The recovery process begins

Monday 14th October

What a fantastic day it has been.  First off at breakfast Martin was leafing through a newspaper and discovered that there was a lovely article about us with the headline "English Couple Runs on Passion" and a photograph taken in the VIP tent!

We left our noisy home of the last few days and headed north, our eventual destination being Santa Barbara, but our route being far from the most direct. We did have one incident when we thought the car - complete with all our belongings  - was being stolen. We had stopped at the road side to admire the view and wandered 50 yards or so away when Martin glanced back and saw someone getting into our car!  We both ran back, much faster than was advisable on post marathon legs, shouting and expecting it to roar off down the road only to find a startled tourist who also had a black hire car and had mistaken ours for it. As Martin had foolishly left it unlocked the poor guy had pointed his fob at it, opened the door and climbed in before he realised his mistake.  I don't know who was more distressed but my heart rate was definitely off the scale.  I have enough trouble getting into America as it is without losing another passport!

Apart from that the rest of the day was pure stress free enjoyment.  We stopped off at Point Dume beach, had a stroll, paddled in the sea, which felt great on those aching calf muscles, relaxed on the beach for a while with a picnic and then carried on up the Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Barbara.  Our body clocks are still out of kilter and we had been awake from the early hours so by 3 pm we were ready for snooze. What a bonus that we could enjoy a dip in the delightful outdoor pool first and then rest in the sun for an hour or so afterwards.  The sky was bright blue and cloudless and the forecast is for even hotter weather as the week continues.

Rested, refreshed, showered and changed we headed for downtown Santa Barbara and took a walk out onto the historic Stearn's Wharf.  A top tourist attraction it may be but at 6pm on an October evening it wasn't overcrowded and we were easily able to ignore the shopping and dining opportunities and just enjoy the beautiful views of the coastline, the harbour and the beautiful sunset.

Another short stroll took us to the Brew House, where we enjoyed some great home brewed beer and a tasty meal before heading back to our hotel.  It was still fairly early but we are gradually adapting to the time zone and the lovely peace and quiet should enable a good night's sleep which will make a great change.

All in all it was the perfect way to spend the first day recovering from the marathon.