The Heat is On

Apologies for my recent blog slacking. It's remarkable that life could be any busier than it was back in the days of marathon training - but it certainly feels that way. Baby prep is taking up a lot of my time I suppose -- and the rest just seems to vanish in the wind.

The next few weeks brings a crazy schedule of social events, out-of-town trips, OB appointments, childbirth/breast feeding/pain management classes, my driving test (yes - 5 years in this country and I'm only getting around to it now!), car buying, two baby showers (one of them being mine), and more house guests. Phew - I just wish I could quit my long work days now (like I would be doing in any civilized western country ;) ) so I could more easily fit this all in without the stress mounting! Sadly there is another 7 or 8 weeks of drudgery before I get to put my feet up (albeit temporarily!)

Last weekend we got to meet our nephew for the first time. I only hope our little girl turns out to be half as happy, bubbly, quiet and well behaved as this adorable wee man. Instead of frightening me to death as I kind of expected, when they head home on Sunday I was left elated, excited and missing him terribly. I'm so pleased our daughter will have a wonderful cousin so close to her age.

This 4th of July weekend we're off to PA for the second time to enjoy some fresh air, wide open spaces, lush green fields, peace and quiet, star-gazing, and all the other things we're deprived of here in the big city. I'm a little sad that this year I wont be able to run another 20-miler along the Grand Canyon in a repeat of what was surely my favourite training run of 2005 (all time?) But hours spent floating in a cold swimming pool may go a long way to making up for that.

Amusing incident of the day:

Me: dragging my bloated body slowly up my street towards home (the heat, humidity and bulging bump on my very short torso are starting to cause me some discomfort lately)
Young boy throwing ball back & forth to younger friend across my path: "look out, a little old lady is coming"
Young boy takes a closer look at me as I waddle past: "oh no, whoops...it's not a...um, er, not an old...it's a twenty-something girl. Pause. Who's pregnant!"

Nice save kid. Nice save. So I may look like a decrepit old whale from a distance, but I can still be mistaken for a woman in her twenties close up. Instant forgiveness.

Have a great weekend everyone. Catch you on the flipside.

Happy Birthday Blog

It's been one whole year since I started this blog. Wow - what a LOT can happen in 12 months, huh? 88 blog posts, dozens of races, one marathon, one apartment move, one career crisis and 6 months of pregnancy later - here I am. But I still haven't improved the look of this thing. One day, I promise...

The (only) benefit of not running

Anyone who saw it would probably thank me for not reminding them, but remember this beautiful sight?

Well I suddenly realized last week that my toenails are no longer a vision of repulsive hideousness! No more is the inch-thick, black fungal layering that infested most of them. No more are half dangling by a thread, revealing the vile sliver of replacement tissue beneath! While my feet themselves remain the misshapen, lumpy, unattractive rectangles they always were...I am delighted to report that after four running-free months, my toe nails are now, in fact - passable!

So much so, that I felt sufficiently low levels of embarrassment to indulge in my first ever pedicure yesterday. Imagine that! I would never have let a stranger come within a hundred yards of them at any point during marathon training or recovery. Nor, I trust, would anyone have been willing to touch them, regardless of the money offered.

This radical aesthetic improvement to my physical being prompted me to consider devoting a blog post to the benefits of not running.

Well, I gotta tell you, I didn't get very far. I couldn't think of one single other genuine benefit to the cessation of running. I toyed momentarily with the 'more free time' concept, but ultimately rejected it on the following grounds; a) I never begrudged the 1/2/3 hours a day my sport used to consume and b) I used to make time for running by, say, getting up much earlier in the mornings, or abandoning worthless activities like television-watching completely. I figured the confidence, friends, fitness, sense of accomplishment and multitude of other dividends earned from being addicted to running made it more than worth being utterly clueless while colleagues enthused over the latest episode of Lost, Desperate Housewives or 24.

Though I work long hours, swim miles in the pool, prep continuously for baby's arrival, and maintain a great marriage and fairly active social life, I feel that no hour of my day now is quite so well spent as when it was filled with the act of running.

So, a week or so taken up wracking my brain as to possible further upsides to the sedentary life, and I've come up absolutely blank. Naught, nil, nothing, squat, zilch, zip, diddly squat.

I suppose there is the dubious bonus of not falling face down on concrete sidewalks on a regular basis, or the avoidance of post sub-par race performance depression (let's call that PSPRPD shall we?), or the $$$ saved from not buying umpteen pairs of Brooks sneakers or ultra thin socks, but come on - these are not bona fide benefits, are they? I would argue that the absence or evasion of something negative is not the same as acquiring something positive.

Nope, I'm convinced presentable toenails is it. This is my one tangible non-running reward and I'm sure as hell going to make the most of it! Sianara toenail-concealing sweaty footwear; hello summer flip-flops =)