On day 22 of Streaking into the New Year, I decided that since I’ve been pouring way too much money into the gas tank, that I’d take a run right out my front door. Normally, I would frown upon that. But I had plans. Big plans.
I ran down to the marina wearing gloves for warmth – those didn’t last long. I fatigued pretty quickly before even making it to the downhill toward the great Pacific. The gloves I quickly tucked into my belt, squeezed in next to my camera and phone. While fatiguing so easily on day 22 of this running streak, I wasn’t enthusiastic anymore about my plan, which was to run the outer jetty – THAT IS UNTIL I SAW THIS:
Approaching the jetty after running around the harbor:
I took off thinking that running the jetty wouldn’t be so difficult. All it was, really, was giant boulder hopping. Quickly, I realized this would take some strategy. The experience was like running a maze. I had to turn my cap around so that I could see far enough ahead to know the next 10 or so moves. If I didn’t pay attention, I'd find myself leaping enormous crevices, or running across smaller wobbly boulders, or even running straight down into the ocean. At one point, I slipped on bird poop and slammed my knee into a rock. I learned that this challenge took total concentration.
Glorious!
Looking off the jetty toward harbor island:
The further I ran out onto this jetty, the more serene it grew and at one I became with it. Also, the further I ran out, the more stinky it grew – bird waste and bird remains, as well as the guts of creatures they devoured littered the rocks. There were birds all over the jetty – awesome pelicans, thousands of seagulls, sleek black egret-like birds that I’ve never seen before, to name a few. They out-numbered me so drastically that I was a little spooked at times. If even a fraction of these winged-creatures decided to turn on me, I was done for!
Except for two hikers I saw on my run out, I came upon no other people on the jetty. Plenty of boats made their way up and down the channel. At one point, I distinctly saw people photographing me from their boat. I thought to myself, “Oh, brother! Am I going to end up in someone’s blog post today?” LOL.
Though I am a trail runner and don’t often get out to the harbor anymore, I am so grateful for the “streak” in getting me here. The jetty run was an utter delight. I reached the end dang ecstatic. PLUS, I could see Saddleback Mountains. What a prize!
Scenes from the Jetty Run – it was aMAZing:
Approaching the end of the line:
The End. Well, not the end of my run, still have to run the jetty back (about 1.15 miles) plus back home:
Heading Back:
6.04 miles run this morning (9.72)