Bath House to Hammonds Meadow to Bird Refuge high tide loop

I was running into the sun along Biltmore beach through the waves when it happened. Relaxation washed over me and each breath seemed to stroke my heart and created a physical, mental and spiritual sense of intense joy. Maybe it was the view or the endorphines, or the beautiful sun and water but whatever it was is a priceless experience I never been granted by a material object.

This was a high tide run at about 6 pm June 28, 2011. The tide was high enough I had to rock hop for the entire stretch below the cemetery. It was slow but seemed like a natural ankle stabilizing workout. There was a dead seal some segulls were picking at that was incredibly stinky and really illustrates how amazing the difference being 'downwind' has. I didn't realize the run was almost 4.5 miles. For most of the beach portion of the run I was running in the ocean. The tide pulls and pushes on your feet and if you look down the ground seems to be rushing out to sea. If you want to keep a running pace you have to memorize when rocks are sticking out of the sand so when the wave rushes in you don't smash your toe on one. Otherwise It's a great exercise in focus stability and it's refreshing too. The joy was dampened when my bare feet hit the concrete on Channel Drive but pondering Ty Warner's mansion is a good distraction. My feet were sore from the rough road on the hike up Tunnel trail yesterday but I didn't want to rockhop the high tide again. Going downhill past the Santa Barbara Cemetery and around to the bird refuge was a little rough but staying in the car lane (when there's no cars of course) seemed to be the smoothest for the tender bare feet. The loop around the bird refuge is gorgeous.

My mental notes for for the day. Relax and keep your spine straight, almost feel it curve around your butt to point down. Keep your feet under your body. Don't lean forward with your head or throw your feet way out infront of you. Place them just infront of you, just past your chest but not past your knee. Then push back so they are like a lever propelling your forward. Then quickly and relaxed, almost like a whip, slip them back under your body. When you get the rhythm just right wou can feel your torso riding almost motionless a top your legs and enjoy looking around. Also it can help to focus (with your eyes) on something. Another thing, you can mentally slip into a drudge and it happens easiest when you just space out, if you do, find something and focus your eyes on that item, describe the details of it and notice it. If your head is bobbing around your form is bad and if your form is bad you can't easily focus because you head is bobbing around. Stop the bobbing and your form gets better. Also, relaaaaax, only your legs need to be working so take deep breath, stretch your neck a little, roll your shoulders, it can help release any unintentional tension.


Distance: 4.4 miles
Time: Who cares