Sepia

And I am back.

Bay State Marathon : check
I might have frozen the bajeezers off my crooked hobbity fingers but I made it to the finish line. The weather brought it on - cold temps, high winds, rain, freezing rain, etc but Goofy did it again. He pulled through and saved the day. Goofy is my guardian angel, FYI.

And a big shout out to all my fantabulawesome friends for showing up and cheering for me and occasionally running with me in such horrid weather. You are fantabulawesome.

All in all, it's been a good day today. Great weather, beautiful colors. I packed off at work pretty soon and got home, all inspired to paint. Begin Tangent : I realize that most of my interests/activities in my adult life revolve around some stuff that I felt cheated out of as a kid or had the most fun with as a kid. Running for example is my way of clinging on to play time. I was serious about play time as a kid. School was out at 3 and I'd barely manage to get home and change and have a snack and I'd shoot out of the homestead all ready to play. And out I'd be until dear A came looking for me as night fell. I somehow needed to reminded afresh everyday that there was a home I was supposed to be within when it got dark outside. Most of my other physical/aerobic activities are also probably a plaintive cry from my soul for a lost playtime. And then the craft work. All this painting business is not because of any talent. There was never any such promise. I'm just avenging all those days when I was not allowed around scissors and paints 'cause of the mess that it would invariably result in. So I spent an hour and more today busy mixing oil colors and painting away (take that, mummy! And I now have access to turpentine and linseed oil too, so hah! But there is a hole in this theory. As a kid, I was never allowed into the kitchen and was never involved in the process of cooking. I'd like to remain just as aloof now, somehow. No interest there. Hmm. So much for my hypothesis. Hmmph. End Tangent. So, inspired I was and painted for a good while and was decently happy with the outcome. And the rest of the evening seemed to have pleasantly evaporated like those incense sticks I light once in a while and it's 11.43 now.

And so to bed.

Concomitant

I cannot finish my poems. My paintings don't get done. But this hardly seems complaint worthy when nature's working on a grand masterpiece alongside - Fall.

A well worn, open book.
The green and gold of the long stalks of corn.
The glass like surface of a calm pool of water.
The crimson, yellow and gold of the leaves of Fall.

What makes all of these even better? Sunlight. Open, warm, life-giving sunshine. You can tell it's one of my favorite things.

On to other things.

Let's take a look at the good and bad decisions that I've taken regarding the marathon training this year :

1. Skipping multiple runs (sometimes for up to 10 days) to travel for pleasure : Bad (for marathon training) Good (for pleasure :-) )
2. Letting my legs, and not the coach, decide how many mid-week runs I did and how long they were. Good (for MT) Good (for quality of life)
3. Waiting until I was able to run a good 25K road race after all the traveling before committing to running the full marathon. Irrelevant (for marathon training) Good (for peace of a slightly-commitment-phobic mind)
4. Donating a pint of blood at the peak of marathon training. Not-really-the-best-idea (for MT) Good (for Karma)

All in all, things are good, though. I finished the last long run of the training (~ 21 miles) last Saturday. This was a big deal and did my morale a world of good 'cause I'd been unable to finish 15 miles the previous week or even run 6 miles without stopping a few days before that. Squash - even taking three flights of stairs briskly left me exhausted in the days after the donation. But then, things got much better. Thanks to my awesome plan of eating loads of stuff with Iron in it. Actually, the plan was just to eat loads of stuff - the Iron came along for free.

And so, brimming with confidence and Iron, to bed.

Wrackspurt

Blogger informs me that this is my 100th post. I refuse to cave under pressure and produce a scintillating post. I'll stick to my usual unique style - rambling and largely pointless.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks and weekend. I ran a pretty bad 15 miler yesterday. My quads were sore to begin with and I had to stop around 13-14 miles and just walk the rest. It probably did some good for my quads but not my morale. But no worries - that's what good food and afternoon naps are for. Anyways, after a truly tasty, filling and more importantly, hilariously entertaining lunch with the gang, and a long drive home (Thank you Massachusetts for the ubiquitous construction!), I walked into ye olde homestead. I automatically flicked the TV on while I did the basic pottering around routine that is standard and 10 minutes later I heard a phrase that I never dreamt I would hear : ".. I started juicing and the rest is history". What!!?! Apparently, this was an infomercial for Jack Lallane's Power Juicer, Jack Lallane being some hot shot TV fitness guy from back in the day. Anyways, the Power Juicer can just eat up whole fruits and vegetables and produce juice. So you put in a potato, a tomato, a squash and 2 other veggies (I would NOT want to taste that but that's what they made in the infomercial) and out comes juice and get this - the rest is history! This is a strange and fun world we live in, I tell you.

Lying on grass in the sun and alternately napping and chattering idly with other such revelers is as close as it gets to Paradise. I spent an hour in Paradise today.

And just in case Wade Phillips is reading my blog : "I think it's a jerk move to call a time-out with a micro-second left so that kicker has already kicked by the time it's officially called."

And so to bed.

Ah! The crisp air, the slightest invigorating chill, the early dusks of Fall. The time when the lights at home seem warm and welcoming as you drive back from work at night. Well, in my case, the lights are all switched off until I actually get into the house and switch them on but you get what I mean.

I am a happy camper. Have had a blissful set of days lately. From Mississippi to Reykjavik to back home in Boston. All those fantastic and wonderful sights and experiences. And just in time for that transformation from summer to Fall. Yes, things are good.

The only fly in the ointment when I got back from my vacation was my worry about the upcoming Cape Ann 25k on Labor Day for which I felt woefully under prepared. But Goofy pulled it off yet again (Goofy is my guardian angel. Yes I have a name for him and yes there's some history to this but we'll get there later). Anyways, after just a 6 mile run the day after I got back and a 4 mile jog-walk two days after that, I was able to finish the 25K and actually did better than I expected. My cup of joy runneth over. Again - I was kinda startled to find that I had done only 3-4 minutes better than the last time I ran this race 2 years ago (I'd been under the impression that I did much better this time) but still.

The other cool thing that happened as a result of finishing this race - not counting that delightful veggie-melt and those unbelievable home style fries I had for brunch after the race (this potatoes and home style fries thing is getting way out of hand and has to reined in as should this sentence at this point) - is that I finally decided that I am going to do the Bay State Marathon in Lowell, MA this October 18th! That's six weeks from now. Six weeks to go and no injuries as of now - hopefully I'll keep it this way and have a much better marathon experience this time around. Let's see how things go. But for now, the air is cool and the weather is good and the world abounds with guilt-free treats (home style fries, etc). So let the good times roll.

And so to bed.

gloaming

** Wrote this up while traveling during the day yesterday and only got a chance to post it this morning. From sunny Mississippi!!

Occasionally life gives us that one beautiful day. A very pleasant day when everything seems just about right. Like yesterday for instance. It started like any other day with me realizing when the alarm rang that 6 hours of sleep is really not enough and ignoring it - the alarm - to nap for another hour. I worked for a little and then decided to do a short run on the apartment gym's treadmill. I am not very fond of this gym but I figured this would be the most convenient time and setting. Anyways, off I went. After spending 10 mins trying to figure out where the remote for the TV was and running half a mile, I realized the following (yes, it was a great day for realizations) :
- I really did not like this gym.
- It's annoying to try to watch TV while running especially when the treadmill puts a steam engine to shame with its noise.
- My shins hurt and my body just wasn't ready for this run yet.

So I did something that I usually do not do. I quit and came back home and took a shower. Over the last few weekends, our running group has been steadily increasing mileage from 14 to 17 miles and our coach had told us to take it a little easy this week to rest up for the coming weeks. Of course, what the coach didn't know was that I was going to be out of town for a good 5 days later this week and would be going on a 10 day vacation at the end of the following week. But still. Let no one say that I am not a good follower of instructions.

Anyways, I was feeling a little bummed at breakfast 'cause I wasn't able to run but felt pretty good after a nice chat with the ancestors. And then, just as I was about to leave for work, I got a call from this Fedex delivery lady downstairs asking me to come pick up a package. I'd been expecting some important docs via Fedex and was a little worried abt them being delivered to the rental office while I was gone - I never dreamed that I'd receive them so quickly. So after a quick yelp of happiness, I bounced down the stairs to the grinning lady to pick up my docs. Everything in order. Perfection abounds!

A productive and pleasant day at work and at ~ 7.15 in the evening, I decided that I'd give running another try. So I laced up my shoes and headed out to my usual jogging trail. It was cloudy and a few rain drops were in the air now and then. It was humid but not too warm. I started off running and noticed that I was running a little faster than usual but my breathing was ok so I stuck to that pace. My shins/calves, as always in the first 2-3 miles, were tight and still hurt a little. I told myself that I wasn't stopping until the end of the 3 mile trail. This I did and my shins were not happy at this point. I stretched a little and decided to walk for a while on my way back. So I walked half a mile and as I did the sky got darker and it started drizzling. Then I started running and now my shins felt fine. Within a couple of minutes of running, I settled into a nice pace and then it finally happened. I just ran. I ran like it was the most natural thing to do. I finally ran like how I've always wanted to run in my mind. I had my ipod on but the volume wasn't very high and I could hear my even breathing and the steady sound of my shoes in the background. It was getting very dark and the drizzle increased in volume but everything seemed very comfortable. I finally got back to the parking lot at the head of the trail and was ambling to my car when the sky opened up. And down came the water. Big, fat raindrops all over the place. I was soaked in a minute so I decided that I might as well stretch. I spent 15 minutes stretching in the rain and it was the most fun I ever had stretching. And that is how I had a near perfect day.

P.S: On my way home, I stopped at the gas station to fuel my car. As I do on occasion, I computed the mileage once I filled up the tank. Hallelujah - 30 MPG! And that is how I had a perfect day.

Denouement

The thoughts that haunt me
as the weary sun dips
are the words that never
will reach my lips.

That though we might have lost our way
my helpless love is locked in me
and I wish my jaded heart believed
that what we were, we still can be.


finis

Nomenclature

So I've been listening to this song "1,2,3,4" by Feist for the last week or so. If you've heard it you know that it's the kind of tune that gets ingrained in your brain and never lets you go. You'll be doing something totally random or not doing anything and you'll hear it in your head. Like I was running last evening and didn't have my ipod on me and guess which song my head automatically starts playing? The last straw was when I woke up in the middle of the night a few days ago to get some water - there I was padding my way to the kitchen, eyes still half closed and going "dum dum dum dum dum dum dum de dum....". Insane, I tell you.

So anyways, the tune was still in my head last night and so I did the only thing I could do. I wrote a poem. Along the same tune. Here it is.

Soul mates, mind games
reading into everything
Sun signs, star signs
telling me what my future brings.

Oh! I'm so tired
of counting the days.
I'd rather smile at the rain
it's here anyways.

Mistakes, outtakes
all the time so serious
Good sense, balance
leave no room for silliness

Oh, I'll take my chance
chasing blue skies
put me in life's hands
let it catch me by surprise

So,
slow down, mellow down
pick some flowers along the road
Each day, every day
has a story yet untold.

Oh! don't you see
that you can be free.
Laughter and patience
and hope is all you need.

And so to bed (a couple of hours later)