well, not saddle, really, but running shoes.

 

I ran yesterday for the first time since I ran the marathon. Not far, not fast, and yet I did feel a little soreness last night after running. Which kinda surprised me. I mean, a mere 3 weeks ago I was averaging 30 miles a week, so I should be in relatively good shape, right? Well, it's not that I'm not in shape, it's that little bit of soreness that surprised me.

 

I'm fine today. Have to get out and work on a photography assignment that I don't want to do, but homework is homework, right? have no idea where to go to do this, but I have to figure it out before nightfall.

 

I see my husband has popped up online, I'm gonna go chat with him......

 

 

 

more again later.....

I miss my husband. I miss him when I get up on Sunday mornings and get myself a cup of coffee. When he's home, I drink my coffee, sometime even two cups, before he rolls out of the sheets and begins his routine of teasing me and making me laugh.  Sometimes he's a little sleepy-eyed and not sure what time it is. Sometimes he's wide awake, rearing to go. Sometimes he just wants me to come back to bed to lay back down and do some snuggling. Sometimes we fall back asleep, sometimes we watch some crazy ass show or some crazy ass movie, and sometimes we do what lovers do.

 

Not that the temperatures of late lend themselves to the activity, but I miss riding on J's motorcycle. I see some nut jobs out on the streets all wrapped up, looking uncomfortable, but I hear the engine roar, and I miss J. I don't know what he does or where he goes sometimes when he's out on a ride, but I do know that his bike turns heads and he's a proud chopoper rider. When we go out together, all I know is that I LOVE riding behind him.  A part of me wants to get a bike of my own so we can ride together, but a bigger part of me wants to just remain a happy passenger behind him.

 

I miss cooking for him. He's always such an enthusiastic lover of whatever concoction I put on a plate. I could boil worms together with potatoes, calll it goulash, and he'd ask for seconds. Not that my cooking is as bad as worms and potatoes (surely that's not a real combination anywhere in the world, right?), but it's the fact that no matter what I prepare, he's always appreciative.

 

Because of this current deployment, he missed most of my training for my marathon, he missed my marathon, but right now he's missing all my clothes no longer fitting right cause I've toned up everything on my body.  Still no runway model, I, but J's always been great for my ego, he compliments me, admires my body, and makes the exact right amount of lewds comments that only a wife (ME! ) could appreciate.

 

We were talking the other day (online chat, what else?), about how much away time we have shared. Only a military couple could do that: talk about all the away time vs. all the together time. Anyway, we both agree that our relationship isn't endangered, like sadly so many military couples are. I think what we both silently wonder is what will we do when there are no more deployments.

 

I guess what I'm saying is that I woke up this morning, poured myself a cup of coffee, and realized again how much I miss J.

 

 

 

more again later......

 

 

I ran my race last Sunday. Five and a half months of training culminated for me at 6:02 Sunday morning when the fireworks went off and we all (all 13,000 of us) took off to run 26.2 miles. I was so excited, and nervous too. I woke up at 3:30 in the morning, it was already 68 degrees. It was only gonna get warmer, and it did. Boy oh boy did it ever. It was 85 degrees by 10:30, and runners were dropping out like leaves in fall. Experienced runners, first time racers, young and old alike, just couldn't handle the heat. But more on that later. So the race began and we were off. I was overwhelmed by the number of runners. I was overwhelmed I was one of them. I was in a crowd of over 13,000 people all looking to run 26.2 miles. (Most faster than me.) When I crossed the starting line, I thought about all the running I did to get to this point, I thought about all the preparation I did, and all I had to do was get to the other end of the race and I would be a marathoner. Seemed oh so easy at 6 in the morning. Well, the race started warm, and I figured it would be in my best interest to conserve myself as much as possible so that when the sun did come up and start to beat down on us I'd have something left in my tank for the finish. I had the thought that I would run my race in the area of 5:30 to 5:45. HA! Right. Maybe if it were cooler, sure. But it was warm at the beginning of the race, and oh, yeah, did I mention the humidity? It's January 7th, for pete's sake!!!! Hot and humid, that I did in the summer, not so much a winter combo in my mind. So comments began. All the runners were commenting on how hot it was. Already at the beginning of the race! But I just wanted to run this thing, so I ignored the negative and kept putting one foot in front of the other.

 

Disneyworld Marathon. If there is a marathon race to run, this is it. First of all, it's in Disneyworld, so there is SO much to look at on the course (except for that one stretch...but i'll get to that). Second of all, it's Disneyworld!!!! There were all the characters sprinkled over the course, for photo ops during the race. I had my picture taken with Mickey and Minnie, with Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers, and with Mary Poppins. I had my picture taken with "Red" the parrot, a turtle, and a hawk. I had my picture taken a few more times, but as the miles passed, the less I wanted my picture taken. I was getting real hot and tired, and putting a smile on for the camera seemed so....not what I wanted to do.

 

Anyway, there were the characters, the scenery, the bands. There were three marching bands from local high schools. Not marching, just playing for the runners. I love marching bands. It's why I watch the Rose Parade every year. So listening to the bands as I ran by, it made me smile. There was a Beatles band, they tried to look like the originals, but the wigs were so ... wiggy. Maybe it was cause it was so hot? There was a steel drum band, who doesn't love a steel drum, right? There were roaming bands of cheerleaders, nice thought on paper, but really, after 6 hours of running and 4 miles to go, cute perky little girls shaking pom poms wasn't the motivator I needed. Cute perky shirtless firemen with water hoses spraying us down would have been a better motivator.

 

There is a running group called Team In Training. Runners do fundraising for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. They wear purple shirts, and it's not hard to find 'em in the pack.  Many of the runners in the group run because they personally know someone affected by the diseases. So, many of them had messages written on their shirts, and one made me cry (I cried alot on this race, maybe that's why it took so long for me to finish?). On his back he wrote: If you think 26.2 is hard, ask my mom about chemo.  I cried.

 

Another runner wrote: I'm running this in memory of my dad. And as I passed her, I told her I was running in memory of my dad, too. I cried.

 

Another runner wrote: Dedicated to all the active duty service men and women overseas. I told him my hubby was in Afghanistan, he said he'd keep him in his thoughts. I cried.

 

Some runners were in costume. I saw too many Minnie Mouses, one was a dude. I saw many Tinkerbells, a few were dudes. I saw several Goofy's.  I didn't cry.

 

There was much to look at and plenty to enjoy for most of the race, but there was this one stretch, like from mile 18 to mile 23 that was just plain. It was actually part of a highway that runs past Disneyworld that was closed off to trffic for the duration of the race. Well, it was boring. And hot. And two of the 4 water points on that stretch had run out of water cups so volunteers were poouring water into our mouths. That was ... welll, I was certainly thankful they hadn't run out of water, too.

 

As I had pretty much figured out my finish time was gonna be WAY past whatever I had predicted, I just wanted to gut it out and just finish. the last 4 miles were awful for me. I was hot, I was tired, I was hot (did I mention that allready?) and now, of all things, my left knee started bothering me. And that scared me. I started imagining all sorts of horriblle ailments afflicting my knee, and almost talked myself right off the course. But I labored on, because I JUST WANTED TO FINISH.

 

Which I did. A grueling 7:10:55. So not the time I wanted, but a week after the fact, I am no longer hung up on my time. I finished. That's what matters. I finished. That makes me a marathoner.

 

A week later, here's some more perspective: 26.2 miles is HARD, but it can be done. 13.1 miles is not easy, but it's easier than 26.2. I want to continue running, continue training, but 26.2 is not a distance I'll repeat. Half-marathons will be it for me.

 

I hope to run the Disneyworld Half Marathon next year.