In the last few months of college my roommate and I took to exploring the local hiking trails. But once we packed up and (temporarily) split up, we stopped. With some extra time and the excuse of good weather before winter really sets in we decided to hike the hills of my home town.

Despite living walking distance away for most of my life, it’s been years since I have hiked Montara Mountain. It’s one of those hikes that on paper seems like a great idea, but in the midst of it you question your sanity and your ability to make it home. The unmarked trails at the summit make it easy to accidentally end up on the wrong side of the mountain leaving you cold and stranded near Montara Beach (a few miles from Half Moon Bay).

I was even more hesitant to do the trail because I have in fact gotten lost and ended up on the wrong side (in my defense I was 5 or 6 and with my mom and brother, so not really my fault). Because I only had a 50 percent success rate for this particular hike I decided to grab a map from the information center before we hit the trail. I flipped it open, saw the name of the trail we were going to do and shoved it into my backpack.

For the first half of the trail I went by memory and a single sign to keep us on track. The trail winds its way up the mountain, so there were a few times where I wasn’t quite sure we were on the right path. When we reached the summit there is a fire road that runs along the top of the mountain. I remembered this from when I did the hike two years ago, and I knew the next trail we needed to grab branched off of it to our right.

We got to a break in the foliage and I stood looking at what I was pretty sure was where we needed to go. I just had that feeling that I had been there before and questioned this very spot, but took the trail and ended up where I needed to be. I was fairly certain I was right until I opened the map and realized that the trail we were on disappears off the map a mile or two before the point we were at. On top of that, an intense looking runner came by and asked if we needed help (not only did we look slightly pathetic, but I was holding up the map and loudly saying “Let me orient myself” and lining up the edges with the coastline like an insane person). He convinced me that we had passed the path I was looking for and sent us back up the fire road .3 miles. But when we got to the point he was talking about we realized that he was referring to the path we came from, not the one we were hoping to catch.

Despite being tired and hungry, we laughed and turned around to head back to the spot we were at before. My ever faithful roommate put her trust in me (and my insane ramblings about why this had to be the right path) and we set off on one of the craziest, desolate trails we have journeyed together.

There were parts of the trail that had completely washed out. Despite being made fun of constantly for being short (let the record show I am in fact of average height), even I had to hunker down to avoid the low-hanging foliage. We climbed, crawled, arm-flailed and slid our way down the mountain. In about 45 minutes we only saw two people and a dog who were climbing up the mountain (the humans carrying their mountain bikes). It was slightly eerie in a “we could easily die here and it would months before we were found” kind of way and also exhilarating. At one point while climbing down another massively washed out portion of the trail my roommate proclaimed “I feel like Katniss.”

After a few more “I swear it’s this way”s, we stepped out of the eucalyptus trees back into civilization after four hours of fending for ourselves and finding our own way.

I know I’m not the only one who hates changing the clocks, but it’s especially irritating for after-work runners such as myself. Now by the time I get home and change, it looks like it’s midnight outside. And while I feel safe running by myself in broad daylight, being out all alone at night seems like a terrible idea. Instead of trying to beg someone to run with me (so far miserably unsuccessful) or try to cram in a run at lunch, I decided to take advantage of the extra morning light (the light I would rather have in the evenings, for the record) and go for a run.

When my alarm went off at 5:30 this morning I was kicking myself. I was losing an hour of sleep to run in the cold? What a terrible idea. But my attitude quickly changed when I got on the road and it was nearly empty. All week my commute to and from work had been especially terrible (I’m convinced my iPhone has been sending an alert to everyone in a five mile radius of me telling them I’m about to leave and so should they. Siri can be quite conniving). Instead of taking me an hour and a half, I was at work in 45 minutes. That alone made me like getting up early that much better. By the time I got to work, it was bright enough for a comfortable run.

Usually I shake my head in disdain at the poor souls who get up in the morning and go for a run. But this morning I realized why they do it. Everything is quiet. Streets aren’t busy. The traffic that blows by me any other time would stop and let me go. And being with the other runners felt like we all knew something everyone else didn’t.

I hate to admit it, but by this time last year I had nearly finished off a huge bag of candy from a bulk store by myself. To say I have a sweet tooth is a serious understatement. My freshman year of high school I had a bag of skittles almost every day after lunch. I love dessert, and I don’t think I have ever uttered the words “too sweet” in my life.

With that said, I have not had a single piece of Halloween candy this entire month, and I’m not going to have any. As people bring in bags of candy to work, the candy bowl sits by the door of my house, and millions of children load up on the sweet stuff, I’m going to say no.

It’s not that I don’t like Halloween, but rather I have worked so hard to finally cut back on my sugar intake and I’m not willing to let a single “fun size” package of candy blow my entire 33 grams.

But my “just say no” policy will continue throughout the year because:

1. Candy is not healthy or natural
2. Between the packaging and the incredible amounts of processing, it is incredibly unsustainable and wasteful. Think of all of the small wrappers that will be thrown out in the 48 hours surrounding Halloween alone.
3. Many chocolates are made with child or slave labor in poor working conditions.
4. The food dyes and other additives are chemicals that have been linked to health problems and behavioral issues, not to mention their carcinogenic chemicals.
5. There is no benefit. I may love the taste and enjoy the sugar rush, but heavily concentrated sugar does nothing but damage.

I thought running 13.1 miles was impossible, and if it was accomplished, it was surely horrible. But the smile I had on my face for most of those miles (mile 12 the real exception) proves otherwise.

I chose the Nike Women’s SF half for my first because I knew it would be a full experience. Nike builds an entire community around the race. It was great to have a Facebook page where people asked all of the questions I had and to see some of the faces I would be lining up with. I also knew that if I was going to attempt the impossible, I was going to need a lot of support and distraction. Plus, 30,000 other women and men suffering the same fate (or worse, twice my fate) was plenty of misery loving company for me.

Over the entire weekend thousands of women descended on Union Square, and even though I live nearby, it still felt like we were all on some sort of weird girls weekend away. Everyone I met was friendly and excited to be doing the race. Even when we were all crowded around Nike’s San Francisco store trying to find our names on the window, people waited patiently in line and helped each other find their names.

When looking for my name I was incredibly thankful that 1. few Mandys decided to join me on this particular adventure,  2. my name was not a popular choice for expecting parents in the past 50 years or so, and 3. Nike was kind enough to keep the few of us where I could get a good picture.

Having never done a big race before I didn’t know what to expect at the start line. I definitely didn’t think it would be fun. My friend and I got to our corral about 30 minutes before the race was set to start at 6:30 a.m., and it took us 40 minutes after the official start to make it to the start line. But the entire wait was entertaining. People in the apartments on the streets we were on would hang out their windows and cheer us on (one guy actually made his dog dance for us and although it was funny, it severely embarrassed the dog). People crowded onto their fire escapes to watch us. And despite being in a HUGE crowd of people all waiting for the same thing, no one around me got impatient and the faint music we could hear from the starting line was all people needed to dance and keep warm.

Because of injuries and time constraints, my friend and I did not train like we had planned to and we really didn’t expect much out of ourselves. Our longest training run was a bit of a flop and we ended up walking about 50 percent of it. I think we both expected the race to follow a similar pattern, but when we were still running strong at mile 4, I think we both started to realize that we were going to make it and do way better than we expected.

The first few miles were by far my favorite. The race started in Union Square and went along the Embarcadero through Fisherman’s Wharf and the Presidio. The people along this portion were fun and kept the energy high. Two guys had signs about zombies and just kept screaming “THEY’RE BEHIND YOU!” which made mile 2 a lot more fun (they showed up again around mile 10 with a different sign and I couldn’t help myself from yelling “zombies!” at them).

By mile 8 we had only walked a few times up large hills and we were getting close to where my family was supposed to be waiting. After going up fairly continuous hills since mile 6, we were so happy to go downhill for a while. (I may have shouted “I love gravity!” when we finally crested the hill and got a few confused looks).

After the Presidio the race continued along the Great Highway for a while before breaking off into Golden Gate Park for a couple miles. This was by far the hardest part of the race for me. We could see the finish line when they made us cut over into the park. My knees were killing me from the last mile of downhill and all I wanted was to get some food and sit down. But the promise of free chocolate another mile away kept us moving through the park. Finally at mile 11.5 my friend and I gave in. Our knees and feet were on fire and we had to walk for a bit. We walked for a little less than a mile before exiting Golden Gate Park and making a dash for the finish line.

I was so tired by the time we got to the finish line that I didn’t pull out my phone and take any pictures of the madness, but it was insane. There were so many people crowded at the finish, and most of them wanted pictures with the firemen dressed in tuxedos that were handing out our finisher’s necklaces. Someone started the trend of asking the firemen to pick them up, and it turned into some weird “look at how big this fish I caught is” type photos with the firemen holding the women sideways, upside down, on their shoulders, etc. Their tuxedos must of been disgusting after holding sweaty women all day.

For those who don’t know, the finisher’s necklace for the Nike Women’s Series are serious. People will sell them on eBay for exorbitant amounts of money. Instead of getting a metal that you will hang on your wall, forget you have, or even lose on the way to the car, Nike partners with Tiffany & Co. to make a special necklace for everyone who finishes (I’m sure the guys who ran it loved it). This year’s looks pretty cool, and it’s something I will actually wear. Although personally I think next year they should just write “badass” on it and be done.

The first time I went for a run outside without a coach forcing me too was in 7th grade. My brother was coming off his senior year track season and convinced me to go for a “short run.” I made it two blocks, not even a half mile, before I said forget it, and walked home.

That girl would not believe that I ran (and walked) 12 miles on Sunday. This not only marks my longest run, my furthest run, and my most painful run, but also my last long run before I yet again go further than ever before and finish 13.1 on race day. With all of my training, this run almost got me to 50 miles in a month, another first.

I started training for my half marathon with a nagging foot injury and an irritated shin. Definitely not putting the best foot forward on the entire experience, but one of the benefits of starting with pestering injuries is that I got into the habit of taking care of my poor legs and feet. In addition to foam rolling and stretching religiously, I started to ice bath.

After reading about how ice baths can help improve recovery and help prevent injuries, I decided it would be good to give it a try. But one major thing got in the way. I hate to be cold. I would rather be pouring sweat from being too hot than have to shiver even a little. I get cold so easily that I consider icing an injury on par with torturing someone for information. So the idea of purposefully putting my entire leg, or even part of my leg, into cold water was hard to get over.

To start out, instead of filling a bucket full of ice and a little water, I used straight tap water. Where I live the water comes out at about 65 degrees, which doesn’t sound too bad until you put your warm feet into it, then it’s frigid. I slowly built up to adding a couple handfuls of ice at a time. (And despite what the picture above looks like,) I put in about 4 handfuls in the beginning and add a few more once I get a bit used to it.

Even though I still hate putting my feet in, it’s nice to be able to “ice”  my entire lower legs and feet at the same time. In 15 minutes I’m done and putting on my cozy socks to warm up. To make it more tolerable I also wear multiple layers or wrap myself in a blanket and I try to sit in a warm spot (like in the sun on the patio). When it’s windy I sit on the edge of the tub with my bucket inside of it to make pouring out the water and drying off easy.

It turns out after hobbling through 9 miles, I put up a lot less resistance towards dunking my lower legs into icy water.

At least three days a week I pack up a change of clothes to be ready to go at any moment like superman (only I don’t know where he kept his 2nd outfit…). It is now to the point that without my gym bag I feel like 1. I’m missing something, 2. I never have what I need and 3. My purse just doesn’t have enough room.

Between CrossFit, yoga, and running, I need a wide variety of items. When I buy workout clothes, I always make sure I can wear them for two of the three activities at the least, but the goal is always something that can be used for everything, preferably year round. This not only makes packing easier (it means I can decided right before I leave work if I want to run or go to yoga (or both) for instance), but it also saves me space in my bag.

Before when I was able to get dressed at home, I used a small messenger bag for my gym bag. It fit all the accessories (extra hair band, deodorant, etc.) that make the gym more pleasant without taking up too much unnecessary space. But now that I have to bring an entire head-to-toe wardrobe with me, I had to go for a bigger bag. I opted for a backpack because it fits everything in it well, it’s easy to commute with, and it holds up well while being dragged all over the place.

What’s in my gym bag:

1. Extra hair ties: I have thick, wild hair. There is no way I would be able to get through a workout with my hair down, or even with just one hair band. I keep extras clipped to my backpack with a carabiner for easy access and to keep me from losing them.

2. After workout layer: In the summer I bring a light long sleeve or another shirt to change in to so the ride home is more comfortable. Now that it’s fall I’m starting to need something to keep me warm.

3. A pair of shoes that I can run or do CrossFit in. I know, it’s practically a sin to not do CrossFit in anything that doesn’t say Reebok on the side these days, but I would rather have one pair of shoes that will do just about anything. It’s better for my closet (less to try to shove in there), my wallet, and the environment.

4. Scissors and athletic tape: I currently use stretchy athletic tape to support my wrists (but I’m working on getting some wrist wraps) and to keep my hands from tearing when I do a lot of bar work or pull ups. I hate having to ask for scissors or try to bite my way through the tape, so I keep them in the bag at all times now.

5. My workout journal: I track all of my CrossFit workouts on paper and my runs electronically with Nike+. I not only write down what I did that day, but I also keep track of my PRs and the weights I have been using in the back of my notebook so I can quickly calculate what weight I should be using in any workout.

6. Nuun hydration tablets: I don’t frequently use them, but in the height of summer when I was sweating what felt like swimming pools, I made sure to get in some extra electrolytes when I was done. These are also what I’ve been using now that I’m getting into high mileage runs for my half marathon training.

7. Quick dry, wicking running socks: I wear these whether I’m running or at CrossFit to prevent blisters and avoid turning my shoes into a swampy mess.

8. Speed rope: double unders were impossible before I bought my own speed rope and adjusted it to my height. At my previous gym they didn’t have any speed ropes, but even at gyms that do have them, I like not having to fight with everyone else my size for a rope.

9. Deodorant: I use a crystal deodorant, not an antiperspirant, before and after every workout (and daily). Because of the recent concerns about breast cancer being linked to the aluminum in antiperspirant and the fact that your body gets rid of toxins and waste through sweat, I no longer wear antiperspirant. I haven’t worn it for years, and it’s been great. The crystal deodorant has by far been the best option for me and not only does it keep me from smelling, but it lasts forever (not really, but I bought a stick 2 years that is 5 times the size of the one in the picture, and it’s still 95 percent unused after two years of daily use) and doesn’t stain my clothes.

10. Clothes: I wear crops most of the year for many reasons, but the main ones are that I get cold easily, squatting in short shorts makes me highly uncomfortable (I’ve seen many shorts malfunctions that lead to accidental (I hope) flashings), and they are great for running, yoga, and CrossFit. I wear crops with tanks in the summer and long sleeves (and sometimes a jacket too) in the winter. I also wear sports bras with all of my shirts instead of buying tanks with them built in because I can mix and match colors and I don’t need to buy them extra to wear in the winter with long sleeves.

What is a must have in your bag?

I used to think running four miles was an inhuman feat. The first time I ran a 10k I thought it was ridiculously long and torturous. And yet somehow along the way I still ended up thinking that doing a half marathon would be fun. In theory, and from other people’s race pictures, it does look fun, but setting out every other day to run the same route over and over again is wearing me down a bit. The thought of how many miles I have to do as I lace up my shoes before my run can be completely paralyzing. But after finishing 8 miles last weekend, a distance most certainly deemed impossible while double knotting my shoes, for some weird reason 9 doesn’t seem so bad and 13.1 doesn’t feel all that far off.

I’ve reached the point in training where I know I will finish. I won’t break any records and my pace won’t be spectacular, but we are going to have a blast. We are going to walk when we are tired, take pictures, laugh, and enjoy every single one of those 13 miles.

Now when I lace up I think about how I’ve already done 8 miles and I have more than 75 miles behind me since I started training. When I get tired and I want to cut the course and walk home, I think about all of the times in the past three months that I kept going and keep putting one foot in front of  the other. When I think about how bored I am running the same places, I imagine what it’s going to be like to watch the sun rise over San Francisco and start our run with thousands of other people at one of my favorite running spots, a place that feels like home. When I get home and have to shove my feet into my freezing ice bath (more on that fun soon), I think about how accomplished I’m going to feel when I cross the finish line and how amazing my celebratory meal is going to taste. In 5 weeks I’m going to cross the finish line with a huge smile on my face and from now on I’m practicing that smile on every run.