Rocks, bathrooms, and chickpeas

Woohoo yesterday was my 100th post. Years ago (in the early 00’s) I tried to write a blog called “Lady of the House.” I think I wrote 3 posts over the same number of months.

I did the kids’ laundry the other day. When I transferred the wet clothes into the dryer, these lovely surprises were left behind at the bottom of the washer drum. Cuz you know. Rocks. I’m not sure which kid they belonged to, and I’m just grateful it wasn’t a melted tube of Chapstick.

I had long wanted our running group to post up signs in the windows of their homes to mark “this is a house you are welcome to make a pit stop at.” After 3 years, that dream came to fruition. We had our annual winter “how to dress for cold weather running” fashion show, and that is where we debuted the signs. We printed and laminated 20 signs with the BFF logo on them, and the 20 have already been claimed! I love that 20 people are willing to have potential strangers come to their house at odd hours to destroy their bathrooms. THAT is community, people. 🙂

Any runner with their salt will be able to share some horror story of a locked bathroom or not being near any facilities. As I started getting back into marathon training 3 years ago, I found myself utilizing full knowledge of where various BFF’ers lived to get some “relief.” There is always a post every couple months about others struggling with GI issues and emergency stops. And let’s just say that we are lucky that there is always so much construction going on in the area, because those port-a-potties come in handy when the park bathrooms close. HA.

Anyhow, yesterday’s run was devoted solely to dropping off some of the signs. It ended up only being 4 miles, but I stuck them in my race pack and enjoyed the run. It felt a bit like the Pony Express. Without the pony. Or old-school Greek messengers (by the way, why did they use foot messengers? Why not horses?). It was a gorgeous day, though, and I ran into two BFF friends walking their kids home from preschool. Mr. Sometimes Runner and I have talked about we love the density of our community and how we see people we know all the time…Although someone honked and waved furiously at me the other day, and I didn’t recognize the car and couldn’t see the driver very well. Black Nissan? Anyone anyone?

Finally, I’ve been experimenting with eating more vegetarian. I don’t want to claim to be going vegetarian because that is more commitment than I am ready for right now. However, yesterday was the second day in a row of being meatless. On the menu was chickpea croquettes/cakes (mostly ground up chickpeas, eggs, scallions, garam masala, and a shallot). They were pretty good, but the kids weren’t fans. I was also dismayed to realize after eating them that I had not connected wheat with the fact I had put breadcrumbs in them. I know, that sounds ridiculous, but I really hate cooking and it’s a bit of a disaster when I cook, so I wasn’t really thinking. Still, not huge amounts, but things to keep aware of.

Anyhow, it’s hump day. This week, honestly, already feels too long for me, so yay for getting to the midpoint! Hope everyone has a great day!

Would you put up bathroom signs for potential runner strangers to come to your house? 

You know you have a good running group when you can do emergency pit stops unannounced on a run

It’s inevitable. The long run. Bathroom emergencies. It happens to all of us, the best of us, and the rest of us. Running for long distances–or even short distances–tends to, ahem, help move thing along. I have honed my early morning pre-run ritual to a point where it’s usually not an issue. However, today’s run didn’t happen until late morning because of my friend’s childcare issues. [Aside: Annoying how things like kids and parental responsibilities get in the way of your long run. I mean, you gave birth to them, now you have to actually watch and care for them?!] Anyhow, long story short, I was running a long run at a time I usually don’t. So at about mile 12, things got serious. Looking over my splits, mile 12 was the fastest…

Anyhow, so we had two choices: 1) Sprint over the one vaguely hill-like piece of road within several square miles on the way to the nearest coffee shop or 2) Stop unannounced at a friend’s house around lunch time and hope they were home AND ok with their bathroom being used. Fortunately, this home also belonged to that of a runner so little explanation would be needed. Obviously, I chose the latter.

I rang the doorbell and cringed, as she has a baby and it was approaching nap-time and the dogs (forgot about the dogs!) went crazy hearing the bell. And then her husband (why didn’t I think about that?!) answered the door. “Uh, hi, can I use your bathroom? Um, is Julianne here?” Keepin’ it classy. Yup. He was very nice about it, as I bolted past him to the back bathroom, hollering hello to my friend in the kitchen. A very brief time later, with a refilled water bottle and a renewed sense of enjoyment of life, we were back on our way. I’ve told my running group that we should start putting our logos up in our front windows like the bat signal or safe houses. HA.

The rest of the run was pretty uneventful. My friend Jen and I were pretty excited to get some trail running in (though not really “trail,” it’s paved, but it goes through woods) and get off the concrete. We were nervous that not all of the snow had melted, but with the exception of a couple slushy spots, it was clear. This was good as we were doing tempo for 11 of the 14 miles. In nervous anticipation, we had both brought headphones but ended up being able to run and talk the whole time. Thank God for great running friends and great runs!

The only hiccup (besides the emergency pit stop) was that I had somehow routed us a couple miles short (I’m usually the “routemaster” on long runs), but we quickly figured out how to plug in the extra 2 miles before the end. I love how that becomes a runner’s local “superpower.” I’m sure it will come in handy one day in a more meaningful way…

Anyways, in celebration of a great and successful run, we ended with some coffee. However, Jen and I have very different understandings of what is an “appropriate” amount of post-run caffeine intake.

I was even more horrified when she told me it was her first cup of the day. It was 1 in the afternoon. Be still my beating heart. The horror.

Finally, I just have to say how much I have loved the 50 degree weather we have been blessed with the last few days. And while this next picture was taken indoors at the swamp house of the zoo, it still is inspirational for reminding us of the hope of spring and its burgeoning bliss.

What running superpowers do you have?

Do you have emergency pit stop locales? (I’ll refrain from asking for your worst pit stop emergency. We’ll save that one for a rainy day)