Thursday Thoughts

It's post-marathon time, which means lazy mornings sleeping in, eating random things for dinner (tonight I had sautéed radishes, wilted radish greens, and a piece of whole wheat bread smeared with olive oil), and that uneasy sense of well, what the hell do I do now?

Write a long, rambling blog post infested with bullet points, that's what!

• Summer is looming just over the horizon. How do I know? Because yesterday morning after I took my shower, even after toweling off I was still sweaty and damp. Additionally, when I came out of my office building after work on Wednesday the temperature was about 20 degrees warmer and the humidity 50% more oppressive than when I entered it at 8:00 am.

• You know you're a runner when you use Body Glide for things other than sports bra chafage. I'll leave that one up to your imaginations.

• During the Cleveland Marathon I passed a man who was wearing a sign on his back which read: "110 Marathons...But Who's Counting?" Amazing. If I manage to run a quarter of that number I will be ecstatic.

• On my run Wednesday morning I saw something I had never seen before: a domestic pet rabbit huddled under a bush in someone's front yard. I passed by and thought, That was not a cat. I doubled back to take a closer look and yes indeed, it was a large black domesticated rabbit of indeterminate breed, a doe (female) by the look of her prominent dewlap. (How do I know this? Three years of 4-H rabbit club and 10 years of having a bunny.) I tried to approach her but she hopped away. I was totally confounded as to what to do. This animal clearly had no business being alone in someone's front yard at 6:30 am. There was really nothing I could do, so I left her and continued on my run.

• On Monday, May 18 I went to my long, LONG-awaited Animal Collective concert in Royal Oak. Even though it was the day after the marathon, there was no way I was going to miss it. With sore and aching legs I took myself out on the town. And oh, oh, OH was it ever amazing. I haven't had that much fun at a concert in years. True, I was at least 10 years older than the majority of attendees, but I didn't let that bother me. Am I not edgy enough to hang with the hipsters? Even though my own creaky hips were complaining vociferously by the end of the night? I got my groove on, I rocked out, I boogied, I jumped and bounced and screamed and sang and got breathless and sprinted to the bathroom only to hear the opening chords of "Summertime Clothes" while I was still in the john and ran out of there so fast I left a cloud of toilet paper lint in my wake. Hearing "My Girls" and "Summertime Clothes" live was just...just...so fucking awesome I can't even begin to describe it. "Don't cool off...I like your warmth..." Yeah.

• I signed up for another summer of Running Fit 501. I enjoyed my session with the program last summer so much that I decided to do it again even though my plans for the rest of the year are amorphous. At the moment I'm still riding my BQ high (hey didja know I qualified for the Boston Marathon?) and thus I have avoided the post-marathon blues like I had last fall after Detroit. However, I do have a few things in mind. One, I would like to do the Akron Marathon. Two, I put my name into the New York City Marathon lottery. I will know in June if I was chosen. If I get selected in the NYC lottery hell yeah I'm doing it! In the more immediate future I will be jet-planing off to New York City in three weeks for the Green Mountain Relay as one member of a 12-person team. I asked for the Runner #3 slot on the team because Leg 3 includes a covered bridge. How could I not take the covered bridge route? Covered bridge...Vermont...June...country roads...oh yeah!
  

• And lastly, I have a new addition to the Wall of Fame: