Running In Place

 In the parade

Tribute at the Holland Patent Veteran’s Memorial

 Speech in front of the whole dang town (did awesome!)

 Hangin’ with the kid

Or maybe just someone who can manage a wall calendar.  Someone who, when I say “I just registered for a race on May 20th,” will mark it on the calendar for May 20th.  And not May 27th.  See where I’m going with this?

Today was the National Distance Running Hall of Fame races – at least as far as I was concerned.  Of course when I pulled up to the HOF and found it deserted, I had a vague inkling that something might be amiss.  I called the old man and dragged him out of bed to check the race flyer, which of course confirmed the obvious.  Since I was geared up to go there was no reason not to have a run anyway, so I went a short distance to the canalway where much of the Hall of Fame 1/2 Marathon runs (I would have done the 5K, if I could kick start the time machine) and did my own personal 3.1 miles.  And I came in 1st!  Though only because it was 8 AM and there were no mothers pushing strollers or seniors walking poodles right at that time. 

The afternoon was for hanging out with sissee and her brood.  I love those kids!  I do!!  But Yikes-a-Rama!!  My drive home is a prayer of gratitude for having: a) a boy, b) only one, and c) one that is nearly grown!  Sis homeschools them, she takes them to (all seperate) soccer games & practices, she works their summer rec program and homeschooling group.  She’s also a Le Leche League leader, a breastfeeding peer counselor for WIC and a certified Doula.  Way to go Ginger – you were born to mom < --it's a verb in her case.

Tired of hearing about my family yet?  I can’t promise I’ve finished my retrospectives.  I hope I can promise that all (or most) future races will be run at their scheduled times.  Though it sure was nice to be the winner today.        

Now.  Back to business. 

After oh-so-patiently waiting for my Man Overboard foot to heal up, and then waiting for the world’s shittiest head cold to clear up, I have ran (runned?)!  Monday I hit the towpath and did two nice & easy miles with a little bit of soreness in my arch and an occasional, highly unpleasant, numb sensation in my toes.  Afterward I was apparently no worse for the wear so I rested on Tuesday and hit my first Development Run since 2005 on Wednesday.  I did the 2 mile rather than the 10K so as not to push my luck right off the bat.  Even the short run involves a good amount of uphill so I definitely felt like it was worth the while.  No numbness and the barest notice of the arch – so I’m calling all good. 

It might be recalled that I have taken my running skirt out for a spin on the towpath.  I was a little self conscious but of the few people that I came across I heard no shrieks of laughter or terror so I considered it a successful debut.  Since then, I had purchased an “athletic skirt,” which seems to be a little more suited to my figure, and the Wednesday night run seemed like as good a place as any to test my ego integrity.  Besides, with 400 or so runners, there was bound to be some other skirted chick to commiserate with…right?  Ahem.  In the end, if anyone even gave half the shit about what I was wearing that I’d imagined they would, I was unaware.  It was a hot, big hill run and I chugged along just fine and finished strong, pulling ahead of a girl right at the end who I’d been chasing the whole way – so I had no complaints.  It got me to looking forward to tackling the 10K in a couple of weeks.

While walking back to the parking lot, I was a few steps behind a high school age girl and guy who had also run.  She looked back at me and then I heard her mumble something to him and give what she might possibly have thought was a subtle head gesture back towards me.  I waited, half smiling, until he turned around to apparently look at something that was in the distance behind me.  Then I waved to him and gave him a full-on smile.  He did a quick face-forward and I contemplated catching up to them and making her aware that the skirt beat the shit out of creeping shorts on any day.  I was sure she would have related as it was obvious to the most casual observer she had an intimate understanding of the concept of bunching.  But, in the end, it didn’t matter.  I’d arrived there feeling so anxious that I might be noticed – because if they noticed my skirt they might notice how out of shape I am, and ungainly, and slow, and blah, and blah, and blah.  Then I ran.  And it was all about getting up that big hill, then passing people on the downhill, then giving that great big push to pull out a good finish.  By the time I actually was being looked at, by teenagers no less – whose whole social existence is based on judging others against their own conformity (while fancying themselves the world’s first rebels) – I was untouchable.  I think it’s going to be a good summer, whether the world ever gets used to me flouncing around in my skirt or not.      

I’m suddenly aware that I only seem to be receiving e-mail notifications of some, and not all, of the comments I get.  I don’t know if that’s a Wordpress problem or more of AOL’s fascist attempts to save me from spam (though there’s nothing to be found in my spam folder).  In any case, that bums me out as I like to respond to each comment because I’m always so happy when anyone has the time to stop by.  So thanks.  And hopefully all these silly problems will magically fix themselves (because I sure as shit don’t know how) and you’ll not have to waste time reading my whines.

Dear Wordpress,

If I wanted to stay up till 10PM writing and then have my post completely disappear when I tried to save it, I would have stayed at Blogger.

I kind of hate you right now.

~ Lara