I do so despise neglecting this blog. But sometimes life catches a hold of you and it does not let go. Sometimes, YOU have to let go. I cancelled a run for this morning before I fell asleep last night... full well knowing that it wouldn't be happening. When my alarm went off and my head was "spinny" and I still felt like I was drowning... I sent a critical email and checked out for the day.
I slept until 11:30 am. Off and on of course... but still. When I finally did drag myself out of bed... I immediately went to the refrigerator to see what there was to see. Eggs. Lots of them. Herbs. Lots of them (hiding in blankets of damp papertowels incased in plastic baggies). Leftover jus, dressings, barbecue sauces... hmm. Pork. Lots of it.
And so I pulled myself together and made my first meal for myself in a while (besides the avocado-tomato migas I made the boy for breakfast a few weeks ago). Took out the gorgeous nonstick all-clad frying pan and marveled at its non-stickiness as I scrambled myself some eggs. I added shredded leftover pork that had been stewing in some juices late last night and scrambled some more. I topped it off with a drizzle of the boy's bbq sauce and used the zester to quickly "zest" some cheddar cheese on top.
Simple. Tasty. Good.
Then I did all the things I should usually do... I did some laundry and put away dishes... then I was tired so I took a nap. Tough day. Took a shower and went to work on some shoes I have been crafting.
Then I read some blog entries I hadn't been able to read in a long time... and then I read my own. And realized how very very far behind I am. My running and outlook on running is still simplified the way it was going into Tobacco Road but perhaps even moreso now. The boy and I ran a 12 hour race at the Black Mountain Monster in Montreat, NC back in June. It basically kicked the living crap out of me but I didn't really know that for a bit. We ran 16 laps around a 5k course starting at 10 am and finishing at 9:44 pm. We ran a total of about 49.6 miles - a lot of this was walking up predetermined hills and then walking almost the entirety of the last lap as it was pitch dark and we stupidly forgot our headlamps. I think part of the problem with packing was we didn't really believe we could make it to dark. But we did. Oh we sure did. We stunk to high heavens, had sweat literally crusted to our bodies and clothing, I burned myself with both icy hot and melted body glide... it was a bit of a shit show. But so very worth it. We ran every single step together. Nearly 50 miles side by side. I would say that is a good initiation for us. We are preparing to spend the rest of our lives together... not a bad way to start such a journey if you ask me.
Since the 50 miler... we took a pretty big step back. I took a full week off and ran my first run back along the streets of NYC and in and out of Central Park with the boy's sister - an accomplished runner herself. You can pretty much fill in the ending of that story... ended up running 15 miles at a decently quick pace, most of which I seriously thought my legs might catch fire and internally combust or melt from searing agonizing pain... but I smiled and plodded along trying to pretend it was all good... and then I crashed and burned and we took a cab home. Yea... so I took a couple more days off.
And now I think I have been running the lowest mileage I have done in a long long time but I need this time to breathe and sleep and rest and catch up with myself. My mind has been racing a million miles a minute as the boy and I nail down final plans for getting married in September. We've been increasingly more involved with social engagements with friends and family as the big day approaches as well as a number of plans we've had going on for quite some time. In June we attended a Farm Dinner hosted by the Poplar Ridge Farm - a farm in Waxhaw in which we are enrolled for our CSA box that comes every other week. The chef from Barrington's, Jamie, prepared an out of this world meal for us using ingredients exclusively from the farm. The experience was priceless. We spent the past weekend with a wonderful friend of mine from college, working on a build for Habitat for Humanity with our book club, and celebrating our engagement with so many friends and family... it has been so busy that I quite literally had to be SICK to have the time to finally write this post.
Hopefully soon I will have more meaningful and more exciting posts to write... Boston honeymoon should call for good eats AND good running along the Charles River!!!
