Good morning my dear friends. I am up and ready to drive to Sequim to visit a friend for the weekend prior to her double mastectomy operation next week. She wanted to have a bye bye boobis party, so I am organizing one for her. No running for me, but I will have a pile of hours of driving to do.
Erika, my next marathon will be Boston
Cheers.
"Champions are everywhere; all you need is to train them properly..." ~Arthur Lydiard
Marathon Maniac #957
Mariposai - you are a wonderful friend.
No run for me today, just a mild stretching session. I ran extra yesterday so I could rest my knee today before tomorrow's LR, although my knee feels pretty good at the moment.
I've been running the river path for 7 years, but saw something there yesterday I have never seen before - a river otter! I was running along the top of the levee and thought I saw a squirrel swimming in the river. I stopped to watch for a minute and realized it was an otter.
Another thing, in recent weeks we have acquired a flock of seagulls on the river. We are hundreds of miles from any large body of water - how did we get seagulls?
Life is a headlong rush into the unknown. We can hunker down and hope nothing hits us or we can stand tall, lean into the wind and say, "Bring it on, darlin', and don't be stingy with the jalapenos."
Sayhey! MM#130
Mari, don't know if you're this good of a friend, but DH observed that mine weren't my best feature the night before my dm surgery. He meant well, you know? Anyway, if they're trying to kill you, they aren't your friends anymore so good riddance is how I look at it.
Holly: was the otter cute and friendly? I used to encounter muskrats when I lived near wetlands in western MA and they were nasty-dispositioned critters.
DH is down on Marco Island w/ his racewalking chums. There are hills there.
Got in 12 this am, 3 before a 5K and 6 after, mostly slow with 22:32 for the 5K--got a running store giftcard and 6 bagels to take home (Jason's Deli was a generous sponsor) so I think I made my entry fee back.
OK, listening to Paula and her soccermom story on Wait wait.
Good Saturdays!
grins,
A
https://agratefullifedotnet.wordpress.com/ (for a piece or two of my mind)
Great stories from three of my favorite goddesses that I'm following today. You're doing a great thing, Nancy, and I hope your friend can keep up the good attitude -- requires a lot of bravery!
I finally got out for a run this morning, but with a low club turnout I ended up running solo on the 6-mile loop around the lake. It was a bit below freezing, but no wind at all and the path was mostly clear all the way.
I hope the rest of you can get out for a run today!
Doug, runnin' cycling in Rochester, MI
"Think blue, count two, and look for a red shoe"
++++
Ran in Saguaro National Park this morning among the cacti. I can easily see how wildchild does not want to run on roads when she spends her time on mountain trails
have a good w/e all. One more day in Tucson before we go north to Phoenix.
marj
Another thing, in recent weeks we have acquired a flock of seagulls on the river.
Isn't that a rock band from the 80's who sang "I Ran (So Far Away)?" Glad your knee feels better Holly. Good job with the tape!
Congrats on the gift card and bagels Amos. That's what I call a successful race day.
Marge and Henry - do you guys EVER stay home?!
You are a good friend, Mariposai. Are you baking a booby cake as part of the festivities?
7 miles this morning. Lots of walk breaks to cough and blow my nose. Don't even ask me about how slow I was running. But the half marathon training schedule called for 6 today, so I'm one ahead of the game. I'm just looking out of our office window, and there are three bright red cardinals sitting on my bird feeders. Spring is coming - hopefully soon...
Have a great weekend everyone.
Hope all that water in the PNW recedes soon. DH and I were just seeing the coverage of the flooding on CNN.
Tamster, my heart goes out to the family of David's classmate. Tragic.... My cousin lost one of her kids at age 21 the same way, as did one of my hiking friends, who just blurted out the whole story to me about 3 hours after we first met. Elaine holds a charity walk now every year since to raise money for mental health awareness.
This weekend was supposed to be my first foray out onto the road for a LR in a few years. Managed to get myself invited along to a group run tomorrow by a woman training for a May marathon. But it's been snowing off and on for a couple of days, and with another 10cm predicted tonight I wasn't looking forward to slipping and sliding thru 19K. That and the fact that my GI issues seem to have returned (and there are less pit stop options available) made me decide to ditch the road for now and join my trail peeps this morning. The snow was pretty fresh and the trail wasn't well packed, so ~13K was enough for the three of us that stayed out the longest. Ironically, we were the three oldest of the gang that started this morning. Followed up with cross training/shovelling 100 feet of driveway and filling the bird feeders.
.....Nancy The road to hell is paved....... run trails!
Carolyn
So are you a trail convert now?
My running hasn't been too consistent lately because we're on a road trip, but I run when I can, either dirt roads or trails, whatever I can find near where we're camping for the night. I also have to clean up using a wet washcloth, but it works okay. Shorts and tee shirt weather is wonderful!
Mari, good luck to your friend with her surgery.
Tamster, I'm sorry about David's classmate, too. Hope he's processing it okay - suicide is a tough thing to deal with. My heart goes out to the boy's family.
On a brighter note, hope you guys all have a fun weekend and happy miles!
I hammered down the trail, passing rocks and trees like they were standing still.
the flooding receded off my road and so I went to my 5K this morning. Originally, David and I were running it as a couples relay team, but he has an FBLA public speaking competition all day today, so I changed my registration to the Love Stinks 5K. This race attracts more fast people to the relay (each run a 5K) part of the race and the more casual runners tend to do the solo 5K. My time was only 27:25 and that still earned me 1st AG. 9:11, 9:21, 8:21. It's uphill on the way out, but a nice downhill on the way back.
official results: 1/2 AG, 4/25 OA Female, 18/48 OA
Tammy
Ran my 17th 5k at the Reese Winter Series. It was my 16th best finish. Oh well, I am in a slump and I know it but at least I'm out running in February.
I was halfway to the race when I remembered it started at 10:00. I left thinking it was 9:00. I got there at 8:30 and helped the organizers a little bit. (Carried a few cases of water bottles is about all they needed help with.)
Saw tselbs there. He was early too, but on purpose.
I ran a 26:12. Started off off with an 8:00 first mile and then tailed off quite a bit.
Tammy, what a tragedy. My heart goes out to the young man's family and acquaintences like your son. Holly, my thoughts are also with your coworker. Tammy, that flooded road doesn't look very nice. mari, I hope your friend's surgery goes well. Aamos, nice 5K. Tammy, good job in your 5K with 1st in AG.
Nice long runs for Holly, mari, and Aamos (including above mentioned 5K. evan, good job on the speedwork.
As Dave said, we were both at the same 5K race this morning. It was pretty nice for a Feb. race, temp in the mid 20s and almost calm. My GPS gave me a time of 32:17, distance of 3.12, and pace of 10:20. I was 29/43 OA and 2/3 in my AG (70+).
A good day and good runs for all.
TomS
New skirt in town
Mari, you are such a great friend. This comes as a surprise to none of us, but it's beautiful how you demonstrate that over and over again.
I'm jealous of Marj and Henry, to be missing our terrible weather. We have another storm bearing down on us, ready to drop 15-18 inches onto already congested twisty city streets that just cannot handle the stuff any more. I hope Marj and Henry are able to find their home, buried under the snow.
Yesterday morning was a brief snowless window in the Boston area. Our Melanoma Foundation team run was cancelled because of the danger of running on most of the roads, but a few of us ventured out to the carriage road that runs parallel to the Boston Marathon course. This is a good 3.5 mile, quiet stretch of road that is usually fairly well plowed, wide, residential, and where drivers are few and surprisingly courteous. I think almost everyone in the Boston area had exactly the same idea. I run the course quite a bit, and I must say that I've never seen it as crowded and raucous as yesterday! (Well, except, of course, on Patriot's Day). Everyone was desperate to get their miles in before the next storm hit!
--Robin
NO MO MELANOMA! Help me run 26.2 miles and raise $5000 for the Melanoma Foundation of NE. Visit this page to learn more: http://tinyurl.com/NO-MO-MELANOMA
Excellent point! I mostly wuss out on racing until at least March. Kudos to you for just getting out there, and personally I don't think that is a bad time at all.
Tammy - nice racing for you as well!
MM#209 / JapanJoyful#803
Nancy - be careful driving all across the Cascade Passes and state to the Olympic Pennisula this time of year. Funny how this runnin forum has more to do with life that life sometimes does.
.
Tammy, it happened to the kid that sat next to me less than a month into Ninth Grade math class 57-years ago in 1958. Oddly enough, even though none of us have ever talked about it since, the same feelings I felt then still come over me ever anniversary date. n.
"Enjoy yourself. Your younger days never come again." 100yo T. Igarashi to me in geta at top of Mt. Fuji (8/2/87)