Trailin'

I barely have time to keep the last breath of life into this blog and wrtie about things I am doing and I find of interest.  That said there is just no way I am going to write a paper on the roles of the certified nurse midwife pretty much from start to finish in less than 8 hours.  I got nothing.  After, last weeks life sucking saga, I just had the wind knocked out of me.  It's like running a marathon on Sunday and then taking no time off to recover. 

Speaking of running, even with last weeks craziness, I managed to get out for 3 runs/week for the last 3 weeks.  Shocking, I know.  I have slowly been morphing into what feels like a large mass of blob.  I can literally feel my love handles, pulling on my skin as they hang off me, likethe way the last drop of maple syrup hangs on the bottle before you re-cap it.  Anyway, graduation is only 26 light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel days away and then bring on normalcy. 

I had been part of the CRTR running group on FB for about 2 years now and never found the time or cared to check it out, but after digging myself out of the hell hole that is nursing research, I committed myself to meeting Solar Squirrel at lock 29 last night -- no backing out now. Studying had taken such a precedent and time-consuming necessity this last semester, that I started to look forward to urges to go pee, just to have a good reason to break away from it, if only for a few minutes. 

I had run the day before and hard, for me anyway and I had taken a 2.3 (per Garmin) trot around the neighbor hood earlier in the day with Bailey.  As you can see, this is how he spends the majority of the day guarding the house.

 I figured 5 easy miles on the trail with some good running people would be just what I needed to recharge for my research paper and nursing process recording.  It was completely dark, but with over 30 people, there were plenty of lights.  I was nervous about the pace, but JC, said even out of shape I wouldn't have any trouble with this group, but I found out the route was more like 8ish miles and that is almost a long run for me these days.  Solar and I started running together with Spiderman (her beau) and about 8-10 others ahead of us.  We did about 1.5 miles on the towpath and road before we started the ascent.  We had been chit-chatting and catching-up, but I could feel myself getting tired on the hill and made mention I was probably gonna have to slow.  Surprisingly, SS said "me too" (truthfully, I think she was just keeping me company).  The front of the group broke away and we couldn't see them and there was the majority behind us, so we ended up running in a group of about 8.  We never got lost for more than a 100 meters or so and I only fell once.  We ended up rolling through 8+ miles in no time and I was bummed it was over so soon, but excited to continue my fun night out at the Winking Lizard with old friends and new ones. 

I really want to try and attend this group again soon, but with another exam next Friday morning in critical care and Thanksgiving the following Thursday, it looks like I will have to wait a few weeks.