Three Things Thursday ...

Marathon - Back in 2011, when I ran three marathons including two in one week, I was burned out. I had no desire to ever run another marathon again. I felt like all I ever did was run. And it probably was, logging 45-60 miles per week when you are as slow as I am takes a lot of time.

So, I kicked marathoning to the curb. My focus shifted to triathlon, which in case you didn't know, isn't any less time consuming. Over the past two and a half years, I have watched my friends continue to tackle 26.2 miles and I just sat back and thought, "I'm kind of happy I'm not them." Training (and racing) that distance is draining. And even if you love it, there are days where you just don't. 

But one day last year, I started to miss those high mileage weeks. I wanted to experience running 20 miles in the morning and then rock compression socks all afternoon just to make it through the day. I longed to run for hours with my friends as we prepared for a day of a 1,000 variables and no guaranteed outcome. The grip of the marathon had caught me and was pulling me back in.

So, I did what any logical person would do and I started researching races. When I had it down to three or four options, I took them to my running wife, G, who I knew I could convince rather easily to join me (truth is, she was already thinking 26.2 too). We chose our race, convinced some friends to join us and finally on Tuesday morning, we registered.

Nearly three years to the day since my last 26.2, I will be toeing the line at the Steamtown Marathon. Right now, my only goal is to run a negative split. I'm not the runner (physically or mentally) that I was the last time I did this and I don't really know what a realistic time goal is, so I'm just not going to have one right now. Maybe that will change as the race approaches, maybe it won't. Either way, I'm going to savor the run.

Spring Cleaning - So, I have this thing where I can not sit down and relax in the evening until my house is tidy. Everything needs to be put away. The dishes need to be done. The laundry folded. It's not like I scrub my floors every night, but when things are out of place I feel uneasy, so I make sure nothing is lying around.

What's atypical for me is an undying urge to dust and scrub every surface at 10:30 at night. On Tuesday night, I went upstairs after finishing my book and got ready for bed. Somewhere in the next few minutes, I got it in my head that both the master and hall bathrooms needed to be scrubbed from top to bottom. I tried to stop myself after I did the master bath and even got in bed, but a few minutes later I was back at it in the hall bath. Who does that? Seriously, just thinking about it now makes me want to find something else to scrub.

Plans on Plans on Plans - We are super busy during the school year. The girls have activities every afternoon except Fridays and they have games, meets and rehearsals on the weekends. It's hectic. We love it. During the summer, we usually chill out. The girls have never gone to camp. Our only scheduled activity is usually swim lessons, and that's really a recent occurrence.

This year, however, is completely different. Between vacations to North Carolina and Rhode Island, visits with the grandparents, swim lessons and summer school enrichment programs, we have exactly one week where we will all be in the same place with nothing on the schedule. How does that happen? One day you have a bunch of toddlers vying for your attention 24/7 and the next, they are off doing their own things? And yes, I realize it's only going to get worse.