Running Adventures | Catalina Island 50k

SPEAKERS

Sheri Davidson

Sheri Davidson 00:18

Hello friends, welcome to the wellness inspired podcast. I'm your host, Sheri Davidson and I am so glad you're here. This is episode six running adventures Catalina Island 50k. But before we jump in, I have some things I'd like to share with you. First, do you know what today is? It is Tuesday, February the first, and it's the Lunar New Year. So Happy Chinese New Year. I wish you all prosperity, abundance, and health this year. And remember, health is your greatest wealth. And this is a great lead into my next thought. If you missed my last episode on the art of self preservation, please check it out. Self Care is the action of taking care of yourself daily to live a quality and happy life. So let me know what you think. I'll put the link in the show notes. So it's easy to click and listen. And please get excited for episode number seven. In a few weeks, the awesome Jackie Berry is up. She was also a guest on the health and wellness podcast last year. And it was one of my favorite interviews. And once again, we'll have a conversation about the health benefits of biophilic designs. One of my favorite topics. Jackie is a registered interior designer, landscape designer and design professor. She has been in the industry for over 30 years. So I believe she is the perfect person to talk about biophilic design. In fact, when we last spoke, she said biophilic design has been more in the forefront of design education. And she has some great things to share. So I'm super excited about this episode in this conversation. So please join us in a couple of weeks to get updates on all the new episodes and wellness inspiration in your inbox, please join the wellness inspired community, go to wellness inspired podcast.com. To sign up, I'll put the link in the show notes. So it's easy to get to. Also there is a Facebook community. So if you're interested in joining our community on Facebook, it's at the Wellness inspired, and you can follow me on Instagram at wellness inspired. If you like what you hear, please give me a rating and review wherever you listen to your podcast. It helps others find me. If you're in the Houston area or visiting and interested in acupuncture, herbal medicine, cupping dry needling therapy, contact us, you can find out more on the website, element five, oh m.com. And that's element five, the number five oh m.com. And again, this will all be in the show notes. If you're interested in health and wellness coaching, we can connect in the clinic or on Zoom. So reach out to us and we'll get you on the schedule. And lastly, I would like to share two monthly events. I host yin yoga and mindful meditation, the yin yoga is with my friend Georgia, we do it on Zoom. Yin Yoga is a passive style of yoga. It is great for all ages. And it really is a style of yoga. That is challenging, but at the same time relaxing, you can really get into some deep deep stretches here. And I just can't

say enough good things about it. And I just can't say enough good things about Georgia. She's fabulous. So please join us our next class is Saturday, February the 12th. To register, you can go to the element five o m.com Events page and you can register there. The second event I offer once a month is mindful meditation. And this class is with me. I have set up the class for beginners, but all levels are welcome. We do intervals. So we meditate for seven minutes we come out we talk we go back in meditate for seven minutes. And we do do this four times. It's really great if you're new because it really allows you to have an experience and it allows you to connect with other people and talk about your experience. If you have any questions, you can get some feedback. It's really it's really awesome. I really like this model. So if you're interested in mindful meditation, the next one will be Saturday February the 26th. And again, you can sign up on the element five om comm webpage and it'll also be in the show notes. So all right, well, I think that is it. So let's jump into Episode number seven Adventures of running Catalina 50k. Many of you might be wondering why I am doing a podcast on my running adventures. There is a why I came up with the idea to do a series of race reports to promote a physical active lifestyle because it is essential to your health. In wellness, it is the number one best thing that you can do for your health. I talk about running because it just happens to be my chosen physical activity. But also, it greatly fulfills me in other ways. And this is key to consistency and sustainable change. If running and traveling are not your jam, that's okay. The point is to find something you enjoy doing. Maybe you like to run, but you don't like doing distance. That's okay too. If being active is going for a brisk walk in the park with your partner, or loved one or riding bikes with your kids. Perfect. The idea is to find something that gives back to you. It's the only way you will stick to it. And remember, whatever activity calls your name, make sure you are getting enough of it. And don't forget to add some strengthening exercises to and if you're not sure on how much exercise you should be getting for health benefits, please check out Episode Four running adventures Franklin mountain. Well let's go to Catalina. I like to give a picture of the places I run to set the stage and invite you on the adventure with me. Also to express my passion and why of running. Oh Santa Catalina Island. You were amazing. And you inspired me to keep running in the most beautiful places. The mountains white sand and clear blue water were breathtaking. Catalina Island is about 20 miles off the coast of California, southwest of Los Angeles. My friend and I flew into LA X and Uber to Long Beach where we took a ferry. The ferry was called the Catalina Express. There are also a couple other ports where you can catch the ferry you can catch the ferry in San Pedro and also in Dana Point in San Diego. The island is 22 miles long. And the highest point is Mount Oriza. The summit is 2097 feet. And it is about halfway between the only two towns on Catalina Island, Two Harbors, and Avalon. And I found this interesting, because there's also people do Oriza in Puebla, Mexico, I played around or resolve it in my early 20s. It's an inactive volcano and the highest mountain in Mexico is at 18,491 feet mount or xaba. And Catalina was named after pico de Orissa and Mexico. I'm not sure of the connection there. But I did read that somewhere. And I had a connection to arrizabalaga. So I found it an interesting fact. Another interesting fact is, believe it or not, the buffalo is iconic to Catalina and no the buffalo are not native to the island allegedly 15 buffalo were brought to Catalina in the 1920s for the filming of a movie. However, it was too expensive to rally them up and return them so they left the buffalo on the island. And according to a local, the buffalo started to multiply and Catalina was becoming overrun by the herd. So they remove the females to keep them from reproducing. This left them with another problem. The males got aggressive because they could not reproduce. But now they have it under control of 150 individual which I'm assuming not in herds live peacefully on the island. I was super excited to see them but unfortunately or maybe I should say fortunately I saw one on the run. It was in the distance but that's okay I got my picture and I was happy. The buffalo are celebrated with the official drink of Catalina. It is buffalo milk and they say it is best SIP while sunning on the white beaches of Catalina we did not enjoy one at the beach but we did enjoy one overlooking the oldest golf course in Southern

California. It was built in 1982 and it was gorgeous. A gorgeous golf course. And no we did not play golf. It is just where the road took us. So buffalo milk what's in it? A half a shot of creme de coco. Half the shot a kalua a half a shot of creme de banana, and one shot of vodka and half and half. It was heavy, but very refreshing. So if you try it, let me know what you think. The race was held and Avalon. A very small coastal town in south Catalina Two Harbors is north. And now you cannot rent a car and drive from Two Harbors to Avalon or vice versa. You have to take a boat or you have to take a very very long walk on the trans Catalina trail. There are no cars on the island except for cars of the residents and not all residents there is a limit tourism vehicles and utility vehicles. According to the Museum of Catalina there is a 20 year waitlist to get a car onto the island. So people are zooming around Avalon and golf carts. You can rent them for the max of two hours at $55 an hour if you're visiting the Arctic texture had some interesting history. The flats, they call it the flats is the housing in and around the downtown area. Most of them had a small footprint. So there was nothing over two storeys, and the scale of the homes seemed they seemed small, especially with the golf carts parked in front. I thought I was walking through a dollhouse. But it could be an illusion. The city is tucked away at the base of the mountains with the larger homes built into it reaching above, and those homes are huge, multiple levels. And this could have made the homes in town, the flats look smaller. It would have been nice if I could have gone into some of the homes which I really, really wanted to. We took a walk through town looking at some of these homes and there were some new homes going up and I so badly just wanted to go over and explore but but I didn't so so maybe I'll have to go back to Catalina Island and rent a house and have my experience of of a home there. So anyways, back on track, I found a description of the architecture on Catalina Island and a little bit of the history and one of the creative geniuses who influenced much of Catalina Island's design was a designer by the name of Otis Shepard. He was an artist and he was actually a favorite of Piquet, Wrigley. Shepard got his start in the 1920s painting billboards and he and his wife, Dorothy and other legendary designer spent much of the 30s designing and developing architectural guidelines and design elements brought a cohesive sense of style to Avalon. Inspired by early California, including Spanish missions, Native American elements and Mexican art. Much of Shepards vision can still be seen today. It can be seen in the casino storefronts and other areas of downtown. However, I didn't see it reflected in the homes as much. Our hotel was New Orleans style and I'll talk more about that. But some other interesting facts about Catalina Island there are no first and second streets only third. They have a casino with no gambling. They have a Bird Park with no birds. William Wrigley bought the island in 1919 built it up and opened it up for tourism. He felt like it was a place for all people. The island was once federal land. It was a training spot for the Secret Service of World War Two. Catalina Island is part of LA County. And I already mentioned this one, the golf course was built in 1892, making it the oldest in Southern California. And the fact that I learned about Catalina that impacted me the most was California does have an offseason, Catalina had an offseason and we were in it. Many businesses were shut down while we were there. However, we still had fun. And the ferry only runs three times a day instead of on the hour. So that was news to me. And lesson learned for next time. You know that we have a couple of funny stories. We would look up places on line. And you know, we walked everywhere. And we would walk to that restaurant or that coffee shop and we want saw a coffee shop online. Then we said Oh, this looks really cool. Let's go check it out. And we walked to the coffee shop. And there was a big note on the door that said close Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. See you Wednesday. And we just started laughing because that was a very common experience that we had while we were there. But it was beautiful. And the race was amazing. So it made up for everything right. But lesson learned. So the name of the race I participated in was the Avalon benefit. 50 mile and 50k run. The 50 mile race has been going on for 41 years, which I was super surprised that it's been going on for so long, because I had never heard of the race. I was actually looking at Catalina Island and running the trans Catalina trial myself. I had no idea that there was a race that had

been going on and an ultra at that that had been going on for 41 years. So I was super surprised when a friend told me about it later on after I had been doing the research on trying the trans Catalina trial. And another thing I learned is the 50k race was added just four years ago. So that's not that long. So the 50 mile has been around for 41 years and the 50k has been around for four years. You know, like I said it's a low key race and my understanding it was a fundraiser for the community. So initially you had to raise money to participate in the race. So now you pay to participate in the race but originally you had to raise money for the community in the nonprofit is the Abalones Lions Club, which I'm not real familiar with that nonprofit, but I do know that they do. They host events for the community. They have community outreach. They also I think I read somewhere or they do some events or some kind of support for the visually impaired, but I'm not sure about that. I'd have to go back and, and research that. But nonetheless, it was a fundraiser for the local community. And that was it. And so it hasn't had a lot of marketing. And I think that's why a lot of people don't know about this race. According to a local, the race has been bought out by a sports company. And they are trying to make the race, a professional race. So people might be hearing about the race a lot more in the future. Because of this, it'll get some some marketing, and they'll get the name out there. And I'm going to help them with this podcast. It was it was a beautiful place to run. So if you love running and you like doing distance, you have to put this on your on your checklist. Okay, so my race, so let's just jump into my race. I registered for the 50k. I didn't do the 50 miler, I was a little bit nervous of 50 miles and the hills coming, you know, coming from Houston, where it's pretty much flats. And since COVID, I really haven't done any any distance like this. So I signed up for the 50k. So if you don't know, a 50k is 32 miles, but when you trail race, a lot of the times they can be a little bit more. So it's not always an exact 32 miles. This one was 33 miles. And yeah, so it was 33 miles, and the elevation gain was 6500 feet. So that's a lot of gain for a girl from Texas, right who trains in Houston, Texas, we don't have a lot of hills around here to train on. So our hills are the I call them our Houston hills, parking garages. For the most part, we do run the by you, you can get some undulating terrain. But really I feel like the parking garages is where I get the most benefit if I'm training for something like this. So parking garages every Thursday. Also my training for Catalina included Franklin Mountains 27k We had an elevation climb of 5500 feet. But if you heard my race report, you would know it had a completely unexpected turnout. I was four times slower than expected. Getting your mind right is huge for these events. I was not feeling very confident in my race results as far as time in El Paso. But I did find a silver lining. I was on my feet for nine hours climbing 5500 feet and this was perfect training for Catalina 50k. I did start this race with some doubts my training had not gone as planned. And I had been struggling with some knee pain due to some tightness or tension in my left quadricep. It started at the beginning of my training this year. Well, it actually started on a trip in Iceland, but it disappeared and decided to make a comeback. This this training season. So I've been struggling with that it goes away comes back especially if I do a lot of climbing. So that is a doubt when I'm doing such a long distance. And especially when I'm going in I have elevation that I have to to run. But I did I do have trekking poles. And they really helped me in the Franklin Mountains. And I assume they're going to be a great help at at the race and in Avalon. So but my biggest goal was to have fun, enjoy the views and finish. We had 11 hours to complete the race. Based on what I know, I kept telling myself the first 20 miles are going to be good. The last 13 They're going to hurt and probably pretty badly. This is where I need to dig deep find the grit and motivation to keep going. I was also a little concerned about getting to Catalina for the race. Omni Kron hit. And the airlines were not a guarantee. They had tons of cancellations and delays. But thankfully our flight was not canceled, and it was on time. But where I got in trouble. And I've already mentioned this was the ferry to Catalina. I was under the impression the ferry ran every hour. And this is this is true, but not during the offseason. And this was the offseason. And like I said before, it never occurred to me that California had an offseason. I mean this is California isn't at the same temperature all year

round. But they do Catalina Island does. And now I know the ferry only runs three times a day 7:50am 2pm and 630 When I called to make reservations for the ferry, I had to make a decision. Our plane arrived in LA at 1145. We had to take an Uber to Long Beach. I wanted to get the tickets for two, but with the state of the airline world, what if our plane is delayed? I asked the woman helping me Can we change our tickets to the 630 If this happens, and she said, I can't guarantee you, there will be spots available. Oh boy, if we miss the ferry race over, we have two chances to get on there. And I'll be sure to reserve the tickets for the 630 If we get in on time. I'll call to see if we can change to the to done decision made. Well, our plane was on time and in fact, we arrived in LA early Believe it or not. I called and the to the two o'clock ferry was sold out, leaving us seven hours with heavy bags to do nothing. We didn't get into Catalina until 9pm Not leaving us a lot of time to decompress and relax before the race or pick up our bib. But that's okay. We made it races on. We stayed at the La Paloma last florists. Our home for the next few days was something you'd find in the French Quarter of New Orleans. It was thriving with color. It was beautiful. And the plants of choice were succulents. This actually inspired me to create a succulent garden. So I've been doing some research on them. And I've got some great ideas that I want to implement in my home. Not only was our hotel quaint and cute. Luckily, it was down the street from a grocery store. Like I said, this was offseason. Businesses were shut down when we got there, but the grocery store was open. And we were off to sleep for 4am Wakeup because we missed our packet pickup, so we had to wake up early to get our bib numbers. So off to sleep we went 4am came early after our long travel day. I was excited because I had not seen the island since we arrived at night. Sunrise will be the first glimpse I see of the beautiful Catalina. I expected it was going to be a nice surprise. And what a perfect way to wake up to the beauty of a place you have never seen before. already immersed before the light. I love sunrises. It is this gradual awakening of the spirit of a place or a new or me. It's a perfect introduction. And I'll get to that. But Catalina you looked beautiful in the darkness. What will you look like in the light array start for the 50k was 6am. Sunrise was around 650. the start line was in front of the Wrigley stage in the middle of Avalon. This was a small elevated platform adorned in Spanish Tile. There were not a lot of runners may be a couple of 100. Typically these races can be much smaller than say the Houston Marathon where there are 1000s and 1000s of runners. But we gathered and we waited for the gun to start our journey. The gun goes off, we take off running, turning on to Summer Street, where we begin our ascent for the next four to five miles. It was cold but not too cold. It was perfect for running actually ended up taking my light jacket off about a half mile into the run. The highs were expected to be in the 60s, which is perfect because the trans Catalina trail does not have any shade. So the cooler the temperatures while you're running, the better. They're much welcome. But also in the forecast were clear blue skies. And you know what this means beautiful clear views. As we ran up Avalon Canyon, the sun started to rise. Hello, Catalina. The views were amazing. And as we submitted to the crest, I could see the meaning of the mountains and the Pacific ocean surrounding us. Really, this was the hardest part of the trail, the beginning. And it was the most beautiful and worth the work. And that happens in my life a lot. Some of the most beautiful things in my life. I've worked the hardest for I've put the most thought in those things. And I've invested myself, the reward is so much bigger. But let's run on to keep my mind busy. I like to calculate time, my friend and I were about three hours into the race. And my calculations told me if we kept up the pace, and we're consistent with that pace, we could finish sub nine. Now remember, we had 11 hours to finish and we were both expecting to come in between 10 and 11. But I told my friend and she said no, no, no. Let's not go there. I will be happy with 10. I said okay, just saying and we ran on. But I know how that goes. I had the conversation with myself quietly. You're feeling great. It's the beginning. You think you can run forever. Let's do this. I'm Supercharged. And then you hit a wall. And that dark place is different, every race where we'll My Walby in the Avalon 50k. But back to my calculations, I still believe the last 13 miles were going to be the hardest. So I mentally started

preparing myself to reach deep. Think about when I'm done. Think about the beer at the in the shower, how well I'll sleep tonight, and how good it will feel when I'm done, how good the accomplishment will feel. And don't forget to have fun, be grateful, make friends and enjoy the views. But as I predicted, I started hurting around mile 21. However, I was not discouraged at all. We were staying consistent with the pace. happy about that. And I kept secretly calculating eight ish hours. Was I getting tired? Was my blood sugar low? Am I calculating correctly? Eight ish? That doesn't sound right. I felt good. I felt mentally great. I don't know. We'll see. I love the aid stations and seeing all the volunteers. And if you're not sure what an aid station is, these are supported races. And so every few miles depending on the race, they might they'll have an aid station with food and water and Gatorade. And they might be three miles to 10 miles apart from each other. I think we had six aid stations. And the aid station that stuck out on this race was the eagle Ness bluegrass aid station, it was 20 miles in, they had a party going on there. They had barbecue, I think they had every kind of meat. They had sausage and bacon and shrimp and potatoes. Oh, they had the potatoes. I think that was my favorite part. I have never seen an aid station was so much meat every meat you could think of. But like I said my favorite was the warm roasted potatoes and it just really hit the spot. You don't eat a whole lot on these races. Sometimes you do a lot of goose I do humor gels. They sit on your stomach and can not feel so good sometimes. So when you get into a race into these longer distance races, it can feel really nice to have some warmth and substance in your stomach. And those potatoes for me, they hit the spot. This is also where I started to hurt. But again, I wasn't regretting anything. The elevation was getting harder to climb. Our pace started to slow down a bit. But not too drastically. We were walking up the hills and running down the hills. walking slower up the hills, I guess I should say, we hit the last aid station with about three miles to go. And from there, it was all downhill. And all I wanted to do was run. But that last climb we did, it really did my knee and and I was having a lot of pain while running, especially downhill. But guess what my calculation was correct. We were coming in, in eight hours. I just didn't know where in that eight hours we were coming in. And I thought to myself, I could walk because I was in a lot of pain running down. I could walk this in. And I can still make it. But I didn't want to walk. I wanted to run down that hill to the finish line. But I thought can I run through this pain without setting myself for injury? Is my mind playing tricks on me? Because sometimes that happens, you have to know when to push through pain and when not. And I could not figure this one out. Should I push through? Or should I keep running because I wanted to keep running not just during this race. But after this race. I don't like being injured. So I didn't know if it was a situation. I said listen to my body and walk. So my decision was to walk and run and use my polls as much as I can. And to be honest, I don't know if any of you guys have seen the Dark Crystal, but there's a puppet I guess Muppet Muppet puppet not sure which one they're called the land Strider and it is a four long legged creature. They're super fast, but their legs are very long and stiff so they don't actually bend. So anyways, while I was using my polls, and I was leaning on them so much while running. This is kind of how I felt. I'm not sure what I look like but that's how I felt. So anyways, I got to the bottom where it was flat and I was surprised at the crowd support. I could hear everyone cheering, cowbells ringing, and once I got to the flat and I heard that I ran across the finish line and completed the race and eight hours and 34 minutes. We did it with hours to spare. I was happy, very happy and proud. And my next thought, where's the beer? This is a celebration. But first it is tradition to get in the Pacific waist deep after the race. I had pants on my friend Lena did not. So she decided to get in up to her thighs. I took my shoes off and rolled my pants up as much as I could and stuck my feet in the water. Oh my gosh it was so cold. They were going numb within like 10 seconds. So I'm not sure how these people were standing in the water for such long periods of time, but my feet were going numb. So I got out, waited on my friend put our shoes on. And then we went and had a seat with a beer by the water. We did it. And she said, I can't believe we did it in eight hours and 30 minutes. We did. Cheers. And now it's time for some rest and relaxation, and

enjoy the rest of our trip on Catalina Island. Well, what did you guys think, you know, running in races always have teachings in them. And here are my takeaways. One, there are times where everything aligns creating a perfect day. It reminds me to keep doing what I'm doing, and inspires me to seek more of those moments. In fact, I'm already planning my next adventure. I've registered for trail running festival in the Faroe Islands. The islands are part of Denmark, and located between Iceland and Europe. And I might be adding to the trip, but I'm not sure yet. I might be adding a trip to Greenland, but I'm trying to figure it out. Another takeaway races that don't go well make me appreciate the ones that do. And consistency wins in the long haul, just like it did in Catalina. I also learned when it gets difficult. Remember your why. And for me, it's always the accomplishment and the experience of a beautiful place. And let's not forget the beer at the end. And the good night's sleep that I know I'm going to get that night. And last but not least, the trail is always better when shared with a friend. You know, I'm at a point in my life where my competitiveness has come down quite a quite a few notches. You know, I usually have one goal when I do these races and that goal is to finish. I might have an idea of the time I want. But the main goal is to finish. And if I get to hang out with a friend on race day, I'm so grateful. And I've always said running is better with friends. Well, those are my takeaways. I hope you really enjoyed this podcast. I would love to hear your feedback. And as always, I am dedicated to bringing you great content that is inspiring and informative with an artsy edgy spin. So get out there and find an activity that brings you joy. And as I always say, Never stop exploring, learning, loving and being you. Thank you so much for listening. We'll meet again hear next time, be well and have a healthy day. Bye