Fox On the Run

Hola my little tarts and tartlets!

First, I want to start off by clarifying a comment I made about my running group in my last post.  I might have diss’ed my fellow runners (and coaches) a bit yesterday…and for that, I want to apologize.  They are a bit militant, I think several of them might view that as a complement, but if it wasn’t for my running group I would not have been able to make the progress that I have made over the past year.  Collectively they push me harder than I ever could on my own and for that, I thank them. 

Okay, now that I cleared my conscience I can talk about other stuff…like my run last night.  Didn’t go with my group because by the time I left work at 7:10 PM, my group was more than ½ done with their workout so I had to go it alone last night.  I decided to stay in the city cuz there’s still plenty of people out at that time and there are lots of street lights.  A couple of weeks ago I ran on the Mount Vernon trail around 7:30 PM and though it was beautiful and I got the opportunity to see two bald eagles chilling in a tree next to the river under the full moon, it was really dark when I was finished and my car and the child stealer van parked next to me were the only two vehicle in the parking lot.  It just didn’t give me the warm fuzzies so needless to say, I opted to run in a more rape and stab adverse environment.    I took my normal path down toward the Lincoln Memorial and I’m happy to report that most of the renovations are done so the Reflecting Pool is back to it’s beautiful state; not original really cuts it’s even better sans all the dead animals that have been cleared out of it. 

As I was cutting across the stairway at the eastern end of the memorial, I looked over to my left and low and behold….I saw a fox running in the green area between the Lincoln Memorial and the Korean War Memorial.  I was like, “holy shit! A fox in the middle of DC.”  I started running down the ramp toward the War memorial in hot pursuit of this fox.  As I was telling my husband the story last night, he was all like, “okay Davey Crocket..What would you have done with him if you caught up to him?”  Valid question…unfortunately I did not have an equally valid response cuz I hadn’t thought the whole thing through at that point.  I just was really interested in seeing how the tourists were gonna react to him. 

By the time I got to the War Memorial, my little furry tailed canid friend had scurried off into the shadows and I found myself standing at the back of the Korean War Memorial.  Dudes…if you have never seen this memorial before,  I suggest waiting until dark to visit it for the first time….it is the most ominously surreal thing to see by moonlight.  I hate to admit it, but that was the first time I had ever made my way down there to see it so I guess that’s why the whole thing kinda took me by surprise…but for reals, take a look at this shit!  It’s freaky right?   

 

It kinda takes your breath away the way the artist depicted the solders as if they were walking through a field in full gear.  The statues portray the soldiers to be about 25% larger than an average man which makes it all seem even more poignant.  I hate the use the word creepy but I can’t think of another word to describe it better.   Sometimes it’s just really hard to conceptualize the sacrifices that fellow Americans have made for this country in order to protect what we as Americans believe in.  The men and women who have served and continue to serve our country in Foreign Wars to protect us at home really are 25% larger than real life. 

The rest of my run seemed kinda uneventful after that but it was a beautiful night and I was stoked that I was able to take advantage of the early fall weather.  The past several days have been nothing short of perfect here in the nation’s capital.  Man it’s gonna be hard to move away from this. 

Love this post…not really in line with my blog but it hit home with me. Character in anyone is a hard thing to find.

I Heart Change

Single girls of every age have been told to make a list of characteristics and traits that are important in their future spouses. The list is meant to help weed out those that don’t fit the trajectory of the woman’s life and open her eyes to seeing more clearly. Somehow I missed this memo or put off this assignment, or maybe the dog ate my paper, because I don’t have a list anywhere.

Part of the (real) reason this list doesn’t exist is because I don’t like dating, so I don’t do it, so I never have needed to answer the question What are you looking for? before.

I went years and years without dating at all. After two pretty serious relationships in my late teens/early twenties, I gave it up and never looked back. I lived my life, opened doors to the world around me, traveled, wrote, achieved…

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Can I Consider Myself a Runner?

So our track work out on Tuesday was pretty intense…2 mile repeats with sprints on the straight away and recovery jogs on the curve.  We did that for an hour…I was dead by the end of the whole thing but I felt so good. 

I wish that I could always remember that feeling…you know how good you feel both mentally and physically, right after a run.  If I could only bottle it up or can that feeling, things would be so much easier.  Then,  errytime I’m sitting on the couch watching Here Comes Honey Boo Boo or some other mind numbing TLC program I can spray a little to entice me to get off the couch and go running.  It’s such a vicious cycle for me …I sit on the couch saying how tired I am and that I have no energy to go running, then I feel terrible and guilty for not going then, the next thing you know I’m eating or drinking something I shouldn’t…and then the downward cycle begins.   I have such difficulty with self motivation which is kinda weird cuz most runners don’t…in fact, I get the feeling pretty often that most runners don’t go through that cycle at all.  I listen to the folks in my running group talk and seriously, I don’t think they think of anything other than running.  All conversations revolve around next races and split times and cross training and PRs.  I feel so out of the loop.  I’m always in the background shaking my head like I’m agreeing with their comments when in my mind I’m thinking…good gawd really????  Like we’re not training for the Olympics here, right?  Can we dial this back a bit?

 I run for mental relief and physical well being.  I don’t want this to be a second job.   I stress out so much about deadlines and performance with my job I don’t want to come to the track and feel like I need to be competing here too.  But, I guess that’s just the nature of the kind of people who are runners.   So if that’s the case, does that mean I shouldn’t consider myself a runner?  Hmmm, who knows? 

Bottom-line; Yes, I would like to be faster..yes, I want to run longer….but I also want a  balance.  I don’t want running to become such a chore that it’s no longer fun for me and the stress outweighs that feeling I was talking about earlier.  I wish there was a group that I could join where there are like minded people who like to run for the recreational aspect of it.  It just seem that the majority of the runners I come across fall into the militant category who use running as yet another thing in their lives by which can demonstrate their alpha capabilities.  At the end of the day, I can consider myself a runner because that’s what I want to do.  I might not measure up to majority of the folks who have embraced the sport but in my heart of hearts I love to do it and that’s all that really matters to me.   I have been running for over 20 years and I know that I will NEVER run a 6 minute mile or less but that’s okay.   

Woodrow Wilson Bound

Greetings my little nuggets!  Long time no blog, right? 

Life, since my last post, has been hectic to say the least…right after the Woodrow Wilson ½ in 2011 I became all consumed by my job…my position changed which required me to become more type A than I already was/is which, in turn, led to 10 -12 hour work days, lots of bottles of wine and no time (and really no motivation) for running.   As a result, I developed a persistent pain in my neck that still runs down the right side of my back, an unhealthy love for alcohol…oh, and a bad case of Office Chair Ass, also known as OCA. 

In addition to my job, life at home has been kinda nuts; kids back from school, kids going off to school, baby bear 1 getting married (oh gawd, I’m gonna have a son-in-law and then there will be 7).  Right now, we are down to the three of us at home…well, four if you include Randal.  I don’t have an excuse.  I guess you could say that I never really did have an excuse.  I was just using some minor difficulties as a way to not run in the cold…so the time is now. 

For the past several weeks, I have been trying to get back into running and I’ve been setting my sites (or is it sights) on running another ½ marathon…it’s been a real struggle to get back into shape.  I can’t seem to shed the 10 lbs I found after I stopped running last fall but I am finally getting to a point where I can run more than three miles without huffing and puffing and grunting like a bull dog.  Last Sunday morning I was able to squeeze out just over 10 miles and I felt pretty good during and after the run.   So, I think I’m gonna commit to the Woodrow Wilson ½ this year.   It’s just less than 4 weeks away…if I am strict about my training between now and then, I think I can do it.  I think the only thing that’s really holding me back right now is me.  I have it in my head that the next ½ I do, I have to do it in under 2:30.  If I had stayed on track last year…I would have been able to do that with my eyes closed but now, that’s really not a valid goal.  I’m psyching myself out so much over this I’m beginning to feel that pain down my back even as I type this.  So vhat to do, vhat to do….I need to just put my big girl pants on and just do it!  Ghah!!!!

With that, I’m off to track practice!  Have a good night all and wish me luck.