Monterey to Pebble Beach Training Walk

Training to walk. It sounds silly doesn't it?! But that's what I'm doing. I've done some longer walks here and there throughout the last several months. Some more challenging than others, but this was the longest distance I have walked -- 15 miles in 5 hours. We set out to walk from Dennis the Menace Park in Monterey to Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach and back, along the coastal walking/bike trail. I'm not going to lie, it was tough! But we did it and I could not have done it without Brian there by my side. Well, truth be told, several steps in front of me most of the time!! :) Highlights of our walk included:

* Three spectacular stumbles. Surprisingly, only one was mine! :) The other two belonged to Brian and I'm still laughing at them -- he's usually so coordinated!!
* One argument which resulted in 30 minutes of peaceful silence... hee hee! :) So I'm a wimp and I didn't want to walk across the golf course at Spanish Bay to get to the beach -- Brian was not happy with me!
* The look on people's faces when we told them what we were doing! Yes, we are nuts. This is not the first, nor will it be the last time we hear that! ;)
* Sea lion and sea otter watching -- many of the sea lions were "tanning" themselves on top of the kelp in the bay. Who knew they could balance like that?! Such fun animals to watch.
* Tourist watching, of course! ;)
* Best part was five hours spent together talking, laughing and spending time outdoors together!

The fog didn't burn off until the end of walk, thankfully! Now the trick is going to be finding long walking routes for the next several weeks that I can convince Brian to do with me.... yeah, that's soooo not going to happen! I think I need another victim... :) So anyway, here are the pictures!

First half of the walk, taken somewhere around Pacific Grove:



Brian was not amused once we got an hour into the walk! So much for R&R from his training! :)



After the fog burned off, we got to see this amazing view, which is what I *love* about the Central Coast:


Of course, there were the beautiful houses too -- seriously, this would be our beach house if we won the lottery!



Most importantly, we survived!



And not only did we survive, we managed to go to Costco and grab a bite to eat at Panda Express before heading home to collapse on the couch for a Law & Order marathon! All in all, it was a good walk and totally worth it. I learned that taking breaks is a really good idea and that if I do that, I will be able to get through all 60 miles in September. (And I know that Nancy and MaryAnn will be able to do that too!) While some days it is tough to get motivated, I am finding that this is really worth it because on the weeks like last week when I am able to stick with the training plan, it feels great to be able to say that I walked 33 miles in just one week! :)