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Ciao from El Centro, CA!
Run Stats:
Day: 576
Miles Completed: 2004.6
Miles to San Diego: 95.4
Avg Miles/Day: 3.5
Marathons Completed: 76.5
Longest Run Streak: 20 days
Shoes: Skora Fit/Skora Tempo
Playlist Favs: Catalyst Podcast, Needtobreathe
Bible Verse of the Day: That evening the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the villages and buy food for themselves." But Jesus said, "That isn't necessary--you feed them."
Run Reflections: Happy Saturday morning everyone! I'm virtually checking in from El Centro, CA today and am happy to have passed the 2000 mile mark on this journey. The high today in El Centro is forecast to be 105 degrees so I'm glad I got my run in early. Weather in Panama City lately has been in the high 80's but it's been cloudy so it's not as brutal on the roads. Ran the 1st half of the run today in a pretty good downpour but it actually helped keep me cool. I'll bet folks in El Centro would be jealous.
I hope you'll take a minute to check out the photo album that is part of this post. In addition to the photo's mentioned below, I also posted a road sign photo of I-8 and a cool photo of an interesting road in the desert near El Centro to give some perspective of what I would have seen/experienced if I were doing this virtual run for real. One other random observation I had this week was how my running cadence seems to link up well with the music/songs of the band needtobreathe. It seems like every time they make the playlist I have an awesome run where everything seems in synch.
El Centro, CA: El Centro is a city in, and the county seat of, Imperial County, CA. It is the largest American city to lie entirely below sea level (-42 feet). Founded in 1906, W.F Holt and C.A. Barker purchased the land on which the town was eventually built for about $40/acre. El Centro is home to retail, transportation, wholesale and agricultural industries. There are also two international border crossings nearby for commercial and noncommercial vehicles.
Sites of interest in the area of El Centro include the Algodones Dunes, the largest dune field in the U.S. that draws thousands of visitors each year, mainly for off-road driving. Courtesy of wikipedia, I've included several pictures of the dunes including a cool picture of some off-roaders at night, and a picture of the dunes as seen from space in the photo album associated with this post.
Located 30 miles north of El Centro is the Salton Sea, a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located direclty on the San Andreas fault. The lake is about 15 miles by 35 miles and is the largest lake in CA. It occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Imperial and Riverside Counties in CA. The lakes surface is 235 feet below sea level and its salinity is greater than the waters of the Pacific Ocean but less than that of the Great Salt Lake. The lake has been fed for millions of years by the Colorado River and it is also fed by the New Whitewater and Alamo Rivers. This inflow of water is one of the major reasons why this area of the desert was able to support the agriculture indistry. The photo that is included with this post (from wikipedia) shows the nearby farmlands with the Salton Sea and the mountains in the background.
El Centro is also home to a Naval Air facility that hosts the Navy Blue Angels for an annual flight maneuvering event. In terms of running clubs, it looks like the main club in El Centro is the RUN CLUB Imperial Valley. Their facebook pages shows a membership of over 800 people and indicates that, "although many people think of running as a solitary sport, running can also be a social sport providing a way to meet new people and stay motivated." They also identify that running is a sport you can do anytime, anyplace and anywhere (except the month of August for those who live in Imperial Valley) and that, while "running is AWESOME!, running with someone by your side is AWESOME-ER!!" This seems like a fun group and I liked their twitter handle - @YesWeRun.
That's a wrap for this week, but before I close I want to give a special shout out to my beautiful, smart and talented daughter Meredith who will turn 17 on Monday - you are awesome and I love you very much!.
God Bless, Pat
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