They Made Me Wear This Silly Hat

Duane and I arose at 5:30 am for our first Team in Training hike! For those of you who know Duane, this is HUGE. He gets out of bed for work grudgingly, but on weekends, don't even think about stirring him before 10:00 am. We got into our hiking clothes and I fixed us both some oatmeal with dried blueberries. We're supposed to eat breakfast 1-2 hours before the hike and drink some water. So we did.

We had laid out our clothes and fixed up our packs the night before. For this hike we were supposed to bring 40 ounces of water. We used our new hydration system and filled it up to about half full. Rain was still possible, we we made sure to include a poncho. For clothes I was definitely "stylin'" this time! I had my purple long sleeved undershirt, my Team in Training t-shirt, and I found in my closet an old pair of black workout pants that I had previously missed. My hiking pants won't arrive until next Thursday. But at least I wasn't displaying colors of fluorescent yellow, red and sky blue. Ewww!

We had stopped at the local Safeway the night before to purchase an assortment of trail mix bars. We read the labels on all the packages to find the product that contained as little soy as possible. Soy, while high in protein, is also a phytoestrogen. Soy raises breast cancer risk in post-menopausal women and is implicated in thyroid cancer. I wanted a few calories, and some protein, but without the soy. We bought several boxes of fruit and nut bars to try them out. My sister-in-law Rose, the personal trainer extraordinaire, has recommended a couple of good bars, but I haven't had time to pick them up yet. These will do in the meanwhile. I put two bars in the side pocket of my pack, as well as one bottle of G2 fruit punch, for electrolyte replenishment.

We arrived at the carpool area by 6:45 am, dropped off Duane's car, and then drove up to Edgewood Park together. The photo above is of our team assembling at the trail head. Right before the hike awards were handed out. Duane won a purple and green pedometer for being the third highest fundraiser of the week. Then our social event coordinator asked if anyone who hadn't previously hiked with Team in Training was wearing two purple clothing items. I was, so I raised my hand. For wearing team colors, I received a green and purple party favor. Since next Wednesday is my birthday, our social event coordinator pulled out this goofy fool's hat for me to wear while hiking. The incriminating photo is on right. So much for my fashion consciousness!

Today, I also packed my amateur radio. I taught part of a ham radio Technician license class right after the hike and I was hoping to give my students a demonstration of the power of ham radio while on the trail. The class was occurring at the Silicon Valley American Red Cross in San Jose, and I would be speaking to them from the trail in San Mateo, right off Highway 280. Not bad range for a handheld transceiver running 5 watts!

We did a few stretching exercises and away we went! So far, one of the most valuable exercises I have learned is the calf stretch. When I stretch out my calf muscle properly, I have no pain at all in my Achilles tendon.

The trail gently sloped up hills, through meadow and chaparral woods, in some places steeper than others. But what goes up, must come down and it was easy on the other side. Along the way, we stopped to admire the panoramic view of the San Francisco Bay, and the many wildflowers that dotted the landscape with color.

All of the steps we have been doing up Communications Hill must be helping, because I was ready to go on another hike after we got back to our cars! Go Team! Hike On!