Back to life, back to reality

One of the downsides of impending winter is the decreased light and the inability to effectively tell time by the amount of light in your bedroom. We all woke up at 7:30, which meant the oldest nugget missed his bus, which means Mr. Sometimes Runner had to drive him to school, which means he’ll be later picking him up from after-care, which makes the evening more hectic (since I’m teaching tonight). Of course the ankle-biters woke up between 5 and 6:30 AM every other day of vacation. Sigh. So it’s a bit of a stumbling return to the daily grind. Holiday hangover is real, friends (and that’s without drinking!).

It’s been a bit of time since the last post. As much as I thought about it, it just seemed more work to post amongst the flurry of activity with children home, in-laws visiting, cooking, and still trying to get my runs in. I hope everyone was able to survive!

The last remnants of snow melted earlier in the week. The final leaves of fall have also been taken down as well. The ginkgo trees in particular held on the longest and then let go all at once (the mass of yellow leaves in the picture below). Grossly, the berries are still smashed into the sidewalks stinking up everything. I would really like to know the evolutionary reasons for why those berries have to smell so foul.

It got warm right away, and I actually ran Thanksgiving Day in a t-shirt and shorts (I was a tiny bit cold as it was also sprinkling a bit). Still, I got to enjoy the last shreds of shorts weather we’ll probably see for a bit. I actually did this run as a tempo run (well, as tempo as I’ve been getting lately, ha). I was feeling the tiniest bit of speed and the cold made me want to finish faster, so it was nice to feel like I was getting some of my speed back.

Jen and I also ran the day after Thanksgiving to a steady drizzle. Like good little consumers, we incorporated a stop at our local women’s running store where Jen bought a Handful bra (which I then got suckered into running with in my pocket for 4 miles). Like the losers we are, we also managed to wear our matching Mother Runner hats. As you can see, it was cold enough that the misty rain on the hats froze over a bit. It was good to get out, and running in the rain (particularly cold rain) always makes me feel a bit hardcore. One thing I did look at in the store was breathable rain gear, but I realize I’m too cheap to invest in the good stuff. I own rain gear, but it’s either waterproof (and essentially akin to running in a plastic bag) or it’s water-resistant and lets in some moisture. One day, when I am a rich and famous blogger (hahahahahaha), someone will gift me better gear. In the meanwhile, you’ll see me with a clingy rain jacket sweating buckets or looking slightly angry at the chilled wetness.

It must have been the holiday of Jen because then we also decided to check out one of the local barre studios. We had bought a Groupon for 3 classes a couple of months ago, and of course we waited until the last day to redeem it. Typical. It was fun to see two other ladies from our running group, Jeanette and Jennifer (Jennifer also ran Ragnar the last two years with me) in the class. I guess you had to have a name start with J to be in the class 🙂 The instructor, Carmen, is also a BFF member!

This was the first barre class ever for Jen and me. It was hard!! Carmen had us do a bunch of glute stuff, which also totally ass-kicked our weak runner’s hips. We were grimacing for a good deal of the class.  I’m not as sore as I thought I would be today, but I can definitely feel the effects. We’ve been talking about incorporating more core and strength training into our training plan… I didn’t love it, as I tend to like more cardio-based workouts. However, for 50 minutes of pumping music and having someone else lead, it’s not bad. We bought a 3-pack, so we’ll go two more times. After that, we’ll see. It’s not cheap!

Last, but not least, we actually went to a restaurant for Thanksgiving, which made Thanksgiving Day relaxing. However, because I love Thanksgiving food so much, we also cooked a turkey breast and some sides on Friday. Mr. Sometimes Runner’s favorite part about that is the wishbone. Here, he wrestles the 6-year-old for domination (he lost).

Training is coming along. I actually had two runs last week that were paced under 9 minute miles. I’ve been feeling super slow and heavy lately (nothing to do all the eating, I’m sure) so I was happy to get some speed back that didn’t make me feel like I was dying. Just being under 9 is hardly “speed,” but lately I’ve been doing some runs at 9:45 so it’s speedy enough. Overall, though, I’m still not feeling like I’m really in training mode yet. Technically, I’m on a training plan but it’s just base mileage right now and I’m not following it all that closely. I have to be careful I’m not being too loosey-goosey about it, though, as I realized I didn’t even run 30 miles last week. My 10 mile long run Saturday felt hard–in the sense that I never hit my groove. I never got into the non-thinking auto-pilot you get with long runs. I was thinking about my mileage the whole time. Jen had the same struggle so we just complained about it for most of the run. Misery loves company.

Anyhow, friends, here’s to getting back on schedule and working through this training rut. The grey wet weather isn’t helping, but at least it’s not bitterly cold yet.

I also know that running is a way for me to deal with all the craziness in the world–both within my family and within my larger community. The chaos of what’s going on in Chicago between the video of Laquan MacDonald’s shooting and today’s closing of the University of Chicago campus because of a potential shooting makes me realize there are definitely larger issues impacting us. So I will use my run today to pray and meditate on hoping for peace. Hope everyone has a chance to do the same.

A Call to “Arms” for Justice-Minded Runners

There is a big controversy in a small intersection of American current issues right now–marathon runners and some Black Lives Matters activists. It’s going around that Black Lives Matters protestors are intending to disrupt the Minneapolis Marathon runners this weekend. They will attempt to disrupt the race to get their message out in a way that can’t be ignored. I won’t get into whether I agree with this tactic or not. As a person of color who supports the #BLM movement AND as a distance runner, I can see both sides. What I can’t see is how runners can be SO vitriolic, hateful, racist, classist, and awful in their reactions to this possible action. There are many many examples of this online, but here are a few from a few Facebook groups I am part of.

People deriding this “peaceful” protest as not peaceful, but then threatening the protestors with violence.

Out of the hundreds of comments, I only saw a few that even attempted to engage with why people might feel the need to do this (first comment).
What hurt me more was that this was Facebook, not “anonymous” Internet comments. You have a name and picture attached to your comment (I debated not blurring them out, but i wasn’t sure what legal protocol was). And while I didn’t find the same violent reaction from one of my own local running groups, I did find a reticence to engage with the desperation to be heard and a desire to trump the rights of runners over the protestors–going so far as to call the action “sad and ridiculous.”

I can’t stand by and do nothing. I can’t talk about my sympathies with the movement and not address the ugliness of some of the running community’s response to this. I’m not running the Minneapolis Marathon, so I can only speculate what I would do if the race got stopped by protestors. I would like to think I would stop and march alongside. It is one race. One race in a lifetime of races. A lifetime that people like Michael Brown don’t have anymore. A race that some people can’t even afford the registration for to “jump in and run alongside.” But I AM running Chicago. And I have the opportunity to show that I can be a runner AND raise awareness of the Black Lives Matter cause. So I’m going to run the Chicago Marathon with a black arm band with #BLM. And I ask those of you who believe this issue is an important one to run your next race with one as well. In fact, bring others. Let the world know that not all runners are so awful and hateful. That we can also work and run for peace and justice.

For practical purposes: I cut up a tech shirt and used white paint to mark the letters. I intend to Body Glide the heck out of it to make sure it doesn’t chafe. I also thought about using my black arm warmers and may if it’s cold.

It won’t be the first time running and race have collided.