All thanks to the lovely K

The "marimba" from my iphone at 5:30 was just way too damned early. Hit snooze.
The "marimba" from my iphone at 5:39 was still to damned early. Clumsily I reached over and sent a very Tonto like text to the lovely K. "May take day off. Rough night sleep. You?" Her response was "getting dressed. see you at the park"
Well that did it. Ok. Deep sigh.

My body creaked and complained as I scrambled out of the sheets and blankets. The whole way downstairs I looked like Quasi Motto. "Water". I splashed some on my face. Nope. Not there yet. I splashed more on my face. Getting there. I found my clothes. I put them on. I found my shoes. Damn hole. I mean to duct tape a couple of cotton balls in there last night. Oh well. On they go, hole and all. Hat. Where's my hat? I can't find my hat! What the hell? I just had it last night. Where is my freaking hat? Drink some water. Drink too much water. Still no hat. Find a replacement, put it on, grabbed the phone and out the door. Sunlight. Now that will wake you up.

Earbuds in, tunes on, feet moving. I was doing this. All thanks to the lovely K for not letting me off the hook. Big, sincere thanks. I would have kicked my own ass later if I missed this run.

It took a minute or five for my pace to kick in. I think someone turned up the gravity. My feet kept hanging on to the pavement. As I passed the newly discovered swallow nests, all I saw this morning was the giant line of poop crossing the sidewalks and street. The grass in the park seemed wetter than usual. the mud seemed more slippery. Just nothing was rainbows and unicorns yet. Just keep swimming.

I got to the lovely K and had to fix my shoe. I fixed my shoe. Just her bright smile started heading things in a better direction. Well good morning. The workout was good. The conversation was great. The stretching after was brilliant. I needed that. All of that. My body feels better. My spirit is lifted. My energy is up. It's going to be a good day. All thanks to the lovely K.

So that happened...

Oh universe, why must you challenge me so! Of course I went to bed a little late last night. Of course I slept completely wrong and woke up with the crankiest crick in my neck. Of course my little P bear crawled in bed with us sometime in the wee hours and didn't want to let go of mommy as my snooze alarm went off. Of course.

But I mustered up the gumption anyway.

I sneakily and creakily rolled out of the bed, went downstairs and started getting dressed. I took a few extra minutes to stretch as much of my neck/shoulder as possible. I got it to a tolerable point. I put on my shoes. Not new ones yet. Looks like I'll be wearing more of that hole on my foot. I grabbed my iphone and off we went.

Thank you Beastie Boys. Body Movin actually got my body movin. It was just what I needed. My spirits started lifting, as did my pace. The sun was lovely today. Actually everything kind of was. At least it was way more lovely than I anticipated anything was going to be.

The workout was good. Happy to be 5K training again. Just wish I weren't having to do it. Wish I were in the thick of running and could keep up with a couple of pals that have been doing full on 6 mile runs in the morning. But I'm up and out and heading in the right direction. One foot in front of the other.

For some reason, as challenging as it was to get started this morning it wound up being incredibly fulfilling. I felt like I was working a little more, sweating a little more. The faces I passed were a little friendlier. And then it was over. Like that. Poof. It went so fast this morning. Not in a bad way, but in a really good way. As I was leaving the park I looked up and saw something really groovy. There is an overpass I have to go under to get back home and the past few days I have noticed little swallows swooping around this overpass. So this morning when I looked up, I saw hundreds and hundreds of swallow nests all tucked in to the girders. There were swallows everywhere! It was crazy cool! I felt like I was in Capistrano or something. I didn't even know we had swallows in this neck of the woods. Awesome awesome discovery.

However, on my run I did have a little "incident" shall we call it. I learned a while back to always make eye contact with the people you pass in case they are creeps. I want them to know I see them. There have been some odd people running a muck in my neighborhood. One in particular is quite fond of his own manhood and a sparkly thong. So I look at everyone. I scan them, then look in their eyes and smile. Well there was a guy running toward me in what looked like tights. It puzzled me, so I watched him grow larger in my vision as he approached. I was curious about the tights. It just looked odd. As he got closer, the oddness was confirmed. But they weren't tights. They were like biking capris or something. They seemed to have some "extra padding" around what would be deemed as his vulnerables. It sort of resembled a cod piece. It was like a train wreck. I couldn't take my eyes off it. What the french was going on down there. And then it happened. He caught me. He totally caught me checking out his package. I felt his stare and then my eyes met his and this time I was not the one smiling, he was. Oy veh.

Goals and gear

A few weeks ago I scored two tickets to the Run Like a Mother Event in Denver. My first date was hired to photograph the event. My second date's son had T-ball. So my third date and I put on some skirts and headed to the affair! It was awesome! Super groovy chicas. Super groovy swag! Super groovy energy and info and all sorts of hoo ha. Lerfed it I did.

As we walked up and checked in we were given the proverbial name tag sticker thingies. We were asked to not only write our name, but what our running goal was for the year. Ok. It took me a moment to know what that was. I hadn't thought of it. I didn't have the big goal I set for myself last year. I hadn't really set any goal for myself this year. Then... I heard a little voice in the back of my mind. Not my voice. Hummm... it was a little blue fishy voice sing songy saying "Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming." And there it was.. my goal. My goal is to not quit. My goal is to keep running. Through the heat. Through the fall. Through the winter and just keep going. I don't want to be back where I am right now - at this starting over place. I want to be in the "holy crap! I can't believe I just did that place". I want to look back at today and say, "wow. Look how far I've come! I just ran ___ miles in ___ time!" or "I just signed up for ___ race and I'm gonna do it!" That's where I want to be this time next year. I don't want to apologize for where I am but celebrate where I've gone. Just. keep. swimming.

So of course nothing was going to keep me from my new love - the 6:00 AM run today. Not the wake up call at 3:00 that had me in the bathroom in a cold sweat. Not even the repeat of said bathroom event that occurred at 5:30. No playdough poop factory was gonna bring me down! No sir! I had new socks in my swag bag and a new (and quite sassy in it's purple leopard print glory) running bra to try out. Not to mention my awesome new BAMR hat!! I was doing this! 

I washed the cold sweat off my face and started getting into my run gear. The socks felt goooood. I squeezed into the bra realizing I should have grabbed the other size I was debating between. In this one I feel like a corseted maiden at the Ren Fair. High and tight, girls. High and tight! Shirt, running skirt, hat and shoes. Oh the shoes. Poor, poor shoes. They've seen better days. But it's good. It's a sign they have been used and loved. They are the shoes that helped me fall in love with running last year. They carried me across my first finish line and got me sort of close to my goal. I was hoping they would get me through the summer, but the hole I've worn on the inside of the shoe is now wearing a hole on the outside of my foot. I think it's time to go to pasture. How bout one more run, eh?

On they went and out the door I headed. Unlike my solo run yesterday, I met up with the lovely K and we jaunted around Berkeley lake. I adore her. It was a great workout and great conversation and we both felt a grillion times better by the end of it all. 

A little stretch on the playground and back home to make coffee. The silence in this room is a beautiful thing. However, it is time to ruffle the man chicken's feathers and wake him up for work. My day has once again started off on the right foot. Yay. 

The Big Discovery!

After a few weeks of experimenting and unexpected fun type hoo ha, I believe I may have discovered my thing. My path. My way. My groove.

It's called the 6:00 AM run. Out of bed at 5:45, in my shoes and on the pavement at 6:00.

It's kinda perfect! Actually! I've gone out, by myself, got in a good sweat, come home made the coffee and had a quiet sit for 10 minutes - all before there was even a rustle upstairs - much less a full blown "Mommy!' or "Hon, where's my shirt?"

This. Is. Spectacular. Why haven't I done this before? The sun is fresh up from it's slumber, so the heat hasn't consumed the day yet. It's pretty that time of morning. It's quiet. And it's 100% pure me time. Wow. I think I'm in love. I think I may have found "The one". The rest of my day is never on my agenda, it's always at the mercy of others. So screw that. This morning I carved out my own chunk of clock and said "this is mine". And it was glorious. And yes, this will occur again tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that. And so on and so forth.

So I hereby decree - I own 6:00 AM!! I am the reigning queen of the six o'clock! All are banished from said time. You may awake only after the hour of six. Not before. Not during. But after. And you will be grateful, for mommy has started her day on the right foot and all shall be well. Hear ye! Hear ye! Hosah!

Now to wake the men folk and resign myself to their beck and call. Until tomorrow!! Until tomorrow!!!