Running away

Saturday morning I left the house at 5:20 AM to go do the club run.  I was a bit nervous leaving Nicki home that early in the morning even though she took a dump before I left.  The morning is Nicki’s witching hour when it comes to defecation.

Even though the purpose of the club run is to run with other people, I actually ran the first half of the 7 miles by myself.  After my fastest ever 5K I wanted to try to keep pushing the pace.  As I was approaching the 3.5 mile halfway water stop I passed a big pack of people (mostly speedy women) that are all typically faster than me.  I never passed any of them before, ever, in any situation.

Of course in order to do so I had to be doing my all out race pace, while the pack of people I passed were firmly in their training pace, able to hold casual conversation among them.  I on the other hand was barely able to grunt out a word as I passed them.  Still, it felt good to actually “beat” them for once.

I covered the first 3.5 miles in 29 minutes. I had pretty much blown myself out and was looking for someone to run back with at a slower pace.  After a drink and stretching I hadn’t seen a suitable candidate so I started heading back again on my own.  I just happened to emerge out on the road the same time as another guy was passing by.  I didn’t recognize him from a distance but he yelled back to me “You coming?” like he knew me. I quickly caught up to him and said hi.

This was actually some guy I never met before named Bob.  Bob was just an avid runner that would rather run with someone than alone.  It also just happened Bob was getting over a cold and running at a more casual 9 minute mile pace which was about perfect for me for the return trip.

Bob was an older guy in his early 60’s but he still is very, very active.  He has run 10 marathons and even was in an Ironman triathlon although he had to drop mid-race due to injury.  Despite his age he isn’t slowing down, something I obviously admire.  He is signed up to the Disney Goofy, a very appropriate name for a race since you have to be goofy to do it.  You do a half marathon one day and then do a full marathon the next.

I enjoyed my time running with Bob and thanked him as we pulled back into the parking lot.  The conversation made the last 3.5 miles go by quickly.

I pulled back into the driveway worried I was going to be entering a house smelling ripe with dog shit.  I was quite happy Nicki held it.  It’s funny as I walked the house going room to room Nicki followed me around with a smile on her face that seems like she is saying “look I was a good girl! I didn’t shit in the house!”

Once I got home I ripped into housework.  In order to keep me on point I brought back “the list”.  For years, every weekend I would create myself a to do list of things I wanted to get done.  I found it was a great way to keep me motivated plus the act of scratching an item off the list gave a nice little shot of satisfaction.

Alison HATED my lists.  She felt they put undue pressure on her opportunity to enjoy weekends.  I eventually stopped making the lists to appease her, instead trying to rely on mental checklists which I found to be less effective.  There is something about drawing a line through a list item that scratches an itch.

Well anyway, I have been complaining about feeling like I am behind the curve in things I want to get done.  I figured reviving the list is one step in getting that feeling alleviated.  When the list is done I can officially relax.

So after scribbling out the list I got busy on completing it.  The house needed a thorough cleaning.  Since being on my own and having the dogs under a new roof most of the time I have found the old every other week cleaning schedule not all that crucial.  If I stretch it to 3 weeks or even 4 most people would not be able to tell.  My Neato running 3 times a week keeps the floor surfaces looking fresh and I do daily minor upkeep that keeps things looking decent.

It had been a long time since I did a full cleaning which included the bathrooms, counters, dusting, full house sweeping and Scooba hard surface follow up. I figured since my Dad would be accompanying me back from PA it made sense to give the house a thorough once over now.

After the cleaning was done I pulled the van up to the garage to give it a bath.  I am not sure why I do this since the van is sure to get quite cruddy after a 2400 mile trek to the cold north and back.   The inside is what really needed attention.  The seats and carpet had bushels of dog hair.  I spent a good 20 minutes with the shop vac de-hairing the interior.

I did a couple other things like top off the coolant and windshield washer fluid reservoir.  I’ll check the oil disptick and tire pressure before pulling out as well.  I am crossing my fingers the trip is void of mechanical issues, I have not been very lucky with that with my last few road trips.

Ali is nervous about the trip, worried about me trekking that distance by myself with the dogs.  It will be my first major road trip solo.  Doing so while wrangling the two dogs will be a challenge for sure but nothing I can’t handle.

My last list item involved doing some additional testing of the Ipico bib chips we are using for this year’s half marathon.  I am a bit nervous since we never have used the tags officially in a race before.

I turned the pool deck into a makeshift finish line complete with both timing boxes, a laptop and two timing mats.  I had to laugh when both girls decided to use the one timing mat as a resting spot.  They remained there for awhile as I walked bibs across the mats.

I tested over 100 bibs and got a read every time except when I had 4 of them piled on top of each other which wouldn’t happen in a race anyway.   The test made me feel better about using the bib devices for the race.  Here is a video of some of the testing.

My Sunday was pretty chore free thanks to my efforts on Saturday.  I still managed to keep busy and spent some of the afternoon helping my boss set up a cable modem and wireless router at her condo.  She signed up for the Blast internet package which is SUPER fast.

It made me want to upgrade my service.  As a cost cutting measure when we separated I downgraded my Comcast internet down to a slower, less expensive speed.  The utilities budget column has enough of a pad in it that I should be able to bump back up to faster service without feeling much of a pinch.

I spent a good portion of the day working on various computer related tasks like updating websites, doing half marathon related things and some work on another web site I am revamping.

As I was plodding away I was thinking about how odd it is that I feel like I have such sparse time to do brainless entertainment items like playing WoW or the Xbox. I imagined that once I was on my own I would have tons of time to indulge any and all entertainment my heart desired.  It just has not been the case.  I haven’t logged into WoW for at least 2 or 3 weeks and the way the rest of my January is shaping up it may be February until I get to drop into my virtual home once again.

I will have a very busy two days ahead of me until the party van leaves the dock in the wee hours of Wednesday morning.