Day 8

We celebrated my daughter’s birthday today! Lovely Sarah, starting her new job tomorrow, came over with her boyfriend, Devon, who pulled all if the stops, posting signs in the front yard, helping decorate the house, and coordinating the celebration with us. She’s lucky to have him in her life.

And we’re lucky to have her in our life.

I contributed the chocolate tres leches cake (recipe here). Not necessarily health food, but gooooood!

They left at six, early enough for me to get my walk in, but instead I sat on my couch and started playing in an online poker tournament. If you don’t know, poker is kind of my thing in retirement. The problem is that sometimes I do everything right and the cards don’t reward my superior play. That is what happened tonight.

So after I was felted (a great poker term that I hate because it means I lost), I told Lisa that I was going walking. She looked outside (dark) and looked at me (dressed in black) and the clock (late) and said, “You don’t have to do a long walk tonight, you know.” Acknowledging her concerns, I agreed that I would just go a couple of miles.

It was 53 degrees, so I wore sweatpants and a windbreaker. I decided to wear my old Brooks Trance 11s, which was a mistake - they were petrified running shoes, stiff and unforgiving. I also forgot to apply my anti-chafe stick, which left me rubbing in all the wrong places (more on that another day). My earbuds were bugging me too, probably because I’d accidentally washed them when I threw my workout duds in the washer without checking my pockets (arggh).

Because, for all these reasons, I wanted to get home sooner, I decided it was time for me to start running. 

At a little after the one mile mark in my route, I turned around and launched a tentative shuffle. I had no idea how long I would go, but it wasn’t bad. A little stiffness I my right ankle, but not much breathlessness and I had a nice rhythm going. If you were watching me, you might question whether it was technically “running,” but I enjoyed it and made a full mile before stopping to warm down for the last 150 yards. The split for that second mile was 12:03, which would have been under 12 minutes if I’d started running immediately at the one mile mark. And if I’d used the anti-chafe, I think I could have opened up my stride a little more - maybe not a 11 minute pace, but close.

So yeah, that was the first run of the journey. 51 weeks to the marathon, and I’m 1/26th of the way there.  Woo hoo!

P.S.  Art and Nicole welcomed their daughter home - sweet Maizie. Babies are love magnets, so I am happy for their family! 

And if you want to see the Sherry sisters in about 15 years?  Link here and imagine Maizie on lead vocals, Everly on rhythm guitar, and Isla on lead guitar (and Art telling them to turn it down). It could happen!