Chug-along-chica!

I was feeling a little bit uninspired today..  I spent the day walking around a museum with my kiddos and my dad.  It got me all tired and I was feeling kind of like just not running.  SOOOO I got on the blog and started reading some of the entries for some of the from-the-start bloggers.  Paul, Cody, Jon, and DANG Kory Wheatley!  Have you seen his blog?  He's all "yeah, so I broke my elbow, but as long as I didn't move my arm too far, I could still run." !!!!!!!  That's some serious dedication for you, right there.  Seriously, that guy has running in his SOUL.  So of course after reading that I absolutely could not keep from dragging my sorry hiney out the door. This is what I admire most about runners.  People who run tend to be awesome. They have a level of self-mastery that is rare, I think.  That is really what I want.

Speaking of awesomeness, did you know that Mitt Romney runs 3 miles every day? You may not think that is a lot, but please remember that he is 65 years old (seriously!) and fairly (I would say) busy. And please also remember that it has been said the man has absolutely no athletic ability, so it is the excellence of his mind that is getting him out there every day.  President Obama runs too, I think, and he is fairly awesome, too.  Not as a president, of course, but as a public speaker and general public figure.  I wonder who would win in a footrace?  I think Obama is much younger, but I think Mitt is tougher mentally.

Maidenly run in the evening at my parent's house. I am starting to miss James! 

Tonight the kids all had a fun time painting in their bath.  It was so cute.  You take a muffin tin (6), fill up the containers with white shaving cream, put in a couple of drops of food coloring, and stir it up.  Then they get a paintbrush and go to town on the bathtub wall.  I got the idea off of Pinterest, of course.  Everything awesome for kids is on Pinterest.  It's the sum of all awesome motherly knowledge.

Night running in New Mexico in the cow field.  Seriously.  I think I burned a few extra calories jumping over the forensic evidence of a couple of cows that must be preparing for a colonoscopy.  But it was a calm, quiet jog, punctuated only once by a bouquet alla skunk that had me quite alarmed.  I thought, Lybi. this is no time to freak out.  All great runners are attacked by skunks at some point.  Hahaha.  But isn't it true?  Have YOU ever had a skunk incident?

Nice, cool run.  Yummy.  I am starting to feel the enjoyment of running...how it wakes you up and gets you to really breathe for pretty much the only time all day.  I am really savoring the cool because I know full well what is coming in the next few months in Mesa, AZ:  90 degrees. Even at 5 am!  Oh, well....90 degrees is a great temperature for the cultivation of self mastery, no doubt.

I smelled the skunk again tonight, in a different place.  I think I've got a dang skunk stalker!  A skulker! Tomorrow will be our last encounter, Saturday we go home.

James flew in to New Mexico tonight.  Never was a husband greeted more enthusiastically.  My enthusiasm-meter goes higher than most people, I'd wager.

We went for a late night jog, but James' calf was bugging him, so he walked.  I had to slow down a little to be with him, but not that much, 'cause his legs are like twice as long as mine.  I was a little sad to see that I was running so slow that he could keep up walking, but then I thought, well, I'm putting in enough effort to make my nose all runny, so it COUNTS.

The stars were really bright & pretty.

2 weeks since I started running again, and I didn't miss a single day...*muffled cheers*  

We drove home tonight, so it was kind of a long day that went like this: wake up, pack, drive drive drive, break up fight, drive drive, unpack, get kids down, feed assorted small pets, plop down on the couch and watch "Star Trek" with James, and then LATE run.

The first half of our run there was a strong wind from the South, and wouldn't you know it, there are pig farms 10 miles south of us.  But it smelled like they were across the street.  I actually began to wonder if there was as much oxygen in the foul air.  Nasty.

The second half of our run, the wind shifted and the air was crystal clear and cool.  BUT there was a lot of noise, like when there's a big football game and people are all cheering in stereo from many different houses.  Except there was no football.  It was just St. Patrick's Day and there were a bunch of drunk loud people.  And many of them were out of the house, being ridiculous and loud AT US as we passed.  I am so grateful I wasn't alone.  Then I thought, man, I should have been grateful for the pig smell that was driving them indoors.  Then I thought, wow, I actually prefer pig stench to drunk people.  How weird is that?  Then I thought, hmm, if every time someone wanted a drink they reached for pig stench first......eventually they would stop craving alcohol.  Do you guys think about weird stuff like that on your runs?