Road Trip Day 2

We hit the road early for what we knew would be our longest and hardest day. We started out from Hagerstown, MD and ended up in Columbia, SC. We decided to take our time and we picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Shenandoah National Park (it's called Skyline Dr. in this section). Well worth the $15 park entry fee. It was stunning. Gorgeous. This country of ours really is amazing!

We drove the last 50 miles of Skyline Dr. and exited out of the park onto the rest of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We drove about another 60-70 miles along this route. We took our time, stopping numerous times just to marvel at the scenery, to walk the dogs, and once to have a picnic lunch. The dogs didn't seem to impressed with the scenery but they enjoyed the new and different smells. We decided to get off the Parkway when we did because my sister (who suffers from car sickness) was starting to feel a little queasy. It is a windy, hairpin turn road and it is hard to get over 40 mph.

At that point, we hooked back up with 81 and headed south. We picked up 26 around Johnson City and took that into Asheville. We wanted to see Asheville. :-) We didn't see much of it, but what we saw, we liked! One of the best parts of the drive was going right over the Appalachian Mountains. We approached them from the northwest and crossed right over them to the other side. We really got the sense of approaching them and traversing over them. There was a definite beginning, middle and end to our driving them and it gave me a sense of scale of this mountain range in the middle of our east coast.

We pulled into Columbia, SC way late. Later than I expected. We were all so tired that we really didn't care too much that our motel (Red Roof Inn!) could have modeled for a Roach Motel. I'm being a little unkind. It had a marginally acceptable level of cleanliness and it did allow dogs. The dogs crashed, I crashed, Sherry crashed. It had been a long day of driving but we positioned ourselves perfect for an easy last day of driving.

Road Trip Day 1

We left NY around noon in a major rainstorm and it rained for the next two hours until we were south of Ithaca. Very apropo to our feelings. Both dogs had major meltdowns after Bridget said good bye to them. Cosmo tried to follow me into the shower, Mal just followed me all around the house, whining. Mal NEVER whines :-(

Anyways, I left NY after a nice three mile run in the morning with my running group. It was a nice farewell to finish up with them and my friends.

First day travel went really well. Both Cosmo and Mal are excellent travellers. We made good time. Went through the central part of PA which was beautiful. Today we are tackling the Blue Ridge Parkway and are shooting to end up in Augusta, GA.

Only little glitch is Cosmo's exposure to automatic doors and elevators. The expression on his face when a motel door opened as he walked up to it was priceless. He doesn't like the elevators so much. First time on it, his legs buckled and he almost collapsed when it started moving. Mal is an old champ at them and nothing fazes that dog. They are the best travelling dogs!

Daily travails

Bridget thought this email to her was blog worthy. I don't know about that. It reads as just another ordinarily frustrating day. But here it is. You decide. Clarifying, editorial comments are in red.

Yesterday, Cosmo peed on the kitchen rug. I haul it, along with a laundry basket of clothes to the local homeless hangout, otherwise known as the laundromat (this is because I've sold my washer and dryer - new FL house comes with their own). First, though, I stop at a convenience store to buy a bottle of water and break a $20. It was raining. When I got out of my car, I was parked over a drainage grate. I was wearing my old birkenstocks which have no tread anymore. I step on the wet grate and not asphalt. My foot goes out from under me, I grab the car door. There goes the back. I can not bend forward at my hips any further than about 4 inches. I'm lurching around to the point where Quasimodo is graceful compared to me. As much as I feel sorry for myself - I've been battling back, pelvis and leg pain for several months now - I'm not near as bad as this. Gives me a little perspective when I start the self pity party. It just sucks to hurt it worse when you are trying to be careful and recover.

My sister #3 (the numerical designation is strictly based on birth order and has nothing to do with family standing, prosperity or affection :-))is taking Malcolm for laser today (we've been doing class 4 laser treatments on Mally's back end to try to give him some relief from his chronic pain). I decide to hobble out last night and try to clean the car as much as possible. I wanted to do it before we leave anyways and I really don't want her totally grossed out today. Of course, it took me probably three times as long because I have no range of motion. As I'm cleaning, I hear Cosmo doing his usual hysterics. Because, of course, you know, if I'm messing around with the car out in the garage, it must mean he's going someplace even though it's 11 pm. That's his reality in Cosmo World. I finish, come in the house. He's peed on the rug I just washed at the laundromat.

I get up this morning, roll and creak out of bed. Start doing some cleaning and organizing, for the movers who are supposed to be coming and packing today although I haven't heard a peep out of them. According to the dispatcher though, they are on the schedule. We shall see if anyone shows up. So I'm doing that and also cleaning because some fruitcake is insisting on seeing the house today at 11. She HAS to buy a house this week and she doesn't care if there are movers in here packing or what. I'm in the kitchen, I smell something. I turn around. Cosmo has left the biggest pile ever on the towel (that I have no ability to wash easily) that I put in front of the door for them when they come in from the backyard.

The movers are coming. The prospective buyer is coming. I can't move. My house is a mess. It smells like shit.

Miss Has To See My House Because She's Buying One This Week never shows. Her realtor never even calls to inform me they won't show. I sic my realtor on them. He doesn't like rude people. :-)

One last thing - when those movers say they are coming to pack, they do not mess around. They pack and they pack everything! And you don't realize just how used you are to having stuff at your fingertips until it is all packed away, out of reach, in neatly labelled boxes. Tonight I had to eat a soy yogurt and wash out the container all so I could drink my nightly numerous gin and tonics. Movers won't pack and move alcohol so I am doing my darnedest to work my way through 1.75 liters of BeefEaters. I can gift the rest of the stuff, the whiskey, the rum, etc to Bridget. But I really lurve my gin. I know. Real classy.

grapehounds

Picked up B today and we headed out to the Fingerlakes area with Cosmo for the annual Grapehounds extravaganza and to meet up with Jen who was vending there. They did things a little different this year, instead of vendors placed all around at the different wineries, vendors were all centrally located together at a campground. Why the difference from previous years? Yeah, it seems as though the success of previous years inspired someone to schedule another event featuring the wineries and greyhound adoption groups and try to pass it off as the original. Really. Needless to say, we went with the first and original event which benefits adoption groups.

Sad day. Did not like saying goodbye to Jen. Not like it all. In my quest for self-medication, I'm now on my third gin and tonic.

Running or Not Running

It would probably be more correct to title this Running With Pain. Everyone I've discussed this with has felt, even though there's not an MD in the group, very comfortable diagnosing me with sciatica. They're not doctors but they play ones. :-)

Hip, pelvis pain, sometimes radiating around the small of my back and occasionally down the leg. It was worse. I cut back dramatically on my workouts and that took care of the more sharp, stabbing pain that would make my leg give out under me.

I'm now down to running the bare minimum. I even took last week off. Went out today with the intention of running an easy 3. I pulled up at 2 and walked home.

Well, well, well

I'm just amused enough to wonder how long it will take a certain someone to realize that the blog is being revitalized. Or that I am attempting to revitalize it.

Almost a year since the last post - that is a pretty good indication of what my life's been like in that past year - boring. Boring. So boring that I even bore myself.

But.......things are looking up a bit as far as new and exciting things going on. House is up for sale. New house is closing the end of this month. Husband is already in the new state working. Dogs and I are heading down in about 2 weeks. Big happenings :-)

New Post (finally!) and a race report

Yeah. Been kind of quiet around here. Mainly because summer is very busy and I've been boring myself witless. Yep, I am bored with myself.

Anyways, the title does say race report and race report it shall be. Willow Bay - 5k. This was the first race for the gym's beginner group. This group is awesome - very low drop out rate and a very motivated group. Everyone did awesome and now they are moving forward, setting their sights on Bud in September.

This was my 5K 'A' race. I wanted to PR. I worked hard on my speed all summer long and it paid off................

27:39
8:53 pace

Boo-ya.
Amazing what speeds you can run hauling around 30 less pounds!

W, S, K, B and I planned on running all out - we were all shooting for PRs. This race wasn't chip timed so we all lined up at the front and went out very fast.

My first mile was 8:18. Yeah. Way, way too fast and it was all downhill pacewise after that. However, that was enough time in the bank to keep me under 9's.

At about the half mile point, I came up alongside B. I told her that we were going out way too fast. She said she knew that and at this point 'WE' (that 'we' is very important to remember) just need to relax, settle in and run. 'Oh great', I thought to myself. 'She said 'we', she must be planning on running with me and I won't be all alone'. No sooner was that thought out of my head than I was looking at her rapidly disappearing back. Seriously folks. I might have been standing at a standstill. 'Huh,' I said to myselfs. 'If that is the way she wants to play it, I will just hang with her as long as possible', and I picked up my speed. That lasted about 3 steps. I backed it right down to my snail's pace and said 'EFF that and eff her!' She quickly vanished from my vision. Beotch finished just under 26.

All the way down the parkway, to the turnaround, I could see K in front of me and who I thought was S. I run vision impaired, without my glasses. All I could see was this woman, in a pink top and I thought it was S. At the turnaround, my time was 13 and change. I spent the second half of the race chasing K. I figured if I caught her, I wouldn't have to run alone. I never caught her. She never increased her lead over me but I just couldn't catch her. She finished about 30 seconds ahead of me. Once I passed her and figured out pink shirt lady wasn't S, I had no idea where she was - ahead or behind me. Turns out she was 10-15 seconds behind me, trying to chase me down like I was trying to chase K down.

Last mile was painful. It just hurt. After the halfway turnaround, I just looked and waited to see Jen who came along to spectate with Cliff and Lucy. Once I saw her, I started looking for A on the right side of the course and I knew I was home free.

Next up - Bud in September. Not sure how I will run this - for my own time or with the new runners. After that is the Toronto half at the end of the month.