Sincerely,
Beth, Honoring the people who gave her life.
As an aside, because I REALLY have a hard time not telling a story when a story can be told!
These are my parents, Mary and Dave.
They are standing amid 90,000 trees we planted as a family (inclusive of the friends who also joined in the adventure) over the course of 4 years. Some lived, some didn't.
Once upon a time the 80 acres they live on, and I grew up on (from the time I was 10), was probably a forest, it was cleared for farm land. Mostly made up of clay, with sections of muck and sand, it drove many of the farmers who farmed it from the late 1700s, after claiming it as part of the Northwest Territory, insane, some to suicide, and others to abandon the property. My parents began the process of reforestation in 1992. They purchased the farm in 1977, and leased the land out for many years.
The reforestation is made up of conifers and deciduous. They are in front of planting #2, deciduous. My middle brother and his family choose their Christmas tree from the farm.
As we took walks around the farm we could see where the good dirt and / or drainage were, the trees took off, where there was bad dirt and /or bad drainage, nothing but scrub, weeds, and thistle.
I enjoyed my walks with my parents the three days I was home for my birthday and for Mother's Day. I think they did too. People often ask why my husband doesn't come with. It is completely selfish on my part. I enjoy this time with me and my mom or me and my dad or me and my mom and dad. These times, now, are going to last me through when they have been turned to ash and scattered across the 80 acres they call home.
My mother is approaching 8 years of living with lung cancer, surprised she is a wee little woman? My father, the skinniest santa claus, is approaching 2 years of living with COPD.
Life is precious, never waste a moment or a step or a breath.
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Notes
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4-May
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TRX
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5-May
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Hills x 9 / Yoga
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6-May
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7-May
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Drive to MI
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8-May
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Walk with Mom
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9-May
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Walk with Mom and Dad
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10-May
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Walk with Mom and Dad
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Total
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Monday - I wasn't feeling much pain, a little sore. The walk with Giz on Sunday night helped work out any residual pain from a 6 mile run/hike. He continues to want to walk, has his bouts of speed and his bouts of crab walking. Fairly easy run down to Avery Point and back. TRX was good, the conversation was cathartic. It's been a while since we had an "airing of grievances" and some thoughts on how to deal with shit that's bugging each of us.
Tuesday - Hills! My knees weren't too keen on this, 1/4 of a mile on my run to pick up Ro and meet the guys for hills and they felt better. Tuesday was 9 repeats. Ro was sweet and gave me some tips on pacing. Now to continually put them in action. Definitely helped for a couple sets, by the last one I was spent. That is just how it should be, right? I do need a bit more hill work, maybe squeeze in some additional sessions on School or just run the hills by my house....
No Stedman's Women's Ride. I was supposed to be in NY for a dinner on Tue night and then present at a meeting on Wed a.m. Well with the tire non-sense, I bent the rim pretty good. If you are going to do a thing, do it well, right? I had to get a new rim. Several calls to several junkyards proved fruitless as of course there are 18 or something equally as obnoxious rims for Vinnie. I bought a new one. Finished up the last of my Christmas money (don't ask from which year) on that purchase. Not wanting to venture the 143 round trip miles to New Haven on the doughnut, considering I had already driven it a considerable number of miles from MA, and managed to stay close to the 50MPH speed, that wasn't going to be happening very easily all the way to New Haven, I explained my predicament and my long history with tires and this is never an easy fix, I was given a pass for the dinner and to call in for the meeting. I had to promise to tell the very first tire story. I dutifully did this and all seemed to be forgiven.
Jennifer and I opted for a little bike maintenance lesson, Yoga, and a trip to Fat Bellies to play Rock and Roll Bingo. Perfect evening, actually. I needed the yoga badly.
Gizzy got his stroll. Yes, he does have me wrapped around his paw.
Wednesday - Presentation went well! Got the new rim installed on the new tire. The new tire was covered under the road hazard warranty. With all this non-sense I couldn't commit to a time to run with Faith. I misjudged the distance and ended up short of 5. Oh well.
The evening was spent reviewing my packing lists and getting all the stuff together for a trip to MI to visit my people.
Gizzy got his walk, of course. I knew I'd miss walking the little emperor for the next 5 days.
Thursday - Drive out to MI. Yes, I drive. I enjoy the drive, mostly. This one was fraught with delays in NJ and PA. I had an interesting book to listen to and just sucked it up and enjoyed the book and the spring time leaves through the Delaware Water Gap, the first delay. The second was on a boring stretch of I-80 so I did a little sight seeing to get around the jam up and that was fun!
Friday - Running after sitting for 14 hours in the car is generally interesting. I was amazed at the pace of the first mile. SO very unlike me. 8:30 or something equally as odd. Has to be a satellite malfunction. The neighbors dogs joined me for the bits where I was at their property line. Wagner's barn cat came out on a tear, I thought for sure it was going to take a swipe at me but their big goofy yellow lab got in it's way. That was odd, and rather amusing! Roger was out plowing his fields so I raced him for the last mile back to my parents farm. I won, I doubt he knew we were racing. I'm sure he'll have something snarky to say at the next neighbors dinner with my parents. All in all a good run. Bugs me that my runs have to be multiples of 5 but hey, you do what you have to do.
Took a walk with mom. The wind got to her a bit more than the heat, it was 86F! We didn't get to far but walked through one of the lesser dense sections of the re-forestation project. There are some pictures on Strava, interesting how they put them on the points on the walk.
Saturday - When I left for my birthday run it was raining. Oh as an aside, a sarcastic aside. Muddy the title was Muddy Birthday Run, not Muddy's Birthday Run... you PRd at Boston, but really does the world need to continue to revolve around you? HA HA HA My dad looked dubious about this being pleasant for me but wished me well and said "See you in a hour." There really aren't many routes out here, they are all multiples of 5 and well I'm good with 5 miles, I didn't want to run 10. Figured I'd see how the barn deconstruction at Dawn's was going and what new tractors Roger bought so I went out to the hard top road and ran till I got back safely on dirt. Dawn's barn was completely gone foundation and all! Roger's tractor collection had grown, his goal is farming 10,000 acres this year. He made 7,500 last.
Dawn had to have her barn razed because long ago, the crazy 150 lb mutt, Roscoe decided he wasn't at all pleased with them burning the pizza box in the bonfire pit. He figured he could lick off the rest of the cheese and sauce? Who knows what goes through a dogs mind. And these people and fire are always fun. I'll have to tell you about her boy's (I used to babysit them) and the blow torch and me having to explain to them why a lit blow torch is not a good thing to carry around in the house. Anyhoodles, Roscoe got the burning pizza box out of the pit and took where he takes his treasures, to the barn! Well you can imagine how this ended up. Part of the barn burnt, the fire department saved it. Pat (her husband) fixed what he could and made it sturdy to house equipment and poultry. In the last decade it has started to collapse, and her grandchildren (Pat has been gone for since 1996, a very long time) are at that age where they explore!
I made 5 miles in what is actually an 8 sided object, an octagon as Gazelle pointed out. I'm not sure if they need to be of equal sides or not, but yes, there were 8 sides!
The rain stopped and the sun came out a bit and the rain predicted for the rest of the day disappeared. I hauled my parents around the farm for a mileish walk. I don't think they had been back to the big forest in a while.
My mom and I sat out by the front pond to get some sun on our feet. Mine glow in the dark from only being outside in running shoes, and hers are the darkest part on her at this point. The neuropathic pain from the chemo really is the worst in her feet and the sun on her feet makes them feel better. She asked if she had ever told me the story of my birth. Why no, mom, you haven't. She shared the story, very cool! Has your mom ever told you the story of your birth?
All in all a very nice birthday.
Sunday - Mother's day! Seeing that I only needed 4 to make it to 30 for the week and I haven't done that in a while, or at all this year, I went out and back for two!
Sincerely,
Beth, just running after thinking I'd have a minimal mile week!
One: Lessons Learned are Lessons Earned
Wow, the world did not end because I quit a race. But damn is it ever hard to even say that word quit. Thanks to friends and my mother things are in perspective:
"I get that you didn't finish the mountain
race. So how did you quit - turn around and go back to your car? I sure can
understand needing to stop when you have had enough - I learned that the hard
way. Love, Mom"
I love learning, and I learned a few more things about myself and other people as a result. Loved the comments I got from various interactions: topping the list: "you're one of the guys"; "you're a strong woman"; "you're playing it smart"; "DNF = Did Not Fail"; among other things... all very much appreciated!
Will I ever tackle those crazy bitches again? Of course, I won't be 'racing' them. That's not my cup of tea. I'll enjoy my runs along sane and sedate Burlingame trails, even more now!
Two: Sportsmanship is important
The mark of an athlete, to me, is how well and quickly they recover and how they treat others. One of my work running friends finished his first 50 miler on Sunday. Rock the Ridge in the Mohonk Preserve in NY State. He finished 15th 8th in his age group. Training for this over the brutal New England winter was quite the challenge for him. I ran into him in the cafe on Monday morning, looking great and fresh, yes, a tad bit stiff. Tuesday he was back to his usual peppy self. I had to comment on how awesome it was he was in the right kind of shape to run the race he ran in the time he ran it for his first go at that distance. I don't think he bothered with the intermediate 50K step!
I remember when I was training for my 50K, Eric always was right there asking questions and encouraging me. I did the same while he was training for his 50 Miler. The gleam of anticipation in his eye when he told me what he had committed to was memorable.
Yeah sure we all have bad days and temporary bad attitudes, they come and go. Holding on to that glimmer of positive does draw in the grouches, I need to remember to not feed on that energy and let them suck the positive out of me.
Three: Blather
Hmmm I don't know if I have a third thing.... Top of mind are yoga and stretching and how important they are and having yoga'd on Tuesday and slept well, I know how much my body misses it... but I don't want to give up my Tuesday rides. So maybe this is about prioritization and compromise?
After my run today I wound up stretching with two gals I talk to fairly often about a variety of things. I generally keep to myself so it was odd to engage with not one but two people at the same time. We talked about cooking and cleaning, and how there is so little time for these domestic chores. One offered to send me the info on her house cleaner, as we live fairly near each other. Someone to dust, vacuum, clean the bathroom and kitchen would be lovely. At least I'd have less guilt about not doing these things as often as I should!
Cooking? I leave that to the weekends, otherwise it is chicken on salad, boom, done. Like I tell Dave, if you wanted a housewife you shouldn't of married me, and he seems fine with that, most of the time.
Sincerely,
Beth, trying this three things Thursday again.
