Running (away from home)

I recently returned home from a glorious trip to sunny Davis, CA, where I was visiting UC Davis for graduate school. It was a truly delightful place! THEY LOVE BIKES!

UC Davis campus: heaps of bikes everywhere

Something here isn't quite right...

Although biking is clearly the pride and joy of Davis, I needed to sample their selection of running routes to keep truckin' along through marathon training. Predictably, I had to follow a few bikes to find the good paths. As it turns out, Davis has miles and miles and miles of bike paths all through the town. Score.

During the long run I realized how small Davis really is. I began my run along campus, and within, oh, 3 miles, I was out of town. Wait. Really? I tromped along 'country roads' on the loop I had mapped on gmap pedometer. It looked as though I would be running on real roads the whole time. Ha. 5 miles into my loop I turned onto Vineyard lane. It was a dirt road that was clearly on someone's private property (signs confirmed this).  I hesitated, and then ran on. After many miles of gravel roads, fence-jumping, and 'no trespassing' signs, I made in back into pavement-land.  Although this run was a far cry from what my teammate Tita experienced on one of her runs, I was still a little nervous that someone would drive up and ask what the heck I was doing on their property. Armed with two GUs and hotel key, I didn't have much to show for myself.  Thankfully, I was unbothered and left to retreat into my mind for a couple hours, soaking up as much vitamin D as I could.

Overall, I give Davis a thumbs up! Good restaurants, lovely farmers market, great university, AND, just a few miles down the road outside Santa Rosa, you can find handmade gems like this:



Considered bringing this guy home...