Girl In Motion

Last night Nick and I went to a friend’s house for Game Night: a semi-regular fall/winter gathering where a group of us get drunk, smoke things, play board games, eat like pigs and have a great time.

The fun continued today when I went on a run with Audra, my Steamtown marathon buddy who’s in town for the weekend with her girlfriend.  Audra’s doing the NY Marathon next week (to get that BQ she so deserves!) so today was a recovery for her - 4 easy miles on this gorgeous Fall afternoon day.  It’s such a pleasure to hang with her, seems like we’ve known each other forever and her girlfriend is just as cool so it was mucho fun.

After we parted, I continued on and ran into my local forum friend Joe, who is the nicest, speediest cute guy (going for sub-3:00 in Philly this month!) and was doing 22-23 today, but stopped long enough to give me a hug and some sugar which put me in an even better mood.

Then I ran into Kev, who heads the Philly Runners Club - and while I haven’t run with the club, I ran a mile trial he put on in April and have seen him at other races, so I know him enough to get a nice high-5 from him and some funny words that kept me chuckling as I ran on.

After all was said I done, I got in 8.75 miles plus a natural trip to Happy Land thanks to all the chats, smiles and friendliness along the way.  Talk about a great way to end the week.

to my toenail.  But let us not dwell in a place of sadness or fear.  No, let us rejoice in its passage, joyous in the understanding that this was not the death of innocent beauty.  Nay, it was but a gnarly nail that, in leaving this mortal foot, opens the door to new growth and less filing in future.  Moment of silence, please.

It was gross though, I’d never seen a removed nail in it’s entirety and because there’s something enticing about grossness to me, I kept pulling it out of the trash to marvel at it, shudder, then throw it back in the trash.

I could absolutely not write a post about my toenail with at least including one link to a toenail necklace.  Don’t click this if you’re easily squicked.  The guy who made this apparently takes donations, so I could offer mine up, but I eventually threw it far down in the trash so I’d never be tempted to look at it again - and I’m leaving it there.

Had another fantastic run today.  This is one of the few runs where I wear shortsleeves.  Seems like my running apparel as the temps go from high to low is running bra–>sleeveless–>long sleeves.  Short sleeves get about 5 runs the whole season.

So anyway, today is low 50s and sunny outside, and I did 7 w/8 strides.  Avg pace for the run - 8:46.  I love strides not only for the leg-waking properties, but it’s also the only time I get to consistently see 6:something pace on my watch.  Mucho fun.

Another stellar thing about today’s run is that I’ve had ouchys from a blister on the bottom of my pinky toe from Steamtown and it’s been hurting ever since.  Today was the first day where I had no inkling of it, so no on-the-go disassociation needed.  Note to self: downhill racing = tie shoes tighter.

I finally signed up for the Ben Frankin Bridge 10K, so I’m all happy about starting to make a race schedule.  I’m planning on a PR because it’s been a while since my last 10K, but I haven’t decided on a goal time yet.  After much indecision, I’m going to forgo any speedwork and maybe get 2 measly tempo miles in on Monday at 10k pace, just so I can see how it feels.  The main thing is I want to have fun without a huge pressure to get xx:xx.  C’mon legs…surprise me!

Running looks to be fun this week, easy short jaunts in the newly cooled down weather.

Real life though, is peppered with annoying things I gotta do.  Yesterday it was give a final blood test and pee in a cup to see if the slight weirdness shown in my last tests are still slightly weird or normal.  Done.

Today is a thorough house cleaning because Nick’s half-brother is visiting from Spain tomorrow and staying a few days.  It takes company coming for me to really clean our abode.  I can run for several hours straight, but ask me to spritz Windex for a few minutes and I get completely freaked out, finding all sorts of ways to put it off.  Look, I’m doing that right now by writing this.

Tomorrow is the annual Scam Of The Century revisit - getting my car inspected.  They always find hundreds of dollars of crap I need to replace, so this time, Nick and I are carting Nick’s 92-year-old dad to this particular Russian inspection place (Nick and his dad are Ukrainian, but his dad can speak Russian when it counts) because they saved his dad buckets of dough.  We have to take the old man because 1. we don’t know where it is and 2. he’s our secret password to get in.

I actually fixed parts of my car myself last year when it had been stalling (cleaned/unstuck the EGR valve, replaced a faulty coolant sensor and a couple other things) and after doing this, thought I was golden for the inspection.  Nah, my local place managed to find stuff that a human can’t repair without lifting the car off the ground and charging $500, the bastards.  Here’s hoping the Old World gas station guy takes pity on me and all I have to pay for is the inspection (what a wild concept!).

Tonight has some fun in store, we’re going to a beer-tasting event with our friends Jeff and Lara, where the restaurant owners are generously letting it be a wine-tasting for me, since I’m not a beer gal.   Should be fun.  May I just say how lovely it is to drink and do whatever without worrying about it adversely effecting my run the next morning.  Yay, vices! (in moderation, of course)

OK, enough putting off the inevitable. Time to spritz, wipe, vacuum, mop, launder…sigh.  I’d rather fix a car.

I ran tomorrow’s run this afternoon because I’m going to a bicycle race tomorrow.

Looking at my logs, the last time I ran in the afternoon was way back in May, so that made it a novel run right there.  It was incredibly beautiful; the setting sun on the river along with a cool breeze put me at peace with the world.  Of course, being at peace doesn’t preclude my usual cynical pondering of why so many people run in sweatshirts, pants and multi-layers when it’s 59 degrees, meanwhile I’m sweating in my sleeveless tank, but that’s one of the mysteries of life, I guess.

Anyway, it was truly a special run, I felt strong and lithe, going 5 miles @ 8:49 avg.  I can’t believe how good I feel less than 7 days from the marathon so I’m doing that 10K on Nov. 2nd for sure.  Going to post a question to the Training forum, see if it’s worth it to stick a tempo or interval session in before the race or not push anything.  I’m sure that just because I feel recovered doesn’t mean I am and they say speed sessions don’t “show” until 10 days after, so we’ll see what the general consensus is.

But now it’s time to shower and then pig out with Nick on Indian food, my fave.  Life doesn’t get any better than this.

Wednesday’s recovery run did me a world of good, yesterday I was 100% back to normal legwise - as if I’d never done a big race.  My toes were still messed up though and throbbing all day yesterday.  But today, thanks to the passage of time and some creative nail clipping, they were ready to rumble for today’s second recovery run of the week.

Was supposed to be 4, but the weather is just gorgeous today so I took it to 5.  I was feeling so good for the first two miles that the “recovery” part of the run didn’t apply, I was running 9:05’s.  That is, until the Running Gods evoked their irony by giving me a side cramp, slowing me down for the next two miles.  Right back to Recovery pace.

I did have a sweet thing happen on the run, though.  There’s this cute girl I haven’t mentioned, she PMd me on the forums a few months back because she’d read my blog then spotted me at the park, so really small world.  Anyway, today as our paths crossed, she said, “Congratulations!”, so that was uber cool.

What this girl doesn’t know is that she’s been a source of discussion in my house, because I was telling Nick this funny thing…

The girl, like any of us forum users, has a tiny avatar, so it took me a couple times to recognize her in the park, which probably came out as rude since I’m sure I missed her in passing a couple times.  I also have a terrible memory from too much herbal recreation among other things so I’m stupid sometimes, and our paths don’t cross all that often.

Anyway, there’s this other girl, who looks kind of like #1 girl; they both have long blonde hair, wear a headband and are about the same age. Soon after #1 girl got in touch with me, I started giving a very warm hello to #2 girl, thinking it was #1 girl.  #2 girl always returned my hello back just as warmly as I gave, so I assumed I had it squared away.

Few weeks later I see #1 girl again, recognize her without any doubt, and realize I’d been saying super warm hello’s to a total stranger for two months.  I guess I should be glad #2 girl doesn’t think I’m some perverted overly-friendly lady because she not only returns my hello’s, she instigates her own now.

So anyway, my hugest, most humble apologies to #1 girl for ever confusing you with anyone else, I’m glad to finally get it off my chest, because it was bugging me but it seemed too weird to explain for no reason, but now that I saw you today, it’s as good a reason as any. Lol, I’m sure I’m not the only one who overthinks this type of thing, but I do feel silly now.

Who says I have too much time on my hands?

I just returned from my first foray back outside in running shoes, following Pfitzinger’s recovery schedule of 4 slow miles.  I have to laugh remembering when I first skimmed that part of the plan last week, I was all, “So few miles?  Nu-uh, I’m going to pad that for sure” compared to yesterday when I realized I was supposed to run again the next day and my thoughts were suddenly, “Oh, shit…already???”

As expected, I had some serious DOMS these last couple days, which I thoroughly enjoyed in a masochistic way - proof that I’d done something a bit, er, strenuous.  I wasn’t forced to tackle stairs backwards, but rolling over in bed required a 3-point turn system: weight on right elbow, thrust self onto back, groan quietly so as not to wake Nick, weight onto left elbow, hoist self to face left, ahhhhh.

My toes are a mess, the two second toes are going to lose their nails, one’s half off already.  I suspect their trauma could have been prevented by tying my shoes tighter in consideration for the long downhills, but I’ve had foot pain in the past from tying them too tight, so I shoulda compromised…just didn’t think beforehand.

So while today’s recovery jog was the perfect activity (my legs starting feeling relief almost immediately), my two torn-up toes were crying inside their silicone toe caps.

As for the rest of me, I feel Satisfied with a capital S.  Relieved that I didn’t need a Plan B after all, I truly feel for all my BQ hunting compatriots who are in the midst of implementing theirs, because this sense of closure and finality is truly a luxurious feeling.  I can put the marathon mindset completely aside until next year and start afresh with a new plan of action - so freeing.

What is this plan of action?  For now, there’s that kooky Bridge 10K in 2.5 weeks that I ran last year as part of a team with a dear group of forum friends.  I’ll see how my legs are feeling.  I also have the Turkey Trot 5K in Haddonfield, NJ that I did last year and loved, that’s at the end of November.  I need to see what else is scheduled in my area.

But I won’t be twiddling my thumbs, I’ve actually had a non-marathon Fall goal in mind for months now: to get my 5K in the 22s, which should be ready to happen - my PR is 23:06 and that’s from April, before all this marathon madness began.  It’ll be nice to spend November messing around with short intervals and tempos so I can work the faster stuff.

Then for Spring, my goal race is the Lehigh Valley Half.  I think I’m sticking with my boyfriend Pete Pfitzinger for that plan, too.  I have his Road Racing book and since Advanced Marathoning got me to the start in such a calm, steady, no injury way, I see no reason to switch.  It’s a 14-week plan, so that’ll start at the end of January.

That’s about it for today’s blah blah blah.  Shout out to all you marathoners whose big race or Plan B is yet to happen, I’ll be living vicariously through your successes and adventures these next few weeks because, without a doubt, marathoning has to be one of the most exciting and rewarding things I’ve ever experienced.  So bring it on kids, here’s to some fabulous racing ahead!!

Warning: Ridiculously Long.  I am always pro-skimming, so pick and choose, my feelings won’t be hurt.  It’s just that this was an epic event for me, my first marathon, and by writing everything that sticks out, I’ll remember it for later.  Cut to the chase: 3:51:44 and a BQ.

We arrive in Scranton and the Expo just in time for a panel discussion by three well-known runners on how to run Steamtown.  Leaving the auditorium, I recognize Audra (Dogpound) who has Fran (LongIslandChick) with her.  Audra and I have been PMing (private messaging on the RW forum) for months about this race - we had the same goal, so decided to team up and run it together in a no-pressure, “run your own race” way.  I’d never met her before, but knew she had some great tattoo work on her arms so she was hard to miss.  Hugs and introductions, then Nick and I leave the Expo.

Getting in the car, Nick (who was the BEST support a gal could have during a marathon) suggested we drive the course from the Scranton end (the finish).  The written course directions were all over the place though, and we were getting lost until Nick noticed the race markings on the road and just followed them.  So we managed about 10 miles, but then there’s a trail that you can’t drive, so we gave up there.  Still, it was great to drive that portion of the course, familiarizing myself with the final hills and the rollers before that.

After the course tour, we go to the FE (Forum Encounter for you non-forum readers, where forum folks meet up in real life) at an Italian restaurant.  Totally fun, sweet people, lots of laughs and chatskies, then back to the hotel, but not before making a plan with Audra and Fran to meet at the buses at 6:15 the next morning.

Racerbabes at the FE: Fran, Audra and Me.

While on the bus, Audra and I had a lot of time to talk about running and game-plan thoughts.  Her main focus was to start easy and stay relaxed for the first few miles - an idea I embraced because I knew if left to my own devices, I’d go out at goal pace from the start.  And while we both wanted to run 3:45, that was her cutoff for a BQ, so I knew it’d be wise to follow her lead.  I should also mention that besides doing a bunch of marathons before, she’s also an Ironman three times over, so much adoration on my part.

The race starts. The canon goes off (yeah, a real canon), and we cross the mat, I press my Garmin Start button (I think) and about a minute later, I realize I somehow fucked up this most elementary thing.  The Garmin hasn’t started, so I press the button for real this time, realizing that now I have to do math (add 1:07) for the whole damn race.  Oy.  Like I don’t have enough to think about.  But in the end, it was the best thing that could have happened because I paid less attention to the total time.

On to the run: The first couple miles I was thinking, “supposed to be really easy, this feels kind of easy but not really easy, oh my god, can I do this for 26.2?  It’s early, I don’t know how it’s supposed to feel, etc”.  I don’t breathe a word of this to Audra because I know it’s first-time freakdom and that it’ll get better, it has to.

And it does.  She keeps us at a calm pace for the first couple miles and I start to loosen up. We both figure 8:30s are what we want to shoot for as goal pace, so we follow Audra’s chant of “nice ‘n easy”.  Feeling good.

Btw, I never run with anyone save an occasional shorter run with my fab friend Lara, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to like this “running with somebody” thing, but it turned out that Audra was an instant BFF and we chat sparingly, but easily.  At one point, I’m thrilled with how easy it actually is to talk, like I hear my words and feel my breathing and I sound relaxed.  Yay, confidence is returning.

Audra zooms through the water stops, so impressive, while I was able to hold off for the first ten miles, thanks to my handheld and the cool temps.  Speaking of the handheld, it was absolutely wonderful to race with, and if I wasn’t Nick’s woman, I’d totally marry it.  Seriously, I imagined myself having to stop dead at tables to put cups of water in, but in reality, I ran through like everyone else, grabbing 4 cups in succession at each stop without slowing down.

I took a gel around 6ish, maybe 7, and at this point, I’m getting a little nervous about the time - we’re racking up more than I’d feel confident of making up later in the race, especially with hills in the second half.  We’d already done the steepest hill back at mile 4, and I knew we were soon to run out of good downhills, so at mile 7, I took the downhill a little harder and though it broke my heart some when I realized Audra wasn’t next to me anymore, I kept on pace.

Now I’m on my own and it’s different, I’m alone, checking out the other runners.  At one point, I’m behind a cluster and someone to the side is telling his friend, super loudly, about all the operations he’s had on his feet and about the car crash and the cuts from putting out signs until the rest of us start rolling our eyes and making jokes about it.  Then this one woman and I start running faster than normal to get away from that horrible, boorish voice which is absolutely ruining our zen morning.  I see her again after the race, btw, and we laugh over our getaway.

The course is very rural with small towns and everyone is out on their porch or on the street cheering us on.  It’s touching, such incredible crowd support (and I usually don’t give a crap about such things).  Lots of people even put out their own tables with water or candy or bananas.

And the bands!  School bands and some of the cutest little groups.  There was the senior citizen brass band composed of, yes, senior citizens, but not without the token teenage drummer, standing a little off to the side by himself, looking bored out of his mind, like Grandpa made him do it.  So funny.

As far as gels, I had a flask filled with 4 (and some water for thinning).  I also took an extra gel pack for fear I might drop my flask, so better to be safe.  However, and I’m glad I did this, when the time came for the second gel, I used the pack, because I knew it’d be harder to eat a straight gel nearer the end of the race, if I wanted all of them.  It worked out great because at the end when I was dying (yes, I’m getting there), I was happy to empty my gel flask.

We get to mile marker 13, and I hear this girl say to her partner, “We’re halfway!! woohoo!!” and like the wet blanket I am, I pipe up with, “hey, you know what they say, the halfway point is 20 miles”.  Which is how I was considering the race, btw.  Half at 20.  I take an S-cap.

I was doing body checks, and hearing in my mind all the wise forumites who say 13.1 should feel easy, and it did.  I was keeping the pace in the 8:30s, and was more concerned with feeling normal than making my original goal.  The Garmin start button idiocy helped with treating the outcome more casually, but more important was that I had a lot of leeway for that BQ (the old lady consolation prize), a 15 minute window to play with.

First 15 splits:
8:50
8:55
8:43
8:25
8:41
8:36
8:42
8:20
8:34
8:33
8:34
8:41
8:35
8:35
8:33

We get to the trail section (which was lovely and cool) and there’s Nick, camera in hand!  He pulls a great trick when, about 1/4 mile on, there he is again!  I yell out, “How the hell’d you get here so fast?”  His reply, ” I have a car.”  Lol and duh.

I’m still feeling good at 18, I’m not keeping 8:30s because the trail was a natural slowdown, as were some rollers, so at this point, I’m around 8:40s.  Again, totally cool in my head with it, knowing I’ve pulled some good miles, whatever will be, will be, and as long as I feel good, I’m golden.

Around mile 19, I start getting hot and need more water.  There was a little hill there and I went up too fast, could feel my heart rate going overboard, so I decided to walk a few feet.  Please note, I’ve only ever walked once on a long run, never during this training cycle, but going into the race, I made a deal with myself that it was fine to walk if I needed to, so I did.  It was only a short distance, but it seemed to help, and I got going again.

Miles 16-19:
8:49
8:36
8:35
8:57

Once I did my little walk, I said “screw 8:30s, I’ll be happy to keep it in the 8:40s if I can feel comfortable.

Now through the whole run, my legs felt good, even to the very end.  I mean, they were tired, my whole body was tired, but I had no tendon or muscle twinges at all. However, what I did have, and I think I noticed around mile 19, was hurting feet.  My toes were smarting bigtime, but I sucked it up.

Miles 20-21:
8:47
8:43

Then in mile 21 or 22, I made a huge tactical error.  The waterstop cups were half full, so I did my requisite 4 cups, but that only filled my handheld halfway.  What I should have done, was stop at that point and fill the thing up completely, because I ended up walking/running a few more times when I probably could have held it together better.  I know this in retrospect, because my ugly finish was punctuated by an empty handheld hanging off my stupidly weak hand.  But we’re not there yet.

The weird thing I’m finding, because I feel like I’m starting to die, is that my pace isn’t being killed as much as I’d think it would be for starting to feel truly exhausted. I’m surprised I’m not doing 10:30s frankly.  But the one nice thing is, lots of people are walking, though they all look stronger to me than I do, and even in my discomfort, I’m passing people that passed me earlier, so that was a nice boost.

Miles 22-25:
8:51
8:59
9:56 (I walked up the evil hill)
8:54

It’s hot, I’m really feeling miserable, my feet are hurting bad and I want this to be over 5 miles ago, but I’m almost done.  I don’t know what my time is and I don’t care.  I just want to stop running.

Finally, the piece de resistance, the last mile with the hill that seems like a mountain at that point.  I was out of water and didn’t notice anything except what was in front of me.  People on support bikes would be “it’s less than a mile, c’mon you can do it” and I was just thinking “thanks, but fuck you.”

I come to the top of the hill and there below is the Finish Line, it’s all downhill from here!  So here’s where my kick should of come in, but there was no kick, there was no nuthin’, I tried to run and felt all wobbly legs, would walk some, then freak out because I couldn’t even stand up straight anymore, yet here is the finish to my marathon, some great finishing photos, yikes.  Eerily reminiscent of my last half, sigh.

Mile 26: 10:25
Not sure of .2 because I left my Garmin running.

I shuffle over the mat and immediately get sat in a wheelchair and handed a bottle of water, then someone reminds me to stop my Garmin, so I have no idea what time I got.  I’m feeling shaky as hell and mad that my big day ended up so ickily, but then Audra passes the finish and I call out to her, so we trade stories and she helps me up to find a place to sit that’s not medically related.  I’m feeling truly deflated about my finish, but as I start to gain back strength, realize that I, Flo, just friggin BQ’d!  My first time out, I BQ’d!  Hey, that’s no small potatoes.  In an instant, I feel great.

Sweet Audra, btw, mentor extraordinaire, missed her BQ by a hair, but got a PR, so it was a success for her as well.  I have her to thank many times over for keeping the brakes on in the beginning, I think that really made the race be as good as it was till it wasn’t.

Anyway, we go find her mom and Nick, and Nick tells me he has photos of the entire finish, but I’m not allowed to look at them, they’ll bother me too much.  What he is able to offer me is a huge bouquet of flowers, so I felt like Miss America with a medal.

She and I go back to the runner’s area to find Fran, which we magically do among all those people.  She got a PR as well!  Happy girls.

I was going to take a shower before the drive home, but I was so beat, I hugged all my new friends, then  Nick and I leave.  As soon as I’m in the car, I take my shoes off to find blood blisters on both second toes (under the nail and over the top of the toe) and regular blisters on the underside of two toes, not to mention whatever’s lurking beneath my red toenail polish.  Oh, so that’s why my feet hurt.

I loved this marathon.  The size was wonderful, 1892 entered (1582 finished), the crowd was great, the buses to the start so easy, volunteers amazingly helpful and friendly.  I’d do this one again for sure.  As for the course, I knew ahead of time from reading blogs that the elevation chart on the Steamtown site is way more simple than reality.  Lots more ups then pictured.  But my downhill training proved enough, quads were a-ok throughout.

Before I sign off, I want to thank you sweet fabulous people yet again - you were with me every step of the way.  Between you, Nick, Audra, and the rest of my fabulous gal-pals on the Women’s BQ forum, I had the ultimate support crew.  I’d like to say “party at my house!” but I’m a sucky host, so cyberhugs and smooches will have to do.  You deserve something for getting me through this thing.

And with that, I leave you with a series of finishing photos, scary as they are, I really couldn’t stand up anymore.  Don’t worry, everything’s fine - I even forgot to take ibuprofen till just now and it’s past midnight, so all my parts are feeling fine.  But yeah, this looks, and was, embarrassingly brutal.

I thought I posted this already, but my mouse went crazy, so I got sidetracked by hardware replacement.

Anyway, just a little teaser.  3:51:44!  Eh, it wasn’t 3:45, but still a BQ with a nice bit of padding.   As the tale will out, I am thrilled with that time, considering I was doubled-over as I crossed the finish.

Bet you wonder what the hell happened, doncha?

More to come soon…

Today was 5 recovery with 6 strides, nothing to write home about except that I was out there about the time I expect to finish Steamtown and it was 70 degrees, warmer than it’ll be that time on Sunday, so it was nice knowing it’ll at least be a bit cooler.

I’ve been doing pretty good on the whole as far as taper madness goes, working on designs for Fish Pie to keep my mind busy.  Last night, however, we watched The Office and during the opening montage, right when the sign “Welcome To Scranton” appeared (with that wonderful melancholy piano score behind it), I couldn’t help but tear up.  Suddenly my big day was just about here and there it was - literally - a sign, the sign.  Funny, scary and sweet, all at once.

I have a few miles tomorrow, 4 recovery to be exact, and then we’ll be leaving at 11:30 to drive to Scranton.  I want to get to the Expo for the 2:00 panel discussion by the race director and some zoomy runners about the course.  Then we’ll chill before the forum dinner at 6:30.  It’s always fun to get to meet people you’ve been conversing with but have never met.

And that’s about it!  NOAA predicts 44 at the start, 64 at 12pm, so really not too bad. Afternoon Edit: looks like it’ll be 67 at 12pm…not so fabulous but still ok.

This is officially the last post before my race report, so I want to thank you readers and friends (same thing in my book) for all the support you’ve given over my training reports, freakouts and meandering drivel these past few months.  Please know I’m taking you with me on the course this Sunday, so hydrate well and eat a vat of pasta tomorrow.  We’ve got a long run ahead.

Much love,
xxxflo

On Monday, we were talking about skirts and race wear on the Women’s BQ thread and I was talking about my running skirts from runningskirts.com, which I love wearing because they’re comfortable, cool and don’t chafe.  However, I hadn’t planned on wearing one for the marathon because I’m taking my gel flask and the waistband isn’t firm enough to hold the clip holder without bouncing.

While I was going on to my gal-pals about the pockets (two roomy pockets on either side which are much more comfy and convenient than a back pocket), I realized that maybe I didn’t need to wear my flask clip thing at all, I could just carry the flask in one of the pockets! 4.5 months of training and this idea just occurs to me.

So anyway, I get excited by the prospect of wearing the skirt because that means I can take the pocketless handheld (it’s cooler), and have room for S-caps, tissue and even sunglasses in my other skirt pocket.  I couldn’t wait to try it out for my last interesting workout, the marathon rehearsal of 7 w/2@MP.  I was so excited that the next morning I put on my marathon garb and had a great workout!   The pocketed flask fit perfectly, no bouncing, I even drank out of the flask during the MP miles (I’d filled it with water to get the weight right) …A-OK!  All Systems Go.

Then I get back home and realize I’d been so excited by the skirt prospect, I’d switched my workouts around.  I was supposed to do that run today, Wednesday.  Tuesday was supposed to be recovery.

Suddenly, I was transported 40 years back in time to my first day of first grade, when I was so excited to go to “big” school, I woke up at 5am and immediately put my brand new clothes on (plaid jumper and white tights - why do I remember such things?), not once noticing or caring that it was pitch black outside. Well, apparently I’m still that little kid, so thrilled to get this show on the road, I can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait!! Er, wait a minute.  Maybe just one more month of training?

In non-running news, you know you have a poor excuse for a cat when you see it chasing a mouse (yes, I’m embarrased to say we have the occasional vermin) and the cat ends up laying right on top of it, still looking madly about to see where it’s gone.  A minute later, after the mouse had snuck away again (and the cat was still looking wildly left and right) I actually had to pick up the cat and turn it around like a broken compass to face the mouse’s direction.   Dumb cat.  Lucky mouse.