Overheard: Festivus

Him (playing a game on his phone): I found 2 out of 3 hidden bunnies.

No bunnies were harmed in the typing
 of this post

Me: In the game?

Him: No (sarcastically). In the house.

Me: Well, we probably do have at least three chocolate bunnies around here. I had one in the bathroom for a long time.

Him: WHAT??! Why?

Me: I dunno. It was in there and I just keep forgetting to put it with the rest of the candy. The kid got a bunch of them and I just haven't consolidated them. This is weird?

Him: YES! You. Blog. Now.

Me: Um (laughing in a slap-happy way), I don't know if this is funny.

Him: We have actual chocolate bunnies stashed in different rooms of our house. That's got to be funny.

Me: It's just lazy to me, but ok.

2 Miles to Go

I set myself up last week to run 4 times (which is one more time per week than I usually do). But it was Sunday night. It was 6pm. Stephan was out of the house, so I had no babysitter for my 4 year old. He's proficient on a bike, but the furthest we'd ever gone was 0.5 mile out and 0.5 mile back.

Also, it was getting dark with rain clouds.

"Grab your shoes. We're going for a bike ride, kid!"

It wasn't fast (17 minutes per mile) and we could hear thunder once or twice. It started sprinkling at exactly the 1 mile mark. And I had to push him to keep him moving a few times. But we finished our first bike/run outing! As we walked into the back entryway lightening lit up the sky, thunder shook the floor, and the sky opened up and poured down rain.

It was pretty awesome.

Way-Back-Machine

About 7 years ago I had a client who had a tattoo on her calf of the number 6.2. When I found out it meant 6.2 miles, I was instantly impressed. I figured if I could ever run that far, I would definitely get a tattoo like that.

6.2 is also, weirdly, the hazardous waste
designation for infectious diseases

Yeah, I haven't done that. But I think about that ink a lot. I think about how specific it was to a distance that isn't very popular in running. I wonder if it was the farthest she'd ever run, or if it was a meaningful race for her, or it just marked a time in her life when 6.2 miles was important.

I remember how reverently I would treat her entire leg- knowing that the mark of so many miles was there. 6 miles seemed like a distance that no one would ever really, sanely, tackle. I remember how I thought she must be so dedicated to running to have ever gone that far. She must have, like, bought shoes just for running.

And as I trained for the marathon 5 years later I often thought about doing the tattoo thing for the 26.2 mile accomplishment. But then I would think of the 6.2 and realize that, as soon as you ink a distance, you're defining that as a big moment.... but what if that changes, and you realize (as I did later) that 6.2 can be just a half of a training run- not a really big deal- and you have dozens of big moments afterward, and just not enough skin to fill up with numbers?

Perspective is crazy in running. I say that partly fueled by this morning's Boston Marathon performance by the elite athletes, and partly because huffing through my 4 mile route today I had to work hard to remember when 4.0 felt easier.

But as of yet, no running tattoos.

Week 16

I should stop taking these at sunset.
My legs are not this long.

This was a week of realizations and promises. I had a super-secret goal for this spring, beyond keeping up the 10 miles per week. I wanted to run a half-marathon. I figured if it was early enough in the pregnancy, and the spring, that things like heat and exhaustion wouldn't be factors. 

So after 2 weeks of trying to extend my runs from 3 to 6, I had to call it quits. Ok, that's not quite truthful. After coming home after the last 4 runs with hands so swollen that I couldn't close them, and feet so giant they'd formed new blisters... Stephan took one look at me and declared my training officially over. 

And I cried. 

And he promised me that I could treat myself to a spring marathon (a FULL marathon) next year. And I promised to actually listen to him and not run more than 4 miles at a time from now on.