Running in Monterey

Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream.

I'm in Monterey for the quarter, taking classes at Stanford's marine station. It's an amazing place to get out and run as I gear up for the Boston marathon on April 16 (just got my plane ticket today . . . getting stoked). 

I love the progression of runs that start out in Cannery Row, continue on down the coastal trail, and then go along the scenic "17-mile drive" toward Carmel. I start out weaving through the crowds of pedestrian tourists that concentrate around the aquarium, which soon turns into weaving through the packs of casual bicyclests along the coastal trail that looks out onto the sheltered Monterey Bay, until I make my way around the point, where it's less populated but I continue to follow along the seemingly infinite stretch of turbulent, rocky shores. This is my favorite part, passing by the surfers of Asilomar that make me crave my surfing stint in Santa Cruz and sites such as "The Great Tidepool," the fabled Doc's favorite collecting site in Steinbeck's Cannery Row. 

Unfortunately, I think I pushed it a little too hard on my long run last weekend. I luckily never encountered running-related injuries while training for my first two marathons, but this means I'm not really sure how this should affect my training plan. The fact that I'm experiencing some pain in my foot that make me think I should take a little break from running, so yesterday I went on a long bike ride instead. Hopefully I'll be fully back in the game again soon. 

Sport climbing at Pinnacles National Monument

East Buttress of El Cap

I've also gotten to take some advantage of the lack of any sort of winter here in California and gotten some climbing in. It seems so strange to me that Yosemite is still so climbable in February . . .