Orange County Burn Out
My house almost burned down in Orange County’s Santiago fire, which as I write this refuses to die – like The Rolling Stones, some tangerine-flavored Gu at the bottom of my drawer of leopard-print thong underwear and, of course, Rosie O’Donnell.
As it turns out, as far as training for the Coastal Challenge is going, fire has been berry, berry good for me.
After the embers cooled a bit, 
Coach Charlie and I broke the law by running 16 miles on the charred Santiago Truck Trail in the foothills of Orange County. Technically, we were in the Cleveland National Forest, which remains closed to the public.
At one point, about 3.5 miles into the run, we saw Barney Fife standing on a ridge, ready to ticket us, but we pushed him off and he fell down the steep ravine. Luckily for him, a strong rush of hot air blowing up from the canyon via downtown L.A., where Rosie O’Donnell was yapping, pushed Fife back up the hill. He survived. By then, Charlie and I were long gone.
A cool bragging point about running in Costa Rica is the bit about the volcano. We will be running on a volcano, right? I hope so. I better get some benefit from sucking up enough airborne crap to possibly kill Rosie (nothing could kill her, at this point). My throat still aches from my run on the Santiago Truck Trail. I better not have run there in vain.
Finally (kinda sorta) waking up to the fact that the Coastal Challenge will require me to run six days in a row, I have come up with a new weekend running strategy: back-to-back long runs, on trails with nasty uphills.
Last weekend, I logged 13 miles in the foothills behind San Juan Capistrano (Coach Charlie ran in front of me, rolling out the red carpet) on Saturday, followed by a brutal 23 miles (well, mostly brutal) in Aliso and Wood Canyons and El Moro state park – two popular running/mountain biking/hiking spots separated by Laguna Canyon Road in Laguna Beach (and believe me, separating anything in Laguna Beach, including the men from the boys, isn’t easy).
I realize that I need to continually punish myself if I am to survive Costa Rica. In that spirit, I am forcing myself to watch all of Howie Mandell’s movies, to be followed by anything featuring Goldie Hawn in a supporting or starring role. Goldie, you and I may have the same hair, but that’s as far as relationship goes. Sorry.
Keep cool, drink ice water and eat lots of fire retardant.
Greg
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