Running Journey

My Updated Race Schedule

I posted my updated race schedule on my right sidebar.  My planned order or races this year looks sometimes like the following.  I've already paid for several of these so it's time to get training!

• 01. May 10th - Malibu Creek 14 Mile
  I ran this race a couple years ago in about 3:10.  I hope to break 3 hours this year and get some good training in on the Bulldog 50K course.
• 02. May 18 - Sycamore Canyon
  This one is pretty tentative right now
• 03. June 8 - Holcomb Valley 33 Mile
  Beautiful course with some challenging altitude.  A good prelude to Lake Tahoe
• 04. July 19 - Tahoe Rim 50 Mile
  I could die here.  I'm kidding.  But this will be my first 50 mile attempt and at altitude which is not a strong point of mine.
• 05. August 23 - Bulldog 50K
  I've always wanted to run this race.  This year I hope to accomplish that and maybe lower my 50K PR.
• 06. Oct 25 - Boney Mountain 21K
  I've run this race twice so far and my times are going down.  I hope to continue that trend at this challenging half marathon.
• 07. November 23 - Santa Monica Mtns 18K
  I've run the 9K at this race a couple times.  Looking forward to the 18K as my next to last run before tackling 9 Trails.
• 08. November 29 - Santa Barbara 9 Trails
  I'm really looking forward to running this beautiful and grueling race (and completing it) for a second time.  I've done a fair amount of training the last few months on some of this course and I'm hoping to break 10 hours - but sub 11 would be nice too.
• 09. December 14 - Crystal Cove 15K
  Trail race in my back yard.  I missed the inaugural running last year.  It's the day after my planned reschedule date for Twin Peaks so hopefully I can swing it.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

My Rorschach Weekend

Not really an ink blotch...  But as we were moving Nickie this weekend, a bird decided to do it's duty on the windshield of the Uhaul as we were driving from SB to OC. 

What or who do YOU think this looks like??

P.S. Thanks Anne & Alex for loading help and Robert & Kate for unloading help!

My PCI

Grocery retailer Hannaford recently experienced a security breach resulting in the loss of around 4 million credit card numbers, resulting in an already suspected 2000 cases of fraud.  Lots of people are up in arms about this and two lawsuits have already been filed.  As someone who works in the security industry I was rather amused at the comments about how "troubling this is because Hannaford was PCI compliant". 

PCI compliance was a standard created by a consortium of companies that requires merchants handling credit card data to adhere to certain security standards and guildelines.  PCI details are here.  While PCI is a right step forward it does not "make someone safe from breach".  It has some pretty generic wording like "must have a firewall installed and maintained".  What type type of firewall?  What does maintained mean?  What if there are no rules in the firewall to block data?  What should I be logging? What if I'm using anti-virus software but it sucks? PCI doesn't cover that sort of stuff.  Nor does it cover patching and hardening of computer systems which appears to be the cause of this recent computer breach (malware was placed on PCs that stole the data).

The best defense is to be diligent and limit your credit card usage.  However, there will always be cases like this where there is not much you - the consumer - can do about.  Not using charge cards is not really an option and any time you use them puts you at a risk.  But then again, so does driving a car, swimming in the ocean, living in tornado, hurricane or earthquake prone areas.  Sometimes we just accept certain risk and move on with our lives.  I know for my part, whenever I am working at a company I take my security role seriously and think - what if I was a customer or client of this company and how would I want them to protect me data?

Happy Spending,
Jessica

My House or Yours?

This is a scary article.

Fortunately it's not too common at this point but there is big money in it for the crooks.  You thought identity theft was bad?  How about someone steals your identity then uses that to sign over your mortgage to them and sells your house out from under you?  Ouch!  Or, maybe you are struggling to make your payments and sell your house to someone who is offered to "help" you out.  Only problem is they buy your house with a fake/stolen identity which results in you losing your home and the bank losing the money.  Ouch again.

Stay vigilant is the best advice.  And be sure to protect your identity.  The FTC has a good program called "Deter, Detect, Defend" and has some great tips online.  More tips at Privacyrights.org and Yourcreditadvisor.com.  This is a very widespread crime and I highly encourage you to take 5 or 10 minutes and read through some of these resources.  Some of this stuff is obvious and some not so much.  Educating yourself could save you A LOT of headache should someone decide to target you.

My Group Run

I haven't had a good group run in a while for several reasons.  But last night I ran with two other OCTR members, Nattie & Chris.  It was a casual, relaxed run in Peter's Canyon and it felt great.  I hadn't run in a week from being busy, feeling like I was getting sick, etc.  I also hadn't run with either of them in quite some time.  For Nattie it has probably been at least 6 months.  Wow!  It was a great time for sure.

And woohoo!  It's moving weekend!  We're moving Nickie's stuff down to OC this weekend and by the end of next week she will be down here along with it.  That means no more driving back and forth from OC to SB.  That will certainly save some time and gas money :)  We're both pretty excited about this new chapter and will be even more excited when we find a more permanent place to stay.

In other news.. before careful what you click on when you do a web search.  There is an "iframe" attack doing around and if you click on one of these links you could be in for some trouble.  Google is actively filtering these results in searches but they are still popping up and I'm not sure about other search engines.  If you see a search result that looks something like "1. sandrail frame <iframe src=//72.232.39.252/a/>.html" then DON'T click on it!  The key part here is the part of the search result that has "iframe" in it.  You can read some details here.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

My Distance or Yours?

This guy probably loves all the attention/hits and I guess he's going to get more now.  It's laughable enough that I had to link to it for your viewing pleasure.  It's stupid and uninformed enough that I am not even going to take the time to respond to him.

The gist of it - a man who's best marathon is 3:05 and has NEVER run an ultra takes on ultra running vs. elite marathoning and why ultra running is a joke/easy sport with people who don't even look like athletes.  That should get you intersted enough to read it.  Just consider it your Monday humor reading :)

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend and a 3-day weekend for some of you.  We had a good time despite Nickie getting really sick with the flu the day we got to Fresno and I got a UTI.  I think I flushed it out by drinking an insane amount of cranberry juice, water and diet coke the 24 hours after I got it.  Nickie is still fighting flu, and I may not be far behind her unless I get lucky :)  We did play croquet, decorate eggs (which we hunted Easter morning after Nickie's dad hid them - ahh to feel like a kid again!) and play pool at a bar called "Krappy's".  We wanted to get a krappy tshirt but we forgot.  Next time...

No running this weekend.  I know the Coyote Ultra happened Friday/Saturday so I'll be anxious to hear some reports on that one.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

My One Run

Possibly my one run for the week...  Last night I did a solo run in O'Neill Regional Park.  It was a very reflective run as it often is when I run here - the location of my very first trail run ever.  Certainly lots to reflect on when it comes to running.  I did hear second hand that the old group is changing their name will not be using mine.  An action I applaud and one that will help us to peacefully be cohabitants of the same OC Trails.  A direct response to my email would have been nice, but I'll take what I can get!

The run was nice.  It was a 5.3 mile loop and my energy levels were awesome.  I tackled some tough hills that I don't always have the energy to tackle.  My foot was bugging me after about 2 miles and a walked a large portion of the next mile on pavement.  But I picked it up again and just before a big paved hill some mountain bikers passed me.  I took great pleasure in passing them running on the hill that I rarely make it up in one effort.  The sun was setting when I finished. 

It was a beautiful night.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

My Fishy Weekend

So... Suppose you have a trail running group that splits.  In one group is a fund of money that members of the group have paid.  Suppose the founder of the group moves the group to a new site with no bank account and members of the old group are now in both groups. 

I'm trying my best to move on with this situation but a few things continue to bug me and prevent me from fully moving on:

• OCTR (OC Trail Runners) is my group and was founded by me.  When I set up the new site, I could have closed the old site and forced members into the new one but I didn't want to play that game.  Each runner can choose where they want to go.  Sadly, it's always easier to stay where you are than move so OCTR has so far lost a lot of great people who have decided to stay attached to the old site. 
• See the situation I posted in the first paragraph.  An honest question. Does the money belong to the group or the members?  If the group - then which group?  If the members, then how do you divide that?
• The other group continues to use the name I CREATED and own.  I am pursing legal options if that doesn't change.  Can we be fair and settle these things and move on??  An email I wrote about this has so far gone completely unacknowledged. Dragging this out doesn't help the local running community in any way.  Does it?
• I've been completely reactionary in this situation which all started with accusations placed on me after I was trying to be informative on our group website.  I've been accussed of being defensive but that's because I have to be.  The same situation goes with the name.  I don't want to go the legal route but if I am forced to, I will.  I'd rather it just be dropped but I'm not giving up my group name.  I haven't been the attacker but I can be an aggressive defender if I need too :)

All this has almost made me want to retreat from the running community completely.  Why do things have to be so difficult?

My Running this week sucks.  I'm running tonight but probably not the rest of the week.  Maybe I'll get a short run in this weekend.  We are going up to the Fresno area for Easter and I get to meet "the" family.  We might even go fishing with Nickie's dad.  I haven't fished for a long time.. and not since I moved from Minnesota.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica

P.S.  Someone complained that I didn't post their comment.  I have a few things to say about that.  First - I'm about 99% certain who they are even though they had no nerve to post their real name.  Second, most of what they said was inflammatory and inaccurate.  Third, of course my blog is biased and my side of the story - that's why it's my blog :)  This isn't a news site or debate forum, but rather a weblog of events that happen in my life as I see them.  Isn't that how these things work or did I get it all wrong? ;)

My Getaway Weekend

So Nickie and I took off for the weekend.  Okay, not real far.  We just went to a friend's house in Santa Barbara while she was out of town but it sort of felt like a getaway vacation.  We didn't even do much other than some free pool on Friday night we mostly just relaxed, had dinner together, etc.  No running.  No Roommates. No Drama.  Just enjoying life.  It was nice.

ZG is iffy.  I'm going for a 15 mile run tomorrow and I'll see how that goes.  As Angie said, it is supposed to be our birthday run (both having Bdays in April), but my training for a 50K leaves something to be desired.  However, I AM obviously improving in my running and getting stronger.  That's a good sign.

Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica