Good morning everyone! I hope you are off to a great start for the week. It is a beautiful, sunny morning here and I am looking forward to getting a lot of things done today, especially my run and working in the garden!! Ok, the garden is hard work but it will be so worth it. I am just glad it is sunny this morning. I have gotten really tired of the rain. I know, I know, we need it but honestly I get so sick of hearing that and I hate rainy days!! I know a lot of people like them but I am not one of them. I am a sunshine girl!!
I have just a few things to share this morning then I need to get out to the garden and then head out for my run. First, I want to say that if you have not stood at the finish line of a marathon and cheered people on then you should. It is a very motivating thing. You really see the determination on people's faces as they push that last bit after running 26 miles!
The marathon is a beast and each race can be so different from the last. I can't remember where I read this quote but I remember reading one that said something about you can't let your mind remember your last marathon when you go into your next one. That is so true!! You have to have a clean slate going into each one so that you do not let one bad marathon mess you up for the next one mentally. When I think of that I always think of that football saying, "any given Sunday." You never know what could happen!!
Yesterday I went down to the Colfax Marathon and Half marathon to cheer on Barbara and her husband. Of course they were amazing, like always!!! They are my running heroes!! I made the stupid choice of wearing my rain boots to the race and then running in those from one part of the course to the finish which was not easy!!! Duh?!! Why didn't I just wear my running shoes?? I didn't want to get them wet! Turns out it stopped raining by then and I did not need the stupid (but cute) boots. Oh well, lesson learned. Anyway, I got a great picture of Barbara at the finish. (See below) She is so cute!!! Look how fresh she looks after the half!!
I want to highly recommend that you either volunteer at a race or just go cheer people on. Think of all the people that have done it for you in the past!! It is very motivating for you also!!
I am still working on running every single run slow this month. It is harder than I thought. I really have to resist the urge to speed up when I am feeling great, especially on warm, sunny days!! I am committed to practicing what I preach though, I am going to do it this time!! I have been doing some strides after several runs and that does help a little!
As I said, I am a sunshine girl. Can any of you relate to this? Running in the middle of the day on a super hot day, not because you had to, because you wanted to? Running in the heat because you love that sweat you get and the sweat you continue to have after you have finished running? I love this! I always feel like I am getting toxins out and that I am continuing to burn some calories after a super hot run because of that sweat that happens even after your get out of the shower after your run!! I know it sounds crazy to those of you that hate running in the heat but I love it!
Well, to wrap up this post I am going to share a photo my dad sent me, a selfie! There is a tiny backstory to go with it. As you know we have been adding onto our deck and then building a ramp for my dad to get in/out of the house. Well, my dad, being the mathematician, made this trigonometry problem up for figuring out the exact length of the first section of the ramp as it would be slightly longer on the sloped side (hypotenuse for you nerds) and he wanted to know exactly how much longer. Now, I told him that the amount was so tiny that it didn't matter and we would make adjustments in real time as we built it but he said he just wanted to do it. I figured it was good for his brain. Well, turns out he had quite a few unknowns and worked for hours on this problem and could not solve it. I finally told him to just walk away and try again later with a fresh mind.
Well, it was bed time and he went on to bed but could not sleep of course because this math problem was making him crazy. He could not believe he could not get the answer to such a simple problem. (Keep in mind that he graduated high school at age 15 and college at age 19 with a mathematics degree, and went to work at NASA. He is a genius, especially when it comes to math.) So, you can see why it would bother him.
Most of us would just look at it again the next day, but not him. It made him crazy all night thinking about it so he stayed awake working on it. When I went in to get him up the next morning he looked exhausted. I asked him if he slept and he said, not really. I then asked, "was it the math problem?" (Yes, I know him!) He said yes, but that the good news was that he solved it! Guess what the increased distance was?? Instead of 12 feet it was 12.04 feet. Whew, glad we got that figured out!! Anyway, it was pretty funny. The next day while I was out running errands he sent me this selfie. Notice the words on the thing hanging around his neck! I'm not sure which if funnier, the thing he wrote or that my dad took a selfie!!!
That wraps it up for today! Have a great day!
Happy Monday! Happy Running!
Kristi