The Sylynnvia Half-Marathon

My friend Sylvia and I are going to plan and run our own half-marathon. We were going to run the Salt Lake Half-Marathon until we discovered that it is mostly down hill. So on Sunday, September 3, we will run our own 13 mile "race." I'm thinking of having t-shirts made, just to make it official. The upside is that it is also free. We are going to enlist our husbands and sons to be our support crew, providing water, gatorade and cheering at designated mile markers. (Let this serve as an invitation to all you runners who want to join us. . .let me know and I will tell you where/when).
Sylvia's running the Boise Marathon in November, so it will just be a little warm up for her. For me, it will be the culmination of my summer training. When it's over, I think I'm going to follow some kind of triathalon training program. I want to run less and maybe swim more. I'm not quite sure how I will fit in the biking.
After I ran eight-miles this morning, Middlebrow, Son and I went to the farm stand at 9th & 9th and bought peaches, blueberries and corn. I made a Peach-Blueberry cake, which is currently baking and filling the house with amazing smells. We just ate some of the corn for dinner. It was delicious. The past few days we haven't really had anything that would pass for "dinner." More like a few vegetables, some bread or rice, and maybe something else, some leftover beans?, put on a plate. I call it the Farmer's Market dinner. It's best when we get some amazing bread from Crumb Brothers and eat that with some sliced tomatoes. As far as I'm concerned, that's dinner. (Must be the Iowa farm girl in me. . .).

The Ten-Mile Run

So Friday night I set my alarm for 7. Before I went to bed, I reset it for 7:30. When it went off in the morning, I turned it off. This did not bode well for my (planned) 10 mile run. So by the time I got up and got dressed, it was 9. I drank a lot of water and ate some Skittles. Why not? When I started running, I thought maybe I'll just run 6. Then I thought, well, maybe I'll do 8. So when I finally headed up City Creek, (about 3.5 miles into the run) I thought, I'll just go to the one-mile marker and see how I feel. But I didn't see the one-mile marker and when I got to the 1.5 mile marker, I thought, well, I'm almost to 2. Then I just kept going and I even passed the 3-mile marker, because I didn't see it. As I was running down the hill, I thought, boy, am I going to be sore tomorrow.
I am a bit sore. But I ran the 10 miles (don't ask my time. I had read in a magazine "you can't run the long runs too slow." So I followed that advice) and then I went to a birthday party and ate the world's best Chile Verde and I had a piece of chocolate cake and two margaritas (not in that order). I feel pretty proud of myself. I'm not sure I want to run a half-marathon, but now it certainly seems possible that I could, in fact, finish one. It might take me two and a half hours, but I could finish.
Now, I guess, I'm ready to start preparations to go back to school. As soon as we finish watching the third season of "Six Feet Under."

The (Inevitable) End of Summer or Camping to Avoid Reality

Yes, it's true. Summer is winding to a close. I can hear the theme music rising in the background. I must prepare myself for the credits and the inevitable exit into the glaring sunlight of reality. But first I must go camping with Middlebrow and Son. I, of course, am the instigator of said adventure. Middlebrow likes to go, but he would never suggest it. I don't think he likes sleeping on a thin pad on the ground. I like to go. Mostly I love an excuse to eat hot dogs and smores. I also love hiking and then coming back to camp and wading in the stream to cool off my feet. I like it when my clothes smell like wood smoke. I don't love sleeping on the ground on a thin pad, but maybe we just need better equipment.
Once when MB and I were in grad school we went on a backpacking trip with a few grad school friends. Two of them were a married couple (still married! with child!) who had the best camping gear I've ever seen. We all set up separate tents (them in one, MB and I in another, the three single folks in another). When they got their tent set up and we looked in, well, it was like looking into the Four Seasons from the Motel 6. One of my friends, Gary, hiked up with a can of Cheez Whiz in his backpack and nothing to drink but a bag of wine (he removed the box before cramming the foil wine pouch into his backpack). Another friend, Susan, looked like a toothpick carrying a turtle on her back. At one point she did fall over and couldn't get up. I think the backpack, empty, may have weighed more than her. Yes, this was the famous trip when, in the middle of the night, after listening to me complain that his side of the tent was somehow superior to my side, Middlebrow yelled "You wouldn't last ten seconds on this side of the tent!" In the morning we discovered that MB had been sleeping on the bag of tent stakes all night. It was under the tent. So maybe it's not all about the gear, but is about being smarter, somehow, than the gear.
So tomorrow we head out, not too far, for a few brief days of camping. I'm ashamed to say it is our first and only camping trip this summer. I'm not sure where the summer's gone. . . (don't we say that every year?) but it has been a good one. Camping will provide me with the opportunity to make coffee with a stovetop espresso maker (thank you Tony Caputo's!) and to avoid preparing for the start of school for at least a few more days.
When we return, we will attend a Stinger's game (all praise Thirsty Thursday!), also the first/only of the season. Again, where has the summer gone?
One last note: I cannot claim to have been "successful" at NaNoWriMo (or whatever) but I did write 20,000 words (so far!). I'm not giving up. But I have to scale back my expectations. Maybe I'll try to write 20,000 words next month too. Or something.
In other news, I am going to run a half-marathon in September. I figure if I can run 10 miles this Saturday I can do it. Even if I walk some of it. Hey, it's better than sitting on the couch. And when I finish, I can have a big piece of chocolate cake! (Not right after, but maybe after lunch or something. . . )