My brother the rock star has a new job.

He works at: http://www.jackassworld.com/

He’s still in the fantabulous band The Deadly Syndrome, too.

Congrats, Will!

Little known fact: I went on the first run of my life with my mother.

We went a mile down the road from our house on Calzada Ridge in Santa Ynez. She was 37; I was 10.

I remember thinking that my mother was quite possibly the most beautiful, coolest woman on the planet that day. It was one of the first times in my young life that I ever felt like an adult.

My mother is an incredibly hard-working, loving, caring person. She’s working today, as she does every Sunday. Thanks, Mom.

I ran a really slow 10K this weekend. I was ashamed of it, and I’m trying to figure out what happened.

Sadly, I don’t have the just-my-pace training partners I had in SB. I miss you guys. It’s harder to do race training workouts on my own .. I just don’t get excited about it. I’d rather go for a run that feels great than a run that makes me feel like throwing up.

I run comparable mileage, eat comparable food, and do comparable cross training. So I really haven’t altered much except the training partners and the geography.

I am, however, getting slightly older. Scoff if you will. But I’m about 8 years out from my fast times in the SB courses .. and I think it’s OK to realize that for the less-genetically-gifted among us, slowing down is going to be a natural part of the aging process. (I’m sure JK will come up with some evidence to the contrary, so there’s the gauntlet, thrown.) Nobody in my family is a natural athlete, so I’ve always had to work really hard to be competitive.

Finally, I realized while cycling today that I made a conscious choice about 5 years ago that working hard and having fun would have equal weight on my life priority scale. I was a really driven teenager and college student, and as an adult, I’ve been focused, but less obsessive.

I’ve refused to beat myself up over the slow race, and this post is the last time I’ll consciously address it. I know that if I choose to do the work, I can run a faster one. For now, I think I’ll try some shorter stuff - the fun stuff- and see what happens.

It’s been a really long time since I felt like I destroyed a run.

But last night, fleeing the stress of a very long work week, I knocked 15 minutes off my previous time on a long circuit loop — Higuera to Tank Farm to Broad and back downtown.

I was racing the sunset and made it back to the apartment just before it got too dark to see. Perfect.

All I did this weekend was run, do yoga and work long editing shifts. Which one of those activities is my favorite?

Of course, it’s running and the upside of my “beat the heat, beat the blues” early run today was that I found my new favorite SLO County run.

I started and finished this run, which took 65 minutes at about 8 minute mile pace, at the Bob Jones Trailhead park and ride off of Ontario Road. This is visible from the 101 freeway between SLO and Shell Beach.

I ran towards Shell Beach and cut onto a fire/hiking trail that goes behind some of the nice homes with ocean views and eventually comes out near Pirates’ Cove, SLO County’s infamous nude beach. Then I went down the hill on Cave Landing Road and took a left turn towards Avila. I ran up San Luis Street and down into the heart of Avila and out onto the end of the pier. The water was glassy and calm. Then I turned around and returned to my car by cutting through the Avila Beach Resort Golf Course and onto the Bob Jones Bike Trail.

If you’re still stuck with an image of Avila as an oil-spill decimated ghost town, you should come check it out. It’s lovely now and a fun vacation destination, especially midweek.

Today is the last day of business for my mother’s toy/clothing store, Charlie’s Playhouse, in Solvang.

Mom has run Charlie’s — from the buying of merchandise to the waiting on customers to the cleaning of the many glass windows — for 17 years with the help of one employee, Jan. She’s consolidating with her sister store, Solvang Children’s Shop, because of tough economics in Solvang — and all over the state — right now.

I used to work there when I was in high school.

Customers used to say two things when they came in the shop. First, they’d ask where they could find a public restroom. Second, they’d say how much they liked all the neat stuff in the store.

Mom carried tin toys, Brio trains, shiny rocks, pop guns, auto bingo, amazing books, fancy dress costumes for little girls, rain boots and umbrellas, the cutest stuffed toys, great baby gifts, Danish swords and helmets, Brio and Thomas trains, puzzles, Sanrio, wood toys, dinosaur stuff and much, much more. Everything she bought to sell was purchased with knowledge of kids, parents, and what it takes to raise smart kids with creative imaginations.

My mother has an amazing work ethic, and in my non-objective opinion she had the best store in the entire town for those 17 years. I’m sad it’s closing but glad to know the best of it will carry on at Solvang Children’s Shop, 1666 Copenhagen Drive. If you have kids or grandkids, the next time you’re in the Santa Ynez Valley, stop by and check it out.

Since I ran down a lot of mountains last weekend, this seemed like a good weekend to run up one.

So I took a Sunday morning run up Fig.

There are few things that always make me happy, but this mountain is one of them. Lots of good memories here.

Directions: From SB, take 154 north to Los Olivos. Right on Figueroa Mountain Road. 6 miles out. Park at the turnout at the base of the mountain. Run up. Enjoy.

Wow it was hot yesterday!
This was definitely the toughest of the three years we’ve run. Everyone stayed hydrated and healthy which was a relief. Nice to see teams offering even their competitors water.
Some very fast teams out there. Congrats to all the competitors and thanks to the support crews and JK and all the volunteers. Great shirts as usual.
Personal highlight: my parents and grandparents showing up to see me finish in Santa Ynez for the first time. As I was rolling down Refugio John Shields said to me (from a passing vehicle), “Leah, you’re running home!” and indeed I was.
A few photos. Look! I put photos on my blog! A first!

Team Goat, with some last minute subsitutions from some helpful alternates, is ready to rock and roll.

Thanks, subsitute runners Andy and John!

It’s going to be hot, hot, hot out there this weekend.

Wear your sunscreen, hats, good natured spirits.

“Citizen McCaw” will screen in Santa Barbara, possibly for the last two times, at the Marjorie Luke Theatre this weekend. Saturday 8 p.m., Sunday 3 p.m.

Tickets at: www.lobero.com 

Why see it? I quote someone I overheard at the premiere party: “This is the real Santa Barbara.”

What’s it about?

If you’ve been living in a cave (without Internet) for the past 20 months:

www.citizenmccaw.com 

Hope to see you there.