Sunday, April 19, 2009

Sat. Day Recap

Great day yesterday. Awesome day yesterday. Long day yesterday.

57 or so miles last week. Feel great about that. Finally, I had the self-control to have an honest to goodness cutback week. One run a day, that is what I limited myself to, and nothing over 8, though 5 of the 7 runs were over 8. You have to start somewhere. Last week was a success.

Yesterday was a long Americorps training day at the Bozeman Spring Summit. I was a presenter at this particular function. In the morning, I delivered, or more accurately, facilitated a class on building partnerships. It went great. Got some great feedback from the participants and they seemed to find it meaningful and helpful for their work. The rest of the day was filled with mini-seminars and panel discussions until around 3, when we headed out on our service projects...

I assumed, and assumed wrongly, that I had signed up to go to the food bank, an area of service that I am familiar with and enjoy. Turned out, I had actually signed up for the animal shelter, which was a great and welcome surprise in my life. Spent an hour or so picking up dog droppings in the dog walking area. This turned out to be great work. Like washing dishes, the work is mindless and lends itself to great conversation. Had a nice chat with a girl who runs endurance horse races; 50 and 100 milers. It was fun exchanging our experiences with different modes of travel over long distances. After poo-scooping we were given the option of walking dogs or petting cats. I chose the cat route. I have a secret love for cats, something to do with my childhood I think. It was great. We went around from cage to cage petting and paying each feline some special attention. Overall, the shelter was a complete life-giver to me, infusing me, or perhaps invoking me, with a new experience of which I found enriching.

We didn't get back to the hotel until 6:30 or so. The moment we returned I went out on a really nice 6-7 miler to loosen my body up. Took it at 7 pace. Wonderful run. Felt really, really good. Wow. My upper-body was motionless, a point of form I have been particularly keen on experimenting with lately. Fluidity was the theme yesterday. After the run I caught up with a couple of Americorps ladies at Applebees for dinner, then returned to the hotel and went out to a little house-party with some other Americorps folks. Great time. Incredible people. I met a fellow ultra runner at the party. An extremely rare social occurence. Righteous stuff.

Finally, I want to congratulate my dad on his 5K performance yesterday. His first race.

His stated goal (the conservative estimate we tell people): 30 minutes
His secret desire (the time we more or less dream of doing, but keep to ourselves): 28 minutes
His actual finishing time: 25:42

Yes! What a great accomplishment.

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