Eat Drink Run Woman

Forgive me readers, for I have sinned. It’s been two weeks since my last blog post.

I’ve been meaning to post for a couple days now, but when Angie emailed me to see if everything is okay, I figured I better write sooner rather than later (for some reason the concerned emails from the rest of you must have been lost in cyberspace). Rest assured I’m doing fine, but real life is getting in the way of my online existence.

You see, now that my marathon is over I’m left to deal with all the things I put off — housecleaning, filing, gardening, bookkeeping, feeding my cat (I kid! There’s no way in HELL she’d let us go more than five hours without feeding her). Normally I wouldn’t have any problems putting these things off even more, but my darling and I have signed up with a financial planner and need to provide them with all our financial documentation, including where our money’s been going. If we were organized folks that wouldn’t be a problem, but considering the last time I did any serious filing was during the Eisenhower administration, it’s meant I’m tearing through the house spittin’ and swearin’ looking for my credit card statement from April of last year.

So unfortunately that means you must suffer along with us and be deprived of my witticisms, at least for the time being. That said, there really wasn’t much to write about the week after my marathon. After all, I’m sure you’d get bored by post after post that said, “Didn’t run today; in recovery mode.”

While both my darling and I were quite creaky on Monday and Tuesday after North Olympic, by Wednesday we were jonesing for a run. We took a VERY slow lap around Greenlake, averaging about 9:50 min/mile. It felt GREAT! I ran another slow six on Saturday, then on Sunday we took advantage of the glorious sunny weather, dusted off our bikes and went on a 36-mile ride to Alki Beach. (Note to self: although you got brownie points for slathering sunscreen on your face, don’t forget your arms and legs next time. Peeling skin is NOT sexy).

Last week I ran 27 miles for the week, including an impromptu 10K race in Lake Chelan this past Saturday. Our friends had won a week-long stay at a condo and invited us to join them for some water-skiing. Long-time readers of EDRW know skiing is not my forte, so I packed along my running shoes hoping to get at least one early morning run in.

When we arrived Friday night they had pasta and wine ready for us — lots and lots of wine. As we sat chatting I asked them if they knew of any good running routes in the area, and turns out there was a 5K and 10K memorial race scheduled the next morning to raise funds for the family of Deputy Saul Gallegos, who was killed on the line of duty five years ago. It may have been the wine talking, but my darling and I looked at each other and said, “Let’s do it!” (Actually the wine had nothing to do with us participating, but it certainly contributed to our vow to win the race).

We awoke the next morning just a tad bit fuzzy-brained, but certainly not enough to keep us from our goal. The race start was just a half mile from our condo (the course ran right by it), so we jogged over as a warm-up. Our $20 entry fee got us a choice of a t-shirt or cap (I chose the latter). As with the Arlington 10K, this was indeed a feel-good, small-town race.

While I was hoping to PR, I knew it might be a challenge given I’d run a marathon two weeks before (and drank copious amounts of wine the night before). We all started out REALLY fast; I finally forced myself to slow down only to see I was still running sub 8-minute miles. I had to keep telling myself not to get caught up in the crowd, that I’d eventually pass them. Sure enough, they started falling away soon after the 1-mile mark.

While the 5K course was rather flat, the 10K course headed up onto a ridge above town. It wasn’t too bad, but not the kind of elevation I wanted to run while hungover. However, I kept running, and my slowest mile was 9:16. There was another woman just ahead of me, and while I tried to catch her, she was just too speedy. The last couple of miles were downhill, so I was able to make up a bunch of time. I was shocked to see my final time — 48:44! However, my elation was short-lived once I saw the final mileage on my Garmin — 5.87 miles. I wasn’t too surprised since it didn’t feel like a PR run. Mind you, I’m very happy with my time, but it wasn’t a PR.

I thought I had at least won my age group, but turns out I was second (fifth woman overall). Oh well; there’ll be other races. However, my darling did much better — he came in second overall! (Although he thinks the frontrunner may have taken a shortcut).

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I’m heading to Maine on Thursday to visit the folks for for a week, and I’m not sure if I’ll have internet access. I do hope to do a bunch of writing, and will post upon my return.

Cheers!