Palm Springs but just haven’t gone yet?
Happy travels,
Donna
Since I’ve been running for well, let’s just say a long time, I’ve picked up my fair share of running habits over the years, both good and bad. These running habits have also changed so things I do now I may not have done five or ten years ago and some things I used to do, I no longer do. I always like to learn from my mistakes but I’m also aware that what may work for one person may not work for another so everyone needs to figure out what does and doesn’t work for them.
Let’s start out with some of my best running habits that I’m currently doing. One thing I’m pretty strict about is foam rolling after every single run. First I like to stretch out my hamstrings and open my hips a bit before foam rolling. I’ve been doing that for years and I firmly believe it’s the reason my Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS) didn’t return once it was finally resolved. I use my foam roller all over my legs, starting with my hamstrings, then my calves, then my IT bands, and finally my quads. Occasionally I’ll foam roll my back and glutes but only if they’ve been tight or bothering me.
Another good running habit I’ve stuck with is getting enough good, quality sleep. Some people may not even associate sleep with running but to me, it’s probably the most important thing you can do for your body, not just when it comes to recovery from running but just having a healthy life in general. Every night, no matter what, I make sure I stop using my phone at least thirty minutes and preferentially an hour before bedtime and I like to read a book to help my brain and body settle down. I’ll also sometimes have some Nuun Rest if I feel like I need a little extra something to help me sleep. It has good-for-you things like magnesium and tart cherry extract to help you sleep better.
I started strength training several years ago, in fact so many years ago I don’t even remember how long it’s been. Now that I’m over 40 and it’s a battle between Father Time and muscle loss, I make sure I do strength training two or three times a week. I know I’m not going to gain much if any muscle at this point in my life but I just want to maintain what I can and limit the inevitable muscle loss. Having strong muscles helps you in just about every aspect of life, not just running but as a runner, strength training can help you be more efficient and minimize injuries.
Nutrition is also an important aspect of running and I consider myself an overall healthy eater. Yes, I have desserts but instead of having half a tub of ice cream, I’ll have a small scoop occasionally or a cookie or a small piece of cake, etc. In other words, I don’t restrict myself and not much of anything is totally off limits. If I want a cookie, I’ll have a cookie, but I make sure it’s a good one and not just some junk that someone from work brought in that doesn’t even taste good. I also make sure I eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and healthy grains. Although I still eat chicken and fish, I rarely eat any red meat and I found I felt better when I cut that out of my diet. One big thing that I don’t have in my diet is sugary drinks. Many years ago I stopped drinking soda and other sugary drinks, including diet soda and I haven’t missed it at all.
Now on to the not-so-great running-related habits I have. One of the first things that pops to mind is warming up before a run. I’m terrible about this and the only time I do it is when I’m with the Fleet Feet group I mentor and that’s because someone else makes us all do it. That’s not to say I hate it because really I don’t but for whatever reason, when I’m running by myself or with other people that don’t warm-up, I almost never do warm-up exercises.
Another bad running habit I have that I’ve been working on is I tend to run my easy runs too fast. I know your fast runs should be fast and your easy runs easy but I tend to go into auto-pilot and not pay attention to my speed on my easy runs. I’ll look down at my watch 20 minutes into an easy run and see I’ve been going too fast and try to slow it down but I need to get better at this.
The final thing that I need to get better at when running is not putting on sunscreen before runs. I tell myself I’ll be running in a shaded area and I have a hat to protect my face but my arms and legs are still exposed to the sun and even if it’s shady, there are still areas that are sunny. There’s really no excuse for not wearing sunscreen, especially on a sunny day. I used to do cancer research for many years so I’m well aware of the risks and I know this is a bad habit that can have severe consequences.
Now I’m going to throw out some bad running habits I used to have but not anymore thankfully that will make some of you laugh or maybe even cringe. In college, I used to run in sneakers I had since who knows when and I never once gave proper fit or mileage a thought. I also developed excruciating shin splints that I believe must have turned into a stress fracture because of wearing these old shoes. That bad habit of not having good running shoes came to a screeching halt.
Nor did I give what I wore on runs a second thought until I experienced chafing in places I didn’t even know could chafe. When you’re so chafed you’re bleeding but don’t realize it until you get in the shower, it will give anyone the motivation to seek out proper running attire. I also didn’t pay any attention to what I ate or drank before a run until I had some terrible nausea and heartburn after eating bacon and fried eggs with toast for breakfast before going on a long run (I know, what was I thinking?). In my defense, I was visiting family and didn’t have much of a choice about what was for breakfast. In hindsight, I should have just had the toast before my run and saved the rest for after my run.
What about you all? What are some of your best and worst running habits you’ve acquired?
Happy running!
Donna
I came upon this article by Outside where they list 50 underrated state parks, one in each state, and I wanted to share it here (link is shown below). The author points out that of the 424 units managed by the National Park Service, 26% of visitors went to the eight most visited parks. However, depending on who you believe online, there are anywhere from a whopping 10,000 state parks to 2,500, the latter number being called “official” state parks. I’ve also seen numbers around 6,800 state parks. Even at the low end, that’s a ton of state parks.
Like the author of the Outside article, I also tend to seek places that are off the beaten path. The result was this list of underrated state parks compiled by the author based on research into state parks, campgrounds, and trails. Other outdoor writers and trail users across the United States were also asked to give some of their favorite hidden gems.
Of course I read through the list to see which ones I’ve been to, and it turns out I’ve been to a surprisingly decent amount of places on the list. Many of the places I haven’t been to are ones that I’d love to go to. However, I have a bone to pick with the author. This is supposed to be a list of state parks, and yet some national parks/monuments/areas are on the list, like North Cascades National Park in Washington (one place I’d love to go to), Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota (I’ve been there and it’s definitely worth going to), Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area in Montana (another place I’d love to go to), and some others. There are plenty of beautiful state parks that could have easily been chosen here, like Custer State Park in South Dakota or one of dozens in Washington. In other words, there was no reason to include national parks in this list when there are plenty of state parks to choose from, especially when that’s supposedly the whole point of the article.
Being from North Carolina, I scanned the list until I reached the state park chosen for North Carolina, South Mountains State Park. Huh? Never heard of it. In fact, I had to look it up on Google Maps just to see exactly where it is. I’ve spent plenty of time everywhere from the mountains to the beaches and many places in between in North Carolina and yet I’ve never heard of this place, but maybe it’s just me. I would have thought any number of other state parks would have made the list, like Gorges State Park, Hanging Rock, Chimney Rock, or Stone Mountain State Park. Maybe I should check out South Mountains State Park to see for myself.
Here’s the list. See what you think and if you agree with the choice for your state, or some of the other states if you’ve been to any of them.
Let me know what you think of the list, especially for any of the state parks you’ve been to!
Happy travels!
Donna
I read this story on the iRun Canadian running blog, https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/78597171/posts/4967553742 and it gave me some ideas. The woman who wrote the blog post included pretty much anything you could imagine running-related, from Lululemon and other expensive brands of clothing and shoes, down to laundry detergent to wash all those sweaty running clothes in. If I had someone paying for absolutely anything I could possibly wish for running-related, what would I buy? It’s fun to dream, right?
For starters, I’d have someone put together my Sole treadmill that the movers took apart when I moved in July and I haven’t had the time or money to pay a professional to put it back together again. No need for a brand new one, since this one is relatively new and worked great before it was in a million pieces (those movers were the WORST!).
Next, I’d buy an infrared sauna, not a portable one like in the other blog post, but not a giant 4 person sauna either. A simple one person sauna, but not one where your head sticks out would be great. I don’t know about you but those portable saunas where your head sticks out just don’t seem right (seriously, check out the link above to the blog post to see that contraption and if any of you actually own one, please correct me if you think it’s the best thing ever).
I do like the Canadian runner’s idea of limitless race entries for not only herself but her friends as well. How much fun would that be to tell your running buddies that you would be paying for all of them to run in Napa Valley or Spain? I would also take it a step further and have all travel-related fees paid by my sponsor. Now that would be amazing! Half marathon in Iceland anyone?
Another thing the Canadian runner and I agree on is getting some compression boots like Normatec air compression boots and while we’re at it, let’s go all in and get the Normatec 3 Full Body that massages your arms, hips, and legs. Of course I’d have to also get a Hypervolt 2 Pro Heat Pack to work out any kinks with the added perk of heat. These would be used in addition to weekly deep tissue massages. I’d be feeling good after all that!
I’d get a fancier Garmin watch than the one I have that’s a few years old at this point and even then wasn’t one of their fancy ones but is pretty basic. I would also stock up on all of my favorite Nuun hydration products and Honey Stinger waffles and bars. I’d pick up some JUNK Brands headbands, Sprints running hats, an unlimited supply of running shoes, Pro Compression socks, and Turtle gloves. Finally, I’d get different colors of Shokz open-ear headphones (I only have one pair of blue ones I’ve had for several years and I’m going to cry the day they stop working).
Lest this all be just about me (and my running buddies when we travel to races), I’d donate annually to Girls on the Run, a group near and dear to my heart since it sparked the love of running in my daughter. If someone is bankrolling my running-related endeavors, surely they’d go along with the idea of supporting and empowering young girls. I’d also support local races by donating monthly to ones that come across my radar.
What about you? What are some things you’d buy if you had an unlimited budget for running-related expenditures?
Happy running!
Donna
This post was inspired by my other post What has running brought into your life that you otherwise wouldn’t have had? Similar to running, travel has brought into my life so many things that I wouldn’t have otherwise had, nor could I have ever imagined how radically travel would shape who I am today. Fortunately I don’t have many negative travel experiences so I’m just going to focus on the positive travel experiences here.
One of the first things to come to mind that travel has brought to my life is an open mind when it comes to people from different cultures and lifestyles. I grew up in West Virginia, a state not exactly known for their open-minded people, or at least not when I grew up there. My parents and grandparents were likewise not what I would call open-minded when it came to people from other cultures or alternative lifestyles.
It was only when I went away to college that I discovered just how sheltered in many ways my childhood had been. Sure, there were some people from other countries in my schools but they were by far the minority. The ethnic restaurants in my hometown consisted of Americanized Mexican and Chinese foods which today I wouldn’t even consider eating.
I also took my first international vacation when I was in college after I won a day cruise to Freeport, Bahamas that included a hotel stay in Freeport (3 or 4 nights; I don’t remember which) and a day cruise on the same smallish cruise ship back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That trip opened my eyes up to travel and left me with wanting more. It was my first exposure to international food and culture and I wanted to experience more.
Travel has also brought me countless experiences I’ve been fortunate enough to share with friends and family. The older I get, the less materialistic I am and the more important experiences are for me. Instead of buying me a piece of expensive jewelry, take me on a vacation where we can make some memories.
I’ve always thought it was imperative, not just important, but necessary to take my daughter along when I travel. She had flown to Florida, Vermont, and Hawaii all before she turned two years old. She’s gone to places like Austria, Germany, New Zealand, the Canary Islands, Peru, Chile, Portugal, Costa Rica, the Caribbean and all except three states in the United States. Her teachers told me over and over that they saw personally how travel had helped shape and influence my daughter. One teacher thanked me for taking my daughter along on vacations because “travel is one of the best forms of education.” I fully concur.
Travel has educated not only my daughter but also myself. I’ve learned about cultures in a diverse array of places around the world that you just can’t otherwise learn. You can’t watch a video on YouTube and be effected by it in the same way as when you’re there in person. By watching a video, you only see what’s on the surface. You miss things like the smells, being able to look around beyond the person being videoed, you can’t ask questions in real time (I know, unless it’s a live streaming video). Instead of just watching something, you’re more of an active participant.
Travel has shown me that people are mostly helpful, most of the time. Sure, there are exceptions like pickpockets and at the most extreme end of the spectrum, people that do others physical harm, but for the most part, those are rare and can usually be mitigated by staying aware of your surroundings, not having valuables out in the open, and avoiding known dangerous areas. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, even on vacation, and that’s just a fact of life.
Another thing travel has brought into my life is the ability to be more resilient. I didn’t have an easy childhood so I already had a good foothold in being resilient but travel has expanded that. Things often go awry when you’re traveling. Your luggage is lost by the airline (one reason I never check a bag with an airline; see my post Never Check a Bag with an Airline Again), you miss a flight and there are no more flights out that day, you get lost, you get injured or sick, your credit card doesn’t work in another country, etc.
How you handle those issues has a lot to do with how resilient you are. If for example you miss a flight and just break down in tears in the airport and can’t think straight, it’s going to be much more difficult to figure out what to do than if you can remain clearheaded and find someone else who can help you if you don’t know what to do. One thing I say to my daughter over and over is, panicking never helps. I can’t think of a single scenario when panicking would make a bad situation better. Travel has given me the ability to stop, take a deep breath, and with a clear head, figure out what to do when something goes wrong in my life.
A final thing that comes to mind that travel has brought me is it’s helped bring my daughter and me closer. We have travel memories that we’ll both forever cherish, like when we first saw a sunset at Sunset Cliffs in San Diego, when we took that boat ride in New Zealand and laughed the entire time, when we ate so many delicious meals together all over the world, standup paddle boarding in multiple states, spontaneously seeing dolphins on a walk along the water in Florida and that same day seeing peacocks in a neighborhood, running half marathons together in multiple states, and on and on.
What are some things that travel has brought into your life?
Happy travels!
Donna
The 2023 Mill Chill was supposed to be December 10, 2023 but due to severe thunderstorms and a chance of strong winds and flooding in the area, the race was postponed to January 14, 2024, hence my strange title. The Mill Chill is a 4-mile race in Rocky Mount, NC normally held in mid-December. First let me give a little more background and tell why I wanted to run this race.
All proceeds of this race go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, the course is said to be scenic with views of the Tar River and is only an hour from my house, there are over 30 breweries at the race (more on that in a second), there’s music and food trucks, and the race has a start time of 1:30 pm, meaning I don’t have to get out of bed super early or stay overnight before the race and it shouldn’t be freezing cold during the race (well, actually, that’s if the race is in December. In January, who knows what you might get). What’s not to like about all that?
When you sign up, you can choose a local brewery to represent. The fastest runners from each brewery are tallied up, cross country style, and the top three breweries with the fastest runners get bragging rights and a trophy. Since many breweries where I live have running clubs, this is a fun way for runners who know each other from brewery runs to run the race together. After the race there is of course beer from dozens of local breweries, food trucks, and a live band. The mill is by a river, so on a nice day, it should be a fun way to hang out with friends after the race and you have the ambience of the river.
I was nervous about the race being postponed to mid-January because January is our worst month. It’s not uncommon for us to get freezing rain or ice during the month or be in the 40’s and raining; not technically freezing rain but not weather I’d want to run in. It doesn’t snow that much here in central North Carolina and in fact hasn’t snowed at all this winter so I wasn’t concerned about snow. We had been getting some thunderstorms in the week prior, with downpours and strong winds so I was concerned that might happen again on race day. However, when I checked the forecast two days before the race, sunny skies with a high of 54 was predicted.
Then we got yet another downpour the day before the race and the night before the race, we got an email from the race director saying they had changed the course from a 4 mile race to a 5k. Portions of the course were flooded and without proper approval and permits from the town to have the course on other nearby roads, they were left with the decision to just shorten the course. So now we’ve gone from a 4 mile race in December to a 5k in January. Not what I signed up for, but I realize the weather threw a wrench into the plans and they did the best they could based on the circumstances.
Packet pickup was on race day, starting at 11 am, or you could have picked it up back in December when it was supposed to be held or the day before the race. Since I live an hour away, I picked mine up on race day. I picked up my race bib and short-sleeve shirt (we had the option of a turquoise blue or a slate greyish blue); easy peasy. There were some people with tables and displays set up on the lawn but other than the one for Multiple Sclerosis, I didn’t pay much attention to them, other than grabbing a bottle of free hand sanitizer from some local doctor.
It was sunny but breezy with 14 mph winds and temperatures in the low 40’s (a far cry from that predicted 54), and the wind was quite cold when it blew so my brewery running buddies and I went inside to wait until it was closer to race start. Rocky Mount Mills is a former cotton mill that dates back to 1818 and now is a large campus with restaurants, breweries, a beer garden, Battle Park with trails for mountain biking and running/walking, and tiny homes you can rent. A friend of mine stayed in a tiny home here for the weekend over the summer and loved it, but back to the race.
The race started promptly at 1:30 pm, right after the national anthem was sung. We were told this was a fast race with many collegiate runners so to let the faster runners have the front area. Although some of my brewery running friends had run this race before, it was on the original 4 mile course, so none of us knew what to expect.
I started out in about the back of the top third of the pack and my first mile was way too fast for me, at 8:08 but I was curious to see what my body could do. The first mile was partly through the parking lot before we ran through some road construction and finally toward Battle Park. The second mile was slightly downhill but I also slowed to a more reasonable pace for me, 8:27. There was a section they had warned us about that was “off-road,” through the dirt (but at least it wasn’t mud) with some exposed tree roots but they were all clearly marked with orange paint. By the third mile, I was well in the pain cave.
I kept pushing and kept telling myself things like, “It’s only a 5k,” “Just another mile to go. That’s just about 9 minutes. I can do anything for 9 minutes.” Then I got really desperate and starting counting to 60, telling myself I should be finished with the race after maybe 4 rounds of counting to 60. Sure enough, the finish was in sight after counting to 60 four times. My last mile was 8:56 and included a steep but short hill. The course was a bit long, at 3.22, and Strava had my finish time at 27.24. My official chip time was 27:20, good enough for third place in my age group and a cute mug. There were 472 total runners plus a 1.5 mile fun run (I’m not sure how many people participated in that).
The brewery I represented came in 8th place for the women but since we only had three men running and the top five runners from each brewery are scored, our mens team wasn’t scored. The top brewery was heavily seeded with male and female runners in their 20’s so they had the advantage that comes with being young. Too bad the race wasn’t age-graded!
After the finish, we were handed our medals and there were volunteers handing out bottles of water. We all got our free can of beer, ordered some empanadas from a food truck (there was one more food truck plus a Cinnabun food truck but we all wanted empanadas), and found some tables to eat, drink, and say cheers to a fun race.
Would I run this race again? Absolutely as long as my friends were also running it. It’s very much a race where you’d want running buddies with you, or at least I would. I’ll see if my friends want to run it again next year and if so, I’ll likely do it again. 4 miles is an easy distance even if you’re not “training,” like I wasn’t. It’s for a good cause, multiple sclerosis, and on a good weather day, would be a fun way to get in some exercise and hang out with friends by the river.
https://www.millchill.com/the-race
Have you signed up for a race where the course was shortened because of weather or other race day logistics? Were you happy or upset about the change in distance? For the record, I wasn’t necessarily disappointed that the course went from 4 miles to 3.1, especially since I hadn’t been running much in the weeks before the race.
Happy running!
Donna
In 2023 I scrapped the notion of having running resolutions in favor of calling them running goals. It may just be semantics but it seems like lower pressure to just call them goals. Since I didn’t do such a great job of reaching my running goals for 2022, in 2023 I decided to put the bar super low so I could hopefully achieve my goals. How did I do for 2023?
Like I said in my post Running Goals for 2023, “I have two goals, one of which I teased out while working on the [Honey Stinger] worksheet, with the first goal being to simply have fun when running and to run races in different places when possible. There’s really no more limitations or specifics set other than that.”
Regarding the first part of my first goal of simply having fun when running, I did phenomenally well. I ran many of my miles for 2023 with friends and running groups, which made the miles fly by. I’ve been running as a mentor with Fleet Feet for a few years and I continued to do that in 2023. Even though those runs were in the hottest months of the year in August and September, I always enjoyed running with the Fleet Feet group. One of my favorite things about being a mentor is seeing the progress in the new runners and watch their self confidence grow over time.
I continued running with my regular Thursday evening running group and felt like my friendships deepened with several of those people. Since I moved in July, I decided to add on a new running group and after going to a couple of different running groups I settled on one of them. They were welcoming from the beginning but it took several weeks for me to feel like I was truly a part of the group. Now I look forward to running with them as well as the other groups I run with.
The second part of my first goal for 2023 to run in as many different places as possible was also an easy one to achieve. Since I moved to another city (same job so it’s only about 30 minutes from my previous home), I had plenty of opportunities to run in different places. I had fun over the summer and fall discovering new places to run and found some of my new favorites.
I also ran a half marathon in Richmond, Virginia, a place I had been to before since one of my childhood friends moved there after college and I had been to see her a few times. I had also run a race there many years ago that was hot, hilly, and not that well organized. Even though I said I would never run another race in Richmond again, after hearing over and over how great the Richmond Half Marathon is from running friends, I decided to give it a shot. You can read the full report here Richmond Half Marathon in Virginia, but in short, I loved everything about the race- yes, it did live up to the hype.
For my second goal in 2023 to practice yoga more often, I would say I did better than I did in 2022 but there’s still room for improvement. I started the year off pretty well with the 30 day yoga challenge but I didn’t stick to that 100% and missed some days. When I was in the midst of getting my old house ready to sell and looking for a new house, packing, cleaning, etc. I fell completely off the yoga wagon. After I got settled into my new house, I began doing yoga a bit more frequently, which I’ve continued since then. Still, I could do better.
Now onto to running goals for 2024. When I can make it official, I hope to have a big announcement for 2024. I’m still waiting on paperwork so I feel like I can’t really say anything until that’s signed and even then since it’s a new program I may not mention anything about it until later in the year once I see how things go. Sorry to be so vague but that’s pretty much all I can say at this point other than it’s a new running-related program that I’m looking forward to being a part of and was super excited when I was chosen to be a part of it. There will likely be goals related to that is the reason I even bring it up now.
OK for my first official running-related goal for 2024, I would like to continue to practice yoga more regularly. I would love to practice yoga once a week but even twice a month would be an improvement. I’m not sure why I can’t seem to get it done since there are a million yoga videos available but since I stopped going to a yoga class during covid I seem to have dropped off in participation. So let’s say twice a month for yoga for my first goal. That seems achievable.
For my second goal for 2024, I would like to go back to a goal I had for 2022, which is to hike more. Now that I’ve moved I have even more places to go hiking so there really is no excuse for me to not do it. I went on a hike with a friend on New Year’s Day and she said her mom always says to do something on New Year’s Day that you want to do throughout the year. We both love hiking and would love to do more of it in 2024, so it was an appropriate choice for us to go hiking together. You may be saying to yourself, how are yoga and hiking even running goals? Well, as I’ve gotten older as a runner, I’ve seen how important cross training and stretching are. If I want to continue well into old age as a runner, I know I have to do things other than simply running, hence the yoga and hiking.
Do you have a running goal for 2024 that you’d like to share?
Happy New Year and happy running!
Donna
Every year in December I like to summarize my year in travel and what I learned from each vacation. This year was different from most years in that I feel like I barely traveled, compared to most years. There were multiple reasons why I didn’t travel as much but it made the vacations I did have even more special.
I started the year off with a bang and went to Hawaii for a week with my daughter. I’ve been to the Hawaiian islands a few times and every other time I went, I spent some time on one island and more time on another island. For this trip, I spent the entire time on the Big Island of Hawaii, but I stayed at a part of the island I had never been to before.
This trip taught me a couple of things: 1) Airfare to Hawaii drops hugely in January compared to what it is in December. I knew my daughter would have a week off from her classes in January and desperately needed to get away but I couldn’t decide where to go. When I saw airfare to Hawaii was literally half what it normally would be that week in January, I bought the tickets immediately. Score!
The second thing I learned on this trip was to venture out of my comfort zone more. Every time I had been to the island of Hawaii I stayed in the Kona region but this time I decided to stay in a new area, Waimea. This turned out to be a perfect location for us, since we could easily take day trips all over the island, we had shopping and restaurants near us, but we weren’t in the hustle and bustle that is the Kona region. You can find my posts from this trip here: Highlights of Kailua-Kona in Hawaii- Hiking, Turtles, Coffee, and Historical Sites, Exploring Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii, “The Big Island,” Third Time’s a Charm While Discovering Waimea, plus I have another post on Hawaiian islands in general here: Which Hawaiian Island is Right for You?, and even more if you search Hawaii in my posts.
In April I went with my daughter to see my dear friend who lives in Miami, Florida for a week. Miami is another place I’ve been to multiple times, some to see my friend and others before she moved there. Usually I’m an avid planner and have multiple places lined up to visit, things to do, and restaurants I want to go to. This time, I had literally nothing planned in advance and left all of the planning to my friend.
I also learned two things when I was in Miami: 1) sometimes it’s OK to let someone else do all of the vacation planning for you, with some caveats. I’m fortunate that my friend and I are alike in many ways and enjoy similar things to do and like the same foods so I trusted that she would choose places that my daughter and I would enjoy. If that hadn’t been the case, I would have simply planned things for us to do and suggested specific places to eat.
This was my first time using public transit in Miami and I learned that even though it may seem complicated, I could figure it all out, thanks largely to Google Maps. We ended up taking multiple forms of transportation and had to walk a bit after getting off one form to get on another but between the signs, Maps, and asking someone once, I was able to piece it all together. When I told my friend later that evening what my daughter and I had done that day, she said she was impressed and that she had been too nervous to take public transportation there. I told her it really wasn’t that difficult and not a big deal, but I understand how taking that first step can be challenging. My posts on this trip to Miami are here: Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Coral Gables, Florida, Everglades National Park, and. Figuring Out the Public Transportation System in Miami plus another one from a previous trip here “Welcome to Miami”- Long Weekend in Miami, Florida.
May, June, and July were spent getting the house ready to sell, packing, getting my daughter ready to start college in August (including a quick trip to her college for orientation and registration), finding a new house, moving, and unpacking in the new house. There was zero time for travel or much of anything else for that matter.
Finally in October during my daughter’s fall break, we went to Charleston, South Carolina. This is one of my favorite cities in the world, and one of few that I’ve chosen to return to many times over the years. However, on this trip, I learned not everything about Charleston is always rosy. There are many things I adore about Charleston but on this trip I noticed some things that weren’t so great, like the traffic, which was congested no matter the time of day or where we were going.
You can read my post on Charleston here Charleston, South Carolina- The Great, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly plus some others on Charleston: Charleston Tea Garden, America’s Only Large-Scale Commercial Tea Garden, A Bit of History and Nature in Charleston, South Carolina- Charleston Sole Walking Tour and The Center for Birds of Prey, How to Plan a Vacation to Charleston, South Carolina-Part 1, How to Plan a Vacation to Charleston, South Carolina, Part 2, Nature Boat Tour in Charleston, South Carolina.
In November, I went to the mountains of North Carolina to spend time with my daughter over her Thanksgiving break. I discovered a little mountain town called Waynesville, which I don’t have a post about specifically, but it’s on the map in my post Southwestern North Carolina- Small Towns, Mountains, Nature, and Not Much Else (but that’s a good thing!). Waynesville has a beautiful lake called Lake Junaluska, which I fell in love with. You can walk or run around the lake and there are several little cafes, restaurants, and shops plus a few options for accommodations, ranging from a hotel to cabins. Waynesville is decently-sized (for a mountain town) and has a few department stores, a couple of grocery stores, and several good restaurants. I’m sure by the time my daughter graduates, I will have visited each of the tiny little towns at least once and will be making new discoveries all the time! On this trip I learned how much I enjoy discovering new little mountain towns.
Although this was by far my lightest year for travel than ever before, I still learned so much. Plus, having visited some of my favorite places in the world, Hawaii and Charleston, and getting to see one of my favorite people in the world in Miami, I have no complaints and feel fortunate.
What did you learn from your travels in 2023?
Happy travels!
Donna
runningtotravel 