boom cat!

 The other Anslow demonstrating camp breakfast skills, Port Orford, OR, with style....

I chose these pictures because they are, to me,  the embodiment of freedom--road trips with friends in search of waves and mountains.  Done and done!

Friday (that's yesterday....) I submitted the last of my papers for the last of my graduate school classes, and with that, the finale of year-one of my Nurse Practitioner education.  Holy shit!  It was amazing.  So amazing, in fact, that I forgot myself and ended up drinking too much beer in Petaluma at Ray's Tavern.  It was hard not to feel celebratory:  year one behind me, my dearest girlfriend as co-pilot, a celebration run through Helen Putnam Regional Park (my favorite place in Sonoma County), and then the fun crowd of  local ranchers and farmers in dirty Carharts and cowboy hats drinking Lagunitas Little Sumpin' IPA (hey, it's Petaluma) out of canning jars.  Ahhhhh....   89 degrees F as the sun set behind golden hills, a little breeze from the sea, and lots of banter.  Pretty sweet.... Until this morning when I woke up to the responsibility of my weekly long run.

Worried, i Googled "running with a hangover" and was delighted to find inspiration in the Hash House Harrier tradition.  You may already know about this, but it's the combination of running and beer drinking in one world-renowned club-like activity.  Splendid.  Check it out!

http://sfh3.com

Thinking happily about the new friends I plan on making, I wandered to Montara mountain, with thoughts of beer-drinking running, new inspiration and a head stiff fuzzy from last night's beer, and slogged out a personal record, completing the 2,000 foot summit and returning to my car at a brisk-ish pace. Tomorrow I volunteer with the sports medicine team at the SF Marathon then head south for 10 days of surf hunting and mountain slogging with Ryan...   yes!

Ryan, in an old water tower in Bolinas, CA with Bonnie (smelling the graffiti crotch of a Just Do It character), during our last road trip...