Celtic Solstice

I was supposed to run this race in Baltimore at Druid Hill Park on Saturday morning.

Instead, I stayed home and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned to get ready for showing our house to a couple from the DC area.  Initially Dave and I were both going to go to the race and have brunch afterwards at Gertrudes at the Baltimore Museum of Art (close to Druid Hill Park).

Love the BMA.  Love Gertrudes, named for Gertrude Stein, a former Baltimorean, or as I call us, Baltimorons. She is the one who penned the phrase, A rose is a rose is a rose.  She was an author, art collector, doctor (I think she finished med school...I know she attended, and this was back in the day where it was rare for women to be docs). She was an ex-pat in Europe and hob knobbed with the mukkety muck well know writers and artists there during the Impressionists era.

Hmmmm.....gotta get a run going.  Gotta start doing planks again.

15K with the Annapolis Striders

Got it done.

15K on Sunday morning at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, while a nice snow started falling.

Initially there were a few flakes as we were getting ready to run.  Then nothing.  Then as we were around the 3 mile mark, miniature snowballs started landing on us.  I wanted to look at them through a microscope, or at least a magnifying glass, thinking of Rachel Carson's quote, "Some of nature's most exquisite handiwork is on a miniature scale, as anyone knows who has applied a magnifying glass to a snowflake." Later, great big fat sloppy snow kisses landed on us.  It was awesome.

I'm still sore.  I haven't taken any naproxen.

And I'm still not out-running my fork.  I've put on winter weight.  Too many nachos, too many pizzas, too much ice cream and cheesecakes.  I put on a pair of pants this morning that usually have a bit of a sag in the butt and are almost too long, but now there is no sag as the material is stretched across my wide behiney and thighs, lifting the length from the floor as I flow outwards.

I joke to people as I get older - and our spines compress, causing us to get a bit shorter, that I am melting, melting into a pear with feet.

On another note, there was supposed to have been a Snowy Owl sighted at Quiet Waters the day before our run.  I was hoping to see it.  No such luck.  I went for a walk before the snow, before the race and here is what I saw:

Thanksgiving Forking & Next Challenges

So for Thanksgiving, I didn't really fork off that much.  I brought two desserts: Pumpkin Cheesecake that I'd made for the first time (it was awesome) and a pumpkin cream cheese roll that I've made for years and is also awesome.  I'd have made several other dishes but one, a five layer white chocolate, red velvet cheesecake that is on the front cover of the December 2013 Southern Living magazine, was a total disaster.  Not sure why.  I followed the recipe very closely.  I need to study this some more to see if it was my fault or a bad recipe (got it on-line).  Surely, the cover photo recipe is not a bad one.  So it was probably my fault.  I admit it.  But I still don't know where I went wrong, and on multiple fronts.

Anyway, I'd have made more dishes yet, but simply ran out of time.

My husband and I went for a nice walk about the day after Thanksgiving (what others call Black Friday, which was  a beautiful day to me).

For the future, I'm signed up to run a 15K this weekend in Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, and the Celtic Solstice in B-More the following Saturday.

Yes.

Dashing through the Show

I ran the 5K, Dashing through the Show (the holiday light show) at Sandy Point State Park.  The race (or stroll for some) was sponsored by the Annapolis Striders, benefiting Anne Arundel Medical Center. I got there early, waited for dark, when the race started at 6:15pm.  It was fun  Families were out running together.  There were young ones, as young as 3, I swear, running, walking, looking at the lights.  Groups of young kids around 6 to 8 were running in little gangs, with parents on the edges, making sure they were ok, but staying out of the conversation.

This whole thing reminded me that as children we love to run and play.  As adults, we should still run and play.  I love that I do that, that I know that. I wish I could share more of that with non-active friends and co-workers.

Too Much Forking

I took a few days off after the 50K, or as my daughter says, 31.0086 miles.

But the need for an adventure or some type of challenge is nipping at my heels again.

Don't laugh, but I went on-line and found the Sandy Point "Dashing Through The Show" 5K, which is just a trot through the holiday lights strung each year at my beloved Sandy Point State Park, on the shores of my Chesapeake Bay.  Yes, they're mine. I share them though. With lots of other people.

So I'm doing that run this Friday solo, probably.  Dave will be on his way back from a meeting in DC and I haven't tried to entice anyone else...OK, maybe I'll see if my daughter is up for it.   There is no advanced registration; just show up, pay $14 which helps the local hospital, and do the run. No premiums. Good. Like I need more running T-shirts.  Not.

My next adventure, at least one that I signed up for and put on the calendar, is another running event. I've always wanted to do the Celtic Solstice 5 mile run in Druid Hill park in Baltimore. I'm a Baltimore ex-pat, and I'm totally into B-more trivia, and this Celtic Solstice is a run that belongs to the locals.

So yes, I've always wanted to do it from the time I lived there, but something always got in the way, or, OK, so I forgot about it coming up sometimes. They do this run rain, shine, sleet or snow, though they don't go all postal about it - they laugh and put one foot in front of the other, slipping and sliding along. I hope, yes, I hope it snows.  Now that would be more adventurous for me.  I look forward to this run.  I've got cabin fever. I'm biting at the bit to get out hiking, biking, birding or kayaking, but we continue to be tied to the house for continued tweaks here and there on things that need to be fixed, cleaned up, touched up.

And I'm eating my home made ice cream.  I'm fighting off that daylight savings time change, and less light as the days shorten.  I'm forking more than running as I fight off curling up into a little butterball.

All housework, no adventures, makes me crazy.

Did it! 50K!

I did it! It took me 7 hours and change, but I did it!  

50K! 

31 miles! 

It was three laps around the perimeter trail at Rosaryville State Park, MD. 

My husband was one of the volunteers working the water station on the north side of the park.  I went through there three times.  

I ran the whole thing, unlike the marathons I've run, where I walked off and on the last 6 miles.  

I just put my head down like a horse and kept slogging forward, thinking that with each foot fall, I was closer and closer.  I let my mind wander, I was in my zen.  It was so much easier than the marathons. I think it was easier because it was in the woods, which I love, and the dirt was easier on  my body than the asphalt and cement of most roads and streets. I ran a lot of this course by myself, so I was able to just think, or not think - just be. 

I'm glad I was on the course a week or so ago to run it and take pics and look around.  I also studied the map after that and got it in my head what things would look like and how far it was from one point to another. That enabled me to know what was coming up and to not panic or get psyched out that it seemed to take so long between certain points, which is a bit of what happened a week or so ago when I ran the one lap.  This time I was prepared. The miles between the southern water station and the northern one included a lot of switch backs and when I ran it before, it psyched me out.  This time I was prepared mentally.  

Yes.  Did it! For a day, I entered the ranks of the ultra runners.  I finished in a respectable manner.  Finishing is respectable, actually.  Only 200 were allowed to sign up, and about 150 finished.  I think I was 139.  Maybe a dozen or so were over 50.  I had good company!  

People on the course were friendly.  The volunteers were all friendly.  This was a very good experience.  My friend, Doug, finished at about 6 and a half hours.  He had a tough time the last lap, he said. He is 31 years old and quite the runner so I think he expected more of himself.  I was very happy with myself, with how my body held up and especially with my mental state.  Totally determined, totally held it together. Yes.

Prep for 50K

Today I took the day off work and drove south to Rosaryville State Park, letting the Reverend Al Green sing me some tunes such as Pretty Woman and Unchained Melody.  I started trying to work out alternative lyrics to Pretty Woman that went along the lines of "Running Woman."  It was fun, and I certainly had time to work on it while doing the 9 mile and some Perimeter Trail.

For the 50K coming up next weekend, it is 3 laps around the Perimeter Trail.  A friend who I talked into signing up for it with me, tried out the Perimeter Trail a few weeks ago and thought it was an ass kicker.  He is in better shape than me, by a long shot, so this got my attention.