I am home sick today. That head cold that was coming on has arrived. Don’t worry, though, because I found comfort on the couch while watching Fame, The Princess Diaries, and the first Harry Potter movie. I also have two buddies who are more than happy to spend the day napping/watching movies.

I intended to attempt a run today, even if I couldn’t go to work, but I really don’t feel up to it. Also, we are having strong thunderstorms, high winds, and a chance of tornadoes this afternoon/evening…. that’s enough for me to stay inside.

Did anyone hear about the Spanish athlete who showed a true display of sportsmanship at a cross country race in December, instead of taking advantage of another competitor’s mistake? I came across this article through the Richmond Marathon facebook page.

Photo from the article “Honesty of the long-distance runner”

Abel Mutai of Kenya, number 7 in the photo, had opened up a gap that made him the sure winner. But then he pulled up 10 meters short, mistakenly thinking he had crossed the finish line. Ivan Fernandez Anaya, the athlete in the green singlet above, was running in second. Mutai’s mistake gave Fernandez Anaya the chance to blow by him and win the race. Instead, Fernandez Anaya used gestures to direct Mutai to the finish line, all while staying behind him.

Fernandez Anaya’s coach, Martin Fiz, stated that although the gesture made Fernandez Anaya a better person, it did not make him a better athlete. Fiz states that “you have to go out to win every time”. However, Fernandez Anaya goes on to explain that at this particular cross country race there was nothing at stake, except maybe bragging rights if he had won (Mutai was a bronze medalist in the 3,000 meter steeplechase at the London Olympics). He states that if there had been higher stakes, such as a European medal, then he would have exploited Mutai’s mistake to win. That’s quite impressive and speaks a lot about his integrity.

I think Fernandez Anaya did the right thing and showed us that even at higher levels of competition winning isn’t everything. Sometimes it’s more important to be a good human being, even if your coach doesn’t approve.

Guess what? It got up to 70 degrees today… That’s right, nothing above freezing all weekend and now it’s like summer outside. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitely not complaining, but could we find a happy medium?

The good news: I got to run in shorts and a t-shirt this evening.

The bad news: Going from below freezing temp’s this weekend to 70 today is causing me to come down with a head cold.

Barry joined me for 3 miles this evening after work. Like I already mentioned, it was warmed up outside which is nice (except for the mud from all of the snow melting). I felt low on energy tonight, but I think that’s got to do with that head cold that’s been coming on. I’ve felt really tired yesterday and today, my throat is buggin me, and my head feels all congested and headachey (that’s a word). Hopefully it’ll just pass.

Here’s the only picture I have for you today:



That’s the view from our deck this evening. There isn’t even a hint of the foot of snow we got over the past 1 1/2 weeks. I guess two sunny 50+ days will do that. The sunset was prettier in person, I promise.

Fly by post tonight. I took a rest day today because I had something more important to do after work this evening:

Scout, our 5 month old Bloodhound puppy, had her final exam for puppy kindergarten. She passed, so then she had graduation along with her class! You better believe there was music 🙂

Barry and I are now the proud parents of two puppy kindergarten graduates. Hank, who is now nearly 3 years old, graduated a little over 2 years ago. I was confident Scout would pass today, but Hank was a challenge and we were not so sure he would. I guess boys are more stubborn than girls.

I think the teacher would revoke their certificates if she knew how they really acted at home, though….

We’ll just let her keep on thinking they act more like this:

I met up with my running buddy for a 5 mile run this morning. We had a fun time chatting and catching up, since we couldn’t run together last weekend. I’m so thankful to have a friend to meet up with on the weekends for long runs. Having a running partner holds you accountable on those early mornings when you’d rather stay in bed. They also help the miles pass by and you can support each other when one (or both) of you is having a tough run.

[photo from Pinterest]

Today the trail was in a little better condition, but it was still covered in snow and ice in a lot of spots. We did 3 miles on the trail and then finished up the last 2 around town. The temperature wasn’t too bad either. It was around 20 degrees when we started out, which really wasn’t bad since it wasn’t windy at all. But once we finished our run and stood around talking for awhile, it felt cold. Now I’m warming up with some scrambled eggs with hot sauce and a steaming mug of coffee 🙂

Don’t mind the spot on the counter where I dripped my coffee while pouring it.

Now it’s off to do my typical, very exciting, Sunday routine of cleaning the house!

Today’s post is low on pictures and high on words, but I have some details to share about this morning’s run. I set out to run 10 miles. I can tell you I did run the full 10 miles, but I’m not sure how I drug myself through it. This run was just grueling. I started out on the trail in town, which is covered with about 1.5 inches of snow and in some spots ice as well. I thought I would do somewhere between 5 to 8 miles on the trail and then finish up around town. I was running along, having a fun time identifying various animal tracks in the snow. I was seeing tracks from bunny rabbits, deer, cats, dogs, and a few other I was unsure of. Then a little over a mile in I started seeing a trail of blood. After about a tenth of a mile it stopped and I figured some animal had probably just hurt itself. Then up ahead on the trail I saw two dogs I have never seen before.

Initially I got out my pepper spray, thinking I would just run past them and have it out to use if needed. Just after I got the pepper spray out of my water bottle pouch the blood trail picked back up again, and this time it was a lot more blood. I decided it was possible the dogs up ahead had killed something (maybe a rabbit or cat?), and I was worried that even a friendly dog might be aggressive if it thought I was trying to steal it’s kill by running towards them. Instinct told me to turn around and that’s what I did. I was a little over 2 miles in to my run when I got back to the start of the trail and let me tell you my legs felt done. I told myself that 2.5 miles was just unacceptable when I had set out to do 10, so I should run around town for awhile to see if my legs felt better.

Getting from mile 2.5 to mile 4 was tough, but after that I just started taking it a mile at a time. I made small goals for myself, such as just run up to the grocery store, OK now turn around and run down to that gas station. At times I ran on the road, which was nice, but other times I was forced on to the slushy sidewalk. The slush wasn’t too bad to run in, but when running uphill in it my feet would slip a lot. I think that made it even harder to get up the hills. Before I knew it I was at 5 miles, which is the distance I had told myself to get to and then I could bag the run. But I played a trick on myself…. I was over a mile from my car. I took a quick water break and headed back down the long hill I had just come up (sweet relief!). Somehow I drug myself around town for another 4 miles, by just telling myself just one more mile, and I was back at my car with 9 miles on my Garmin. Obviously after all that I couldn’t stop there, so I headed back out onto the trail for the last mile. 10 miles. Done. I also got to see the train go by in town twice today, which was neat. Trains are so cool. 

I have something exciting that happened yesterday to share with you! My sister in law is in Boston this week helping a friend move. She was posting a lot of pictures from Boston on facebook, so I got the idea to send a request to her through her facebook wall:

I decided not to specifically say what I was looking for, because I thought it would be funnier that way. Turns out she happened to be close by, so she went over and snapped this picture for me!

How awesome is that!? I would love to see it in person some day. Actually running the Boston Marathon would be a dream come true, but I don’t know that I’ll ever be fast enough. We’ll see…. it would be awesome to just get to see the race in person some day. I told my SIL if I was there I totally would have posed in the middle of the road as if I were crossing the finish line. She replied that when she took the picture it was the beginning of rush hour and she wasn’t chancing her life… and added that Bostonians are crazy 🙂 That’s not the first time I’ve heard that said about New England drivers. I used to listen to a podcast called Phedippidations. It was hosted by “Steve Runner” and he would record his shows while running around the roads of New England. It was not uncommon to hear him yell “woah!” as a car passed by too close or to grumble about the way people drive in the area he lives. Irregardless… I would have risked my life for a picture, haha.