Morning Run

I drop Peyton off at school and drive to the park that is shaded by beautiful pecan trees. I sit in the truck watching the usual crowd walk by. The little couple Mike and Mary bend down to rescue a worm that might get squashed on the path and carefully place him onto a branch of a tree. A man named Jay lumbers by with his sansabelt slacks and Spurs hat. Stella struts by wearing her pink sponge rollers, but she is still so cute. Two young moms pushing strollers leave a trail of cheerios and fishy crackers……Do I really want to do this? I ask myself. I put on chapstick, my sunglasses, set my watch and grab my bandanna that will soon be soaked with sweat. I don’t see my running buddy Martha, so I am on my own to run around the little path like a gerbil smiling and waving to the familiar faces while counting the laps and ignoring the ache in my back and hips. I could stop now, I think……only my running journal would know, or I could walk a mile or two. I try to find some motivational music on my iPod…….Wilco? U2? Band of Horses? Coldplay? Sam Roberts sings “Brother Down” and does his best to get  me going and then I see two boys that have started running and I forget about my creaking joints as I try to keep pace with them. Before I realize it, 6 miles have gone by and I feel like the tin man who has just had a tune up. It takes longer to get loosened up, but I wouldn’t trade my morning run for a million dollars.

What I Read About When I Read About Running

I always thought that having to exercise daily and battle the bulge was a curse, but I am reading a great book that has given me these cool little insights that will stay with me and encourage me and I just want to share this info that should be obvious, but never was to me. First I want to give a little of my running and reading history.

I never thought I would ever take that first step, but being newly married to an energizer bunny, I HAD to do something to increase my stamina, one way or another.  When I started running, I could not run to the refrigerator from the couch without going into oxygen debt. Belong long, I was hooked and when I wasn’t running up to 10 miles a day, I was reading about running the rest of the day. I started a collection of books and magazines that could fill a library. I saved every one of them and stored them in a huge wooden chest that Moye gave us. When we moved to the ranch after about 16 years of running and reading about running that chest was pretty hefty. I could not part with a single issue of Runner’s World or any other publication that mentioned the word RUN. They are long gone now. It took 6 pall bearers to carry them away as I mourned the decision to recycle these words of encouragement that had guided me through milestones and marathons, but had not been touched since we moved. I have never stopped running and loving my daily runs, but have not really been inclined to read anything other than my lifelong subscription to Runner’s World. While walking through Border’s Books the other day, I was intrigued by this book:

I was hooked by the first page, and as I get further along, Haruki Murakami allows me to see many of my shortcomings and struggles to be blessings in disguise. Anyone who loves to run, read, write or all three like me,  would enjoy this book. I bought it in Borders and will probably buy another one on Amazon to share because this copy is MINE forever to be buried with me. I promise not to add my library of self help books to the load……

Wicker Park & Bucktown

Last week  was spent vicariously enjoying a great time  had by Chicago’s Golden Boy.  Christopher  moved from what I considered an amazing place on N. Michigan Ave. to an even more energetic  location for the 20 something crowd. Bucktown is already  sounding like a faster paced totally fun place to live. I’m just glad it’s him living there and not me because then I would have to feel very sorry for him  here….at home….slopping the hogs, like his Dad and I. 

  In between packing and moving, he sprinted over to Grant Park to run the Terrapin 5k race on Thursday night. I would have liked to just go there and eat the pizza, Cherry Garcia ice-cream  and listen to the Grateful Dead cover band at the after party. Can you believe the race packets had tie-dyed T-shirts and other stuff?  Read about  it and even see the results here. I checked it out……Chris Parish time:24:11. That is a 7:47 jet pace……A great way to celebrate the move to N. Milwaukee Ave. was to enjoy  the Wicker Park Fest . Great music, food and an opportunity to meet the neighbors and be hip to the latest styles. Mullets really got it goin’ on!

Lots of  shiny happy people and ……on Sunday  a concert by  Back Yard Tire Fire.

To round out the week-end, there was a baby shower for friends Ross and Hailey. What better place to meet girls who want to settle down?

Run, RCP, RUN!!!!!!!

RCP

Peace and Power

It would be great to have both. World peace and the power to protect it would be paradise. Even as a person it is hard to have both. I know I don’t. I think my friend Martha does. She has been through more heartbreak than any one I have met, but her faith keeps getting more powerful with every challenge. We have deep conversations on our daily runs, and whether the topic is sex,religion or politics we don’t have to edit our details and opinions. Of-course I prefer talking about movies,music, food and sex, but even the other two subjects that are often ruinous to a friendship can be “no importa nada” 

Creo que si

Dana and Martha

What does bother me though is that when we are running together she flies like a little deer and I look more like Sponge Bob Squarepants……

The Power Of Pink

I hope I can type this without crying….but who cares I am home alone. Peyton is with Hannah banana and Tom is at the HEB awesome guy that he is. Anyway, this morning Tom and I ran the Power Of Pink 5 K race in Floresville. We attached a large sticker to our shirts that said “I am running in honor of Moye Hinkebein” and this is the part that gets me…..We love her so much and there were people in their 90’s and all ages there that were more than 19 year  survivors and everytime they said their name a pink balloon was released. They were walking and running and looking awesome and right before the race a girl with looooong beautiful hair said now I’m going to get my hair cut. They cut off her loooong pony tail and she cried because she was so happy to give her “locks of love”. I almost stepped up there and offered them my scraggly braid, but I didn’t but we ran and prayed for all the beautiful sweet people who put on this great event!

Where were you when the Rock ‘N Roll was going on?

Here I was on race day, the winner’s were probably half way through the marathon……*DNF (did not finish)

 

When is breakfast going to be ready?

Rock ‘N Roll Marathon

 

Sara and John

Congratulations to Sara and John!!!!! We are so proud of you!!!!!! You rock!!!!!!

 

 

Looking great, John!!!!!

 

Way to go, Sara!!!!!!

Con Fuego

 

where's the fire?

My morning run turned out to be more of a work out than I had imagined it would be. I had only gotten about one mile from our house, and I saw flames coming towards me. Peyton was home, that was my first thought. The wind was blowing strong in our direction.  I set a personal record getting home, calling the fire department and the neighbors. We ended up losing 700 acres that day. Neighbors and several volunteer fire departments from surrounding counties battled the flames all through the night. The following day, a row of  round hay  bales continued to fuel the fire behind our neighbor’s house. It was a blessing that no one was hurt and the horses, cattle and other livestock were not affected. The homes suffered smoke damage, but the amazing men and women who worked through the night were able to disc sufficient fire breaks to prevent the fire from spreading further.

Bacon Bits

Pigs are smarter and cleaner than dogs, so the article said. Some are more affectionate than cats and make great house pets. Miss Piggy is an exception to that rule. Our pig is not a hugger but she does like to be read to. I  read an article to her  about the benefits to being single and I think all she heard was…blah,blah,blah…when you are single the leftovers are all yours!!!!. That’s when I got her attention. She did fall in love once or twice. The first time she saw a potential mate, she was desperate to get his attention. She first gave herself a mud bath and skipped to the chase by attacking “him”. He had the same physique as her, barrel shaped with tiny legs, although he appeared to be napping which is her second favorite hobby next to slopping. They already  had so much in common. It was better than on-line dating, she didn’t have to rely on an out dated photo retouched and manipulated beyond recognition…..Here he was a few feet in front of her. Not one to ever be called shy she launched herself on top of him, only to have him roll away from her as fast as she could stay mounted. This courtship went on for an hour. She was in the best shape of her life. If I had thought to strap on her pig-o-meter, I know she would have run a 10K during this whirlwind romance. She had no clue that Romeo was not interested. He was shallow and plastic, like so many pigs these days. Her heart break was short lived. We shared a gallon of ice cream and then I told her that she could learn a valuable lesson from this relationship. It’s what’s inside that counts. The good news was that he held the capacity to fulfill her dreams of a life time. He eventually flipped for her and she saw what I was trying to tell her. He was as fake as a mechanical bull, but she learned that when you fall you need to get back on and ride again. She could run and she could ride, this would prove valuable for her next major crush…..

Comfort food rules…..once again

Learning To Fly

…..but I’m not Sky

I know that eventually I will be “lifted up on Eagle’s wings” but in the meantime I can’t get the nursery rhyme “Ring Around The Rosie” out of my head because the ending is true. We all fall down, sometime.  Whether when we took our first steps with our parents cringing ready to scoop us up or on purpose holding hands in a circle on the playground. I didn’t go to kindergarten, so everything I learned before the first grade, I learned from my Mamacita. I’m still learning. Thank you, Mom for taking careful steps and for  taking your vitamins and drinking your Starbucks and the Capri’s ’cause you love them. Thank you for ALWAYS coming to my horse shows where I would crash over those jumps. As a sister, I could hardly stand the Motocross races with my Bubbas flying sideways over those huge berms. Now, as a Mom I don’t know how you did it. Alone and always there….Last summer was fun reading Christopher’s blog. Too bad I could not be there in Costa Rica to watch him dive off cliffs, surf 50 foot waves and run from the alligators that lurked outside his motel room. I missed the barroom brawl and a few hurricanes that raged while he was there. Thank goodness for the weather channel. Now that he is in Colorado, I can relax knowing that he is safe, except for the snowboarding, mountain biking and kayaking. We know, Mama it doesn’t get any easier for us no matter how old our babies are. I didn’t mean to get so heavy, I just wanted to say that after I took a dive yesterday and laid on the road inspecting my road rash, I couldn’t get that nursery rhyme out of my head. I’m GREAT, just a few bruises. I bumped my lip, though and I couldn’t wait to hobble home to look in the mirror and see if I looked like Angelina Jolie!!!  Not a chance…

 So, friends and family, I love you all and I for one only want to fall onto the couch or the bed, but even that can be a bummer!