Breathe Magazine

Today, I had the amazing pleasure of running in a beautiful town with my youngest brother {Interview with an Ironman}.   Not only do we live 4 hours apart, we haven’t been on a run together in 5 years- maybe 10- can’t even remember the last time we went on a run together.  My brother, Rob, is an ex-Ironman Triathlete.  He spent 10 years racing and qualifying for the big event — KONA.   This brother of mine is now a full time industrial engineer with one young son and another one on the way.  So, our time together is incredibly limited and special to me.

And, as is the case with my children, I always have a plan on how to stay fit with them when on vacation or otherwise, but, this weekend my plans were thwarted by a horrendous sickness that passed through both of my children, which lead me to spend an entire day in a hotel room with my sick kids. Boo.

So, today’s run was bittersweet.  Not only was I out in the sunshine, but, I was running. Uphill in an incredibly picturesteque town of San Luis Obispo.  My only stipulation for my brother on deciding what/when and where to run was that we should run for one hour.  That’s it.  I didn’t care where he took me, how high the hills were…whatever, as long as I was running, I would be happy.

You see that white picket fence?  That is the start of the run.  Guess where the end was?! Yep. That rocky top.   Climbing to the top took about 25 minutes at a pretty steady pace, although we talked the whole way up (bro was constantly pointing out other trails, lakes, hills, valleys, and ocean trails that he runs on regularly!), I was thinking this is pretty steep and I hope the end is near cause I’ve maxed my heart rate on this hill.

WOW! Hours later I’m still in complete awe of the beauty of San Luis and the incredible gift it would be to live there year round- just for the running!

There will be another trail waiting for me in San Luis Obispo and it can’t come soon enough!

Rachel is the creator of Fit Mom’s Blog.  She blogs about trail running, cross fit, yoga and all things related to getting fit with kids or without.