Saturday, September 19, 2009

Bleary-Eyed and Raggedy-Tailed

As opposed to "bright-eyed and bushy-tailed". Because that's how I felt this morning when the alarm went off at 5:30am. My eyes were still closed as I thought, "Really? Remind me why I get up so early to run on a Saturday again?"

Today was supposed to be hot, so I suppose it was a good thing that we started running so early at 6:45am. My body just didn't believe me that it was a good idea. We got down to Mission Bay High School around 6:30am to meet up with our running club West Coast Road Runners. The turnout today was pretty small. I ended up running with Cathy the whole seven miles. We ran west on Thomas street and then north along the beaches of Pacific Beach and then La Jolla.

Cathy pointing out the cool pier with the cottages on it in Pacific Beach.
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Lifeguard station in PB.
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Another lifeguard station about a mile further north.
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It was really humid and I felt pretty slow and energy-less. But alas, I ran 7.13 miles and made it back. When I got back to the parking lot, Todd was waiting for me, sitting in a lawn chair reading a book. He ran three miles with his group and then waited for me. The good news is his knee didn't feel hurt. The bad news is he felt out of running-shape after not running for about a month. Well, I can't say I felt that great today either, and I actually have been running lately!

We got back to our house in time for the 9am kickoff of the football game between our Ohio State Buckeyes and Toledo.  I don't know why, but they played the game at Cleveland Browns Stadium in Cleveland.  The game wasn't on TV, but it was on ESPN 360 on the internet.  So we hooked up our laptop to the TV and watched it that way.  It wasn't in HD, but at least we were able to watch it.  Todd made his standard gameday batch of popcorn and enjoyed his big glass of Coke immensely.  The game turned out to be no contest as we crushed Toledo 38-0.  Then, in a stunning development in the afternoon, the same USC Trojans who beat us last week lost to Washington Huskies 16-13 on a last second Washington field goal.

We decided to drive down to Point Loma Seafood for dinner, and watch the sunset at Sunset Cliffs.  Todd has his usual halibut sandwich, while I tried crab sandwich for the first time.  I didn't take any photos because I already have four or five sets of photos depicting eating at Point Loma Seafood this year.  :|   It was delicious, yet again, and such a bargain for fresh seafood!

A view of downtown San Diego from outside of the restaurant.
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It was very cloudy, but we decided to drive to Sunset Cliffs anyways for the sunset.
Even though it was cloudy, it was a different kind of beauty in the scenery.
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I used a Kelsey Smith Lightroom preset called "Ain't No Sunshine" on this photo. I like how it looks like a vintage surf photo.
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I love this photo of Todd. I used another Kelsey Smith Lightroom preset called "McDreamy" on it.
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Todd had the foresight to bring a tripod, so we took some photos of the two of us together. It was getting dark outside, so the photos turned out somewhat grainy. I used that same "McDreamy" preset on this to fade out the colors a little bit and make it less grainy.
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After such an early start to our day, I'm ready to get some good rest tonight!

6 comments:

  1. Nice photos as usual :) Not sure if you're already using this but for noisy photos, Noiseware is really good. There's a free community edition on their site. http://www.imagenomic.com/download_nwsa.aspx

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  2. OK, I'm thinking that the "Photoshop at the beach" class should be renamed to "Photoshop, Lightroom, Brushes and whatever else Tracey doesn't understand" class.

    I've been very curious about the words 'preset' and 'actions'..don't know what they are, but maybe I'll investigate this week. (after I grade 7 days worth of school work..sigh.)

    Love all the photos..the view from the restaurant and the vintage surfers look like something out of a magazine.

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  3. wow... great picutres and wonderfl landscape!

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  4. Though not quite a comparable match-up, your Buckeyes played in Cleveland for the same reason we play in St. Louis against Mizzou. It's a regional rivals type of thing. I believe Michigan did the same thing recently - I think they played in Detroit against a smaller Michigan school. Not sure if this is unique to the Big Ten or not.

    For your grainy photos, you might try Noiseware. There is a free community edition for Windows.

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  5. Hey Christine..regardless how you felt..the fact that you still got up and ran your 7miles..that's impressive! Hey I have a question, I noticed you take great photos on your run..do you run and carry your camera or do you have a little running pouch or something? My friends think I'm crazy but esp. with running in my first Half in Long beach, wanted to take along my little digital camera to take photos along the way....Thanks..

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  6. love the shot of you two!! I should buy at last a tripod!!

    Beautiful shots in the harbour and at the sea!

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