Day one and two in a nut shell

Day one: woke up. Game time. We drove down to Bella Terra mall and met up with my parents and my uncle and aunt.

Side story, I actually started the day before because I wanted to touch the water so Katie, my grandfather, and his wife and myself drove down to huntington beach and my parents were there!! They completely took me by surprise and flew out for the start!

Anyway, we gathered at Bella Terra mall and I met so many people. Everyone was so nice and so appreciative. The mayor came out as well as people from
The arthritis foundation and a guy named Gus came just to run with me.



This is a picture of the stroller and myself.
Anyway! The marching band for the Orange County high school even came out, as well as CBS channel 7. Big crowd, good time. A few words were said and it was way more emotional than I expected. Especially after 11 year old Makayla spoke. She has spoken in front of congress by the way.

Off we went at about 9:15 ish and Gus, Badwater solo finisher, my uncle Bob, marathon runner joined me. Also these two little girls, Summer and Autumn, who were 10 and 11 ran for a bit and lasted way longer than I expected.

I didn't feel well. Pretty much from the start. I felt sluggish, tired, and generally not myself. Great start... It was quite frustrating but I decided to just keep truckin along and hopefully I would start to shape up. This was not te case.

After 4 miles we met up with my mom dad and Katie and my friend from high school, Keaton was there! He ran with us for the rest of the day along with his friend Matt who is a speed demon at the 3000 as well as 5k.

Gus kept us all entertained with stories from Badwater as well as local history, sightseeing comments and was very kind to every biker he saw by offering well wishes for the new year and bike tips such as "Wear a helmet!!" it was great running with him.

Afterwards we all headed to the Galli's for a big pasta party. It tasted so good. Unfortunately, I was still not feeling much like myself. There was a large crowd and everyone who came was incredibly nice and offered me help and asked what they could do.

At the end of the party Katie and I said our goodbyes because she needed to catch the red eye from San Diego. Not stoked on her leaving, but I was glad she was there.

I stayed at the Galli's last night and they were incredibly kind.

This morning Kim Galli, Tom and myself started the run from Brea were I ended the day before to Pedley.

Running through the cayons was absolutely beautiful. It was so different from the east coast that I am used to running. After Tom and Kim stopped I was on my own with my directions. Unfortunately, due to lame direction taking on my part. I got semi lost and ran out of water from both my hand bottle and camelback. Luckily I found a 7-11 not too long after I ran out and was able to replenish the h2o supply.

After some crafty road work, I found where I was and was able to press eastward. I ended the day some 5:20 after I started and ran the majority of it. Was it exactly 26.3 that I had planned?hopefully not, otherwise I've got bigger issues with my running than I thought. But then again, who cares. I finished today and it's time to look toward tomorrow. I stay with the McCleods for the next 3 nights and they are a great family.

This is what I ran next to today.


-- Patrick