No rain on me

Up early again this morning, as on Wednesday. When I caught the bus at 6:51, in the dark, in the rain, the driver asked me where I was going. When I said to work, he wanted to know why. He gestured to his rear and I realized there was no one on the bus but me! We did pick up two more before we hit the bridge, but that was it.
I want to have an easy day so I can do 10 miles tomorrow morning. I'd thought I'd walk out to Bay and Mason this morning to find the SF Trader Joe's, but then I realized it wouldn't be open this early. So here I am, alone in the office.
I'm sure one reason I love distance running is for its enforced solitude. Being alone has rarely been an uncomfortable state for me. I like the feeling of mental spaciousness evoked by a dearth of company. There are those who would emphatically confirm my mental spaciousness, but I won't bring them up by name.
I am not a fast runner. When I train I do it by time and then in my log give myself a mile for every 11 minutes run. I can pick it up a bit in races, sometimes clocking sub-10's for the shorter distances.
Am hoping to do the TJ walk later today -- although it's raining cats and dogs. Don't step in a poodle, y'all.

Popular posts from this blog

Trying to Make Lemonade

Image
What am I meant to learn from the challenges being thrown at me these days? That I am strong. That I am loved. That life goes on and can be good. My favorite nephew congratulated me for making lemonade when I'd been handed lemons--not sure his belief about me is justified, but I deeply appreciate the notion. Plus, I have an actual lemon tree in front of the house, so I've been practicing my tangy-beverage making. My ribs have healed up well. I'd say I'm at about 95%. I'm glad my minor medical matter is clearing up so I can turn my energy to a more major one: Z is scheduled for big-time surgery on March 31. He is calm; I am calm. Aaaaaaack! Oops, I meant of course I'm serene. The procedure he faces, which involves patching up some crucial circulatory parts, is a common one, and the success rate is high. But still. Send good vibes our way, if you'd be so kind. In other matters, I did run 10 miles Saturday. The run itself went well--I went down to the Bay Trai
Read more

By the Numbers

Image
10.62 -- Number of miles run (per MapMyRun) 16 -- Number of Miniwheat biscuits consumed for pre-run breakfast 3 -- Number of red lights waited for 159 -- Number of days since hip injury 5.5 -- Number of backyards along trail being eaten alive by morning glories 2 -- Number of couples arguing as they walked along 1 -- Number of chocolate Clif Shots slurped on run 12 -- Number of dogs being walked 4 -- Number of songs playing in my head at various times 10 -- Number on a scale of 1 to 10 representing my happiness over being healed
Read more

Where's Elizabeth West?

Image
Elizabeth will be back someday, perhaps as the author of a best-selling novel. As part of a New Year's campaign to be more accountable, I've decided to abandon my nom de guerre for the purposes of this blog. Yep, Elaine is me--now you have the Full Monty . To borrow from Stephen Colbert , may this be the beginning of many posts of truthiness. As your reward for reading this post, here is the special gift of an image I captured today from one of my favorite webcams . Note that in the image the time is 9:13 am. I believe I've posted a Chita image previously (maybe a couple of years ago?) but I wanted to do it again. Chita is in Siberia. Chita is always cold and usually dark. Its citizens, who carry on their daily lives as if they are living someplace reasonable, are for me the embodiment of courage, so I love watching them lurch around as the camera updates the scene every eight seconds. As you enjoy our current chilly weather, just realize that if a Chita native came here t
Read more