So now that I'm only updating about twice a week here, I need to catch up. All the pertinent stuff is in my tweets, but I'll try to update so that those of you who don;t read them aren't totally clueless...
Saturday was the Veteran's Marathon in Columbia City, IN, just 20 minutes from my house. My friend Elaine and I arrived with plenty of time to relax and find a nice place to stretch out, with a real bathroom, and meet up with friends before the start. It was a perfect morning for a marathon, not too cold, but cool enough to need gloves and sleeves at the start. By the end of the day, it was in the mid 60F's. In the middle of November. In Indiana... I had an excellent race, did everything right, enjoyed the course and the other runners, and had an all around good experience. A couple noticeable moments included the parasailer that flew over the first half of the course for a couple hours (it looked like fun!) and the two adorable little yellow kittens that came out on the road and hung with the runners around mile 7. I'll tell you, I wanted to pick the smaller one up and take her with me, she ran with me for a minute or so... Also notable was the barefoot runner, who I spent many miles with through out the day. This was his 3rd barefoot marathon. He joked with the spectators all day, asking if they'd seen his shoes, then giggling when they realilzed he was actually barefoot. I was running with him when we found out there would be a gravel section, and he joked with the runners going the other direction "How about that gravel road up there?" I was still with him when we got to the gravel around mile 17, which caused him to slow down and pay close attention to his footing. Nice guy. I did get to see him finish, maybe a half an hour or so behind me. When I realized I was on pace to be under 5 hours and was still feeling good around mile 21, I started picking up my pace. My last five miles were faster than most of the rest of the race,a nd I passed a lot of folks as we came back into town. I got a lot of encouragement along the way, and not only beat my 5 hour goal, but was a minute and a half faster than my best marathon of all 2009. Finishing time was 4:57:05, and I was not really sore or tired, like I normally am. I just had to pee. LOL! My friend Art was waiting for me,and we got some soup and cookies together while we waited for Elaine to come in. She finished strong and met her goal for the day too. We relaxed with some of the other runners for a bit, then went to the pub for some refreshment before heading back to my house to clean up. Neither of us were sore or tired (which means we did something right!), but we were starving, so we grabbed John and headed to the local microbrewery for eats and beer samples. It was a nice meal and then I showed her around town a little more before she headed back toward Detroit. I actually made it through a movie with John before I crashed out.
I slept like a rock for 12 hours before getting up and heading to church. I was truly surprised I wasn't sore,a nd only a tiny bit stiff when I first got up. My running friend at church was amazed I was bouncing up and down the stairs like normal. We had some great music and the sermon was interesting, but long. After church, John had lunch ready and then we headed to the theater to see 2012. Both of us really enjoyed the film, and we plan to buy it on DVD when it comes out. John wasn't thrilled, however, when I made him wait for me through the credits, until Adam's song Time For Miracles ended. LOL! I relaxed the rest of the day, although I had trouble getting any more sleep. I did get some entertainment finding out one of my friends had ended up in jail the night before at the David Cook concert in Canada. (No worries, she's OK, and didn't do anything bad, it's a long story!) I also taught myself to make ringtones and did a few from Adam's song Music Again from his new CD that comes out on the 23rd. so if anyone needs ringotnes made... :)
Monday morning, work was rough. Things just keep getting more complex here every day. I survived and got home to find that UPS had tried to deliver my package. I had to get in touch with them and get things straigtened out, and it was delivered about 10:30am. Yay, it was my much anticipated Kris Allen CD, but I was more interested in seeing what came with it. I scored one of the limited autographed and hand numbered lithographs of Kris that were being given out! (I posted photos a few entries back, go here:
http://reoracer.livejournal.com/722481.html ) The litho was immediately framed and hung on my wall next to my lovely Rolling Stone cover poster of Adam... While waiting for my package, I was given access to most of the tracks on the Take One CD featuring Adam, so I messed with those during my downtime. New music out the wazoo = WIN! I did get some sleep, then headed to the YMCA for a post marathon recovery run on the indoor track (since it was cold and wet outside!) I did 4 miles in a very slow 46:45, but had no aches and pains. I've never recovered so easily from a marathon in my life! I relaxed until work time.
Tuesday was insane. My coworker was really sick and ended up taking sleeptime, so I pretty much was on my own all night. It wasn't a bad night at all, I got lucky, but I did nearly get a catfight from all the ladies wanting to use the same bathroom at the same time at 230am... Adam's CD was avaialbe for streaming overnight, so I went nuts not being able to hear it until my coworker got up from sleeping in the office. I was in heaven for the few minutes I got to spend listening before the world exploded here at the group home. The regular morning staff was off, so some of the residents were resistant to the change, and one had some health issues brewing. I ended up calling 911 and then following the ambulance to the hospital with him about 7:45am. I'm glad I had already planned on working over alittle bit, but I was at the ER with him until after 11:30am. I was beat both physically and emotionally by the time I got home. I love my hubby for making me lunch and then rubbing my feet so I could get some rest. I missed rehearsal (which was on Tuesday this week...) and didn't sleep restfully at all. I woke up to find out that, due to medical needs, my guy will never be returning to the group home. He will be moving to a nursing home when he is well enough to leave the hospital. I know I did the right thing, but it's still hard to deal with the changes. I do, however, have some amazing folks in my world who cheered me up, and I now have all of Adam's album on my phone for our trip later today to go see David Cook!
It's uncannily calm here tonight, and our work was done early. I'm relaxed and listening to Adam's album, waiting for my pot pie to cook. I can't wait until this afternoon, when my friend Jessica and I head out to see David Cook!!!!
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