Hello! How’s it going? I’m staying at my parents’ again tonight. They’re partying it up in Las Vegas because I’m sick and they are cool and I’m in charge of the dogs and my lil brother and drinking all the eggnog before they get back.
Since I’m closer to Long Beach than usual I decided to drive there to run along the beach path this morning. Long Beach is my favorite place to run! And the city did a bunch of work to the path so it now has a separate section for pedestrians/runners and the original section is for bikers/roller-bladers.
The Long Beach bike path is the first place I ever ran outside. Yes. The very first place I actually scraped up the courage to awkwardly jog in public.
Before that I had been walking to get exercise and lose weight with Cindy. But she decided instead of exercising with me she preferred hooking up with boys and ditched me. So, I walked on my Grams’ treadmill while contemplating life. After a few months I got bored and started to play with the speed and incline of the treadmill. I eventually started to run!!
Since I was becoming addicted and using it every day I got my own lil treadmill and worked up to an hour of jogging/running/rogging at a time.
One day a co-worker mentioned we should do a race and I thought, “Shlt I’m going to have to run outside and I’ve never actually done that before!!” So I drove myself out to Long Beach and ran on the bike path to see if I could actually run a few miles outside in the real world.
The rest is RunEatRepeat history.
This morning I grabbed my dad’s new Rams travel mug filled with coffee and drove out to the LBC. It was cool and a little windy, but super clear and gorgeous.
The part of the bike path I run in Long Beach is about 9 miles round trip. I go from Ocean near 2nd street to the Queen Mary.
So gorgeous. Check out the mountains in the background! California love.
The Queen Mary! Oh, and that round building you go into for booze cruises to Ensenada.
And I made a friend! I wanted to take him home because he really wanted love and I was worried that he wanted food too. I’m pretty sure there is someone who comes around and feeds all the kitties in Long Beach. I used to see a lady on a bike do it all the time. He didn’t look sick or anything, but I felt bad. He might be Toby’s brother!
I’m eating the usual big salads, grapes, yogurt and hummus (not all in one bowl) for lunch over here.
And I found this new-to-me tea I’m super excited about – Dirty Chai by Celestial Seasonings!
I visited their headquarters a long time ago and I remember they said they were working on this recipe! It’s really good and I drank 3 mugs of it with stevia and creamer.
Someone on Instagram asked if it was concentrate or tea bags. It’s tea bags, just like their usual teas. But they do suggest you make it with 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup milk. Or maybe 50/50 milk/water!
Bonus: I stopped by the Christmas super sale stuff at the grocery store and this travel mug was 50% off because I guess it’s considered a holiday item? Boom!
I can’t remember the first time I ran outside but my favorite place to run is a 13 mile loop around a peninsula in the Great Lakes. It’s so beautiful….even nicer than running on Maui last fall on vacation, though that was pretty decent too
I would LOVE to run there. I love a good loop and a pretty setting 🙂
The first time I ran outside was the greenbelt by my parents old place. It was really the first time I’d ever started running. I have trouble running now – damn Fascia issues – and I miss running outside even more.
– Krys
Love that you remember your first outside run 🙂
Hope you get well soon!!
Running by the ocean is so beautiful! We don’t have the ocean here but woods and a lot of snow. I’m looking forward to the 12-hour snow tomorrow so that I can realize my fantasy of running in the snow again 🙂
12 hours!! Oh no.
I am from Ohio and visited Long Beach with my family. I ran the 6 mile roundtrip beach path while out there this last weekend. It was an amazing view. Something we dont have in Ohio.
I have so many favorite places to run. We have some foothills about 30 minutes from me that overlook the valley I live in and there is nothing like seeing a sunrise over those hills!
I used to go to the track with my Dad when I was very little. Later on, I was forced to run on sport practices during middle school and high school years.
During college I wasn’t really very active until my Junior year (when I started running little by little). It went on and off until I started going to Crossfit classes, where my running endurance improved so much. After that, I dedicated myself only to run. All of these scenarios where in outdoor spaces.
Conclusion: I’m not even able to define or remember where I ran outside for the first time. But running has chased always (whether I liked it or not), until I decided to just love it and commit to it.
I don’t remember my first ever run outdoors, but I remember those first few weeks very well- always being embarrassed that I wasn’t running fast enough, and having to stop literally all the time for breath. I’ve come a long way since then!
I love to run by the ocean too. I’m on the east coast so it looks a bit different but it is still pretty darn peaceful and beautiful.
I hope one day I’m as dedicated to running as you. Thanks for being so inspiring!
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com