DNS - Ojai Half

This weekend feels a bit bittersweet - classes ended on Thursday, although it is a false ending, in the sense that there are many other moments that mark the official "end" of the year.  I hoped to head to the lovely town of Ojai, where we have never been in our years of living in Southern CA, and run the Mountains-to-Beach half-marathon this morning.  Since I'm writing this post at 8:00 am, you can be assured that I did not run a 30 minute half-marathon or complete any other superhuman feat.  I did cook up some great pancakes, but that's about it this morning.

After Wildflower, I took it really easy for one week and then returned to physical activity, but I did not feel very confident that a half-marathon would do much for my left calf.  It was a mild strain, but I was nervous about a race with considerable elevation loss in which I would absolutely want to push it.  Nor did I want to spend part of much of the race walking.  I realize that some people don't mind the walk/run method, and I've spent plenty of time walking up steep hills in a race, but for this race, such a technique did not appeal at all.

The good news about not focusing on the Ojai half after Wildflower is that I have spent a decent amount of time in the pool (not great, but decent) and I'm back on the bike!  Most of my riding this month has been in the form of traveling to and from school a few times.  Not a lot, mind you, but it felt great to bike to work, seeing the bike as a form of transportation rather than recreation or fitness.  Eventually, I would like to transform my old road bike into a commuting bike - not a major transformation, but at least get the right pedals!

But, back to the Did-Not-Start designation.  I don't have too many of those, mainly because I try to be fairly prudent with race registrations, and if the circumstances were different, it would be a much more bitter pill to swallow, for instance, if I wanted this to be my "it" race.  Instead, I have questioned why I even signed up for the race.  "It seemed like a good idea at the time" does not quite justify the fee, but it actually sounds better than "I really wanted a new PR", which is probably closer to the truth.  I've been running well this spring and thought that I could boast a faster time, especially on this course.  Perhaps the main regret is that it would have been a fun way to see Ojai, and Michael and I planned to take the dogs up to Ventura on Saturday and enjoy a weekend with them!

There will be other opportunities to do that, and to eventually get that 13.1 PR.  Maybe!