Given the title of this piece, I really wish that I was talking about an awesome race I had…or some transcendant run that was meant to be 8 miles but ended up being 18. Alas, such is not the case. The fastest Christmas ever took place between 3:00 AM on Christmas Day and 7:30AM on December 26th; these were my arrival and departure times from my apartment in New York. Though I am proud to have lapsed the 24 hour mark, this was undoubtedly the shortest period of time I have had with my family around this wonderful holiday. Strangely, though, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement amongst us that no one was allowed to do anything but relax and enjoy the family. No one ran errands, no one worked, no one took phone calls. The extent of our travels outside was a quick walk around the block with our faithful (13 year old) puppy Toby. We made and ate dinner together, played a new board game, talked about our trip in January. I’m not one to call something perfect, but I would feel comfortable calling the day idyllic. The only downside to the glory of this day, however, was the pain created in the quick separation the next morning, in the unceremonious goodbye to be Dad who was still sleeping when I kissed him on the forehead goodbye. That part was not so fun.
Enough with the mushy, gushy stuff though…onto the running! I had to take Saturday off because I effectively drove from home to work, but that left me with a full tank of gas for Sunday morning. I took on 12.6 miles at a 7:40 and felt pretty great. It was cool and misty, which is my favorite running weather; you never get hot and you never get thirsty. My knees were a bit sore because of the moisture in the air but that was relatively insignificant. The run seemed to kick start my metabolism and my brain, which was awesome. More than that, the streets were quiet on account of the holiday, and I cruised through sidewalks without having to avoid anyone or anything. My only note is that I am noticing how threadbare my shoes are becoming, and it’s probably time to bite the bullet and get some new shoes. Maybe tomorrow I’ll sneak out to Lexington to the Greater Boston Running Compnay and pick up some new kicks. I’ve also been eyeing a new Garmin watch for training. I can definitely get one on Ebay, or just use Nike+, but I’m a sucker for shiny new toys.
More importantly, today I’m upping (ahem, starting) my fundraising efforts with a simple mailer to put in all of the mail boxes of my apartment building. After that, I plan to talk to several old friend from my home town and to start putting up fliers in coffee shops in the area. I know that it’s a complete long shot but I figure it can’t hurt to post up anywhere possible. After that, I’ll talk to some local running shops and see if they have any idea. I swear, I am not going to be a deadbeat fundraiser!!!
That’s all for now…move to come soon!!
