Mixed Emotions

Today encompassed both feelings of sadness and joy; discomfort and ease; worry and serenity.

Local 17-year old Chelsea King went missing Thursday afternoon.  Her tracks end in a parking lot of a community park near our neighborhood where she had planned to go running after school.  It hits close to home since I have a daughter not too much younger than she, and I'm familiar with the trails through the hills around Lake Hodges and Black Mountain.  Even as an adult male, I've felt a little vulnerable when running alone off road, so I feel a little protective of a younger girl doing the same, even though I don't even know her or her family.

Right about now, her case goes about 48 hours missing, despite a gigantic turnout for volunteer search parties.  I joined the throng myself which was mustering at noon, and was overwhelmed by the number of community "family" members who turned out.  The line to check in and be assigned to a 15-person search team stretched around the Citibank parking lot and must have numbered in the thousands.  I wound up deciding that they can't be ready to organize and manage that many volunteers so I left the line after about 30 minutes and joined the group that was organizing the distribution of leaflets.

I feel helpless.  It's not like a TV police mystery that'll be solved in 60 minutes, for better or worse.  The hard part is not knowing if there will ever be a resolution.  I cannot fathom what it must be like to be a parent in that situation.

Chelsea is a runner on the Poway High cross country team.  I pray she'll be okay.

I wound up going out for a late afternoon pick-me-up run, just to stay loose for tomorrow's intended 18+ miler.  I did an easy pace 5 miles, getting caught out in a heavy downpour.  It was only slightly uncomfortable and actually a little fun.  I got drenched, but slogged through it, maintaining an 8:30 average pace.  I kept my heart rate under 140 mostly, though I did exert a little more effort during the rainy portion.  For some psychological reason, I found myself running faster while it was raining.

I've been eating and drinking with an eye toward tomorrow, and I can't forget to get to bed early and give myself a good night's sleep.  Depending on the weather, I'd like to get started by 6:30 so that I can finish up between 9:00 and 9:30.

Oh yeah: I bought a pair of Amphipod water bottles that I can clip to my waistbelt.  Even though I didn't need to drink water during my light 40 minute workout today, I ran with them anyway, just to get an idea what it will be like.  Two 10-oz bottles along with my phone and carb nuggets tucked away in the pouches adds about 2 lbs to my running weight.  It's not bad, actually, and the belt keeps everything snug up against the small of my back without too much jiggling.  The water sloshes a bit.  I didn't try to see how it feels if the weight is assymetric, should one bottle be full and the other empty.

I can definitely handle it on a long slow run.  I don't think I'd like to have to tote the added weight on a tempo run or a race.  Water is just such a concern for me; I can't always plan to stash water ahead of time or plan my routes around available public water access points so I've been searching for the best way to carry some water along with me.  I expect adding hydration to my Batman utility belt will give me a little more flexibility.

Looks goofy a hell though, but I guess that's what you have to put up with when you start pressing up into mileage territory of this length.

18 miles!  Can I actually do that?  We'll see.