Someone get me a Band-Aid...

...because I fell off the bus. The training bus that is. (I've been reading some other runners blogs and apparently being slightly sarcastic and REALLY tacky is en vogue right now. How'm I doing?) Anyway, I'm beginning to realize that sticking to a really rigorous schedule is not really realistic with my current work schedule. Today, for example, I worked from 8:30 am to 11 pm. I would love to think I have the motivation to get up early and run before work, but that's just not going to happen. Hopefully in the next couple weeks the schedule will settle down a bit leaving me with more down time on my work days. Because a half marathon is definitely a real goal at this point and I'm going to be super disappointed if I don't accomplish it because of work. Usually it's the motivation part that I have trouble with and I've been doing well with that so far. So because I don't have much to update on the athletic front (other than an awesomely relaxing session with Rodney Yee yesterday in my living room), I'll talk about work instead.

I think I mentioned that the majority of the groups we get come from Los Angeles County. They often have very little experience in the outdoors, with cold weather, being exposed to the elements, etc. However, because we are located here around 7000 ft, we see a lot of different kinds of weather during the 7 months that we host groups and today was a pretty good example. All day today we were out hiking in the basin. It was chilly - never got above 45 - but for most of the day the sun was out which made it manageable. The wind picked up occasionally and caused everyone to bury their noses in their collars, but considering the temperature we ended up getting a lot done. Then, this evening we decided to go on a night walk. This is a walk where we take the kids 20-30 minutes back into a forest on an old logging road and then have them walk back one by one. It's a really great confidence builder for the kids who usually leave the vans terrified and return to the exhilarated. Well, tonight we piled into the cars to head to our night walk site only to drive straight into a snow storm.

There were a couple kids in this group that had never seen snow before, much less seen it falling from the sky so as soon as we arrived at our trailhead (so to speak) they jumped out and immediately started playing in it. Let me remind you that it's pitch black out and we're about to go hiking, so we had to encourage them to save the snowball fight for after our return to the cars. We began our walk in two single file lines, all walking in silence and listening to the snow falling around us. It was so quiet you could hear each flake settle in among the others as it landed on the ground. In a place where the only sounds usually are the pine needles rustling against each other in the wind, this kind of quiet was really magical. The kids seemed to feel it too. Of course they were nervous about their walk, but as soon as we got going they quieted down and really listened to what was going on around them. The sense of awe was almost tangible around us. I had been a little worried about how these kids would handle the cold and wet, but I was so glad that we chose to bring them out tonight. I think we offered them an experience they will never forget and may never have the chance to repeat. This is why, despite the crazy hours, I love my job.