Wheeee!

I wasn't sure how I would fare on my Saturday morning "long" run (three miles) today.  Yesterday I worked in the yard, weeding all of the garden beds, installing a DeerBlock fence around  the green beans (see post of June 14), and mowing the grass.  It felt good to be doing relatively hard work again in the yard and I realized how much I have missed it.  But I was seriously exhausted by the end of the day, an ordinary day which I would have considered easy two months ago.  I'm not sure I am ready for hammering rebar in the ground and mixing up concrete by hand for a new walkway to the basement door, which is the next project I want to tackle.

It was nice to see everyone at the Park.  Morris was there, and I told him I had run two miles on Wednesday for the first time,  "I even included two quarter-mile intervals!" I told him. "3:13 and 3:03!"  He laughed.  "I can relate," he said.  "After my knee surgery I was overjoyed when I finally got my quarter-mile time down to three minutes."  Then he told me, "You know, everything is relative in running.  Do you know what the snail said when he took a ride on the turtle's back?"  (Morris has a bottomless cache of corny jokes.)  "Wheeee!" 
 

Very true.  Sometimes it takes a little perspective to feel positive about your accomplishments.  I tried to remember that snail as we started up the Fifth Street hill and everyone quickly pulled away, Martha in the lead completing a six-mile run (in fact, she told me the group never did catch her).  But then I remembered that Vicki, recovering from cataract surgery, was walking somewhere behind me.  I am making progress, I thought.  I could actually keep everyone in sight today for a half mile.

My plan was to run three miles, taking a one-minute walking break every half mile.  And, other than pausing to tell a nice old lady in an SUV near Satulah Ridge Road where Main Street was located, I stuck to that plan, meaning that I ended up running up all of the hills, which I realized occurred just before my planned walking break.  Larry was out walking his dog while I was taking one of those walking breaks when I passed him.  He said Martha had told him a few days ago about my surgery.  "Do you plan to get back in as good shape as you were before?"  he asked.  I said, "I'm planning on getting back in better shape!" and he laughed.

So it was a good day, a hopeful day.  I ended up completing 3.1 miles, and as I sometimes do I timed myself:  a 47:24 5-K.  Wheeee!