Update and Other Thoughts

The race results are in, and it looks like I was 3rd overall for the women, and the 1st old lady. The time was 21:41, which, all things considered, isn't horrible. Yikes though. I'm still having a hard time accepting that I am well into the master's division here and have a looonggg way to go in terms of speed. Maybe my immaturity has something to do with always forgetting my age? Hrm...Now I know if you drop a race like this in Boulder, I'd likely end up in the middle of the pack. However, I'm very happy with the way I ran. It was a conservative effort, but also about as much as my foot could handle. After a few really painful, sore days, it is feeling much, much better. Wrapping the thing up like a fat burrito seemed to help some earlier this week. Now I'm back to minimal taping jobs on it. As far as the race, I do have to face the fact that a 13 year old girl beat me, which made me sad, but, at the same time, it's cool to see a youngster running well. Oddly enough, I was joking with a friend of mine about being beat by kids while watching the Pearl Street Mile, when a boy barely out of his mom's womb flew by, running some ridiculously speedy time, placing among the faster runners of the night.

Tuesday, I jumped back on the stationary bike for a workout, just to be on the safe side, and forgot how HARD it can be! AAK! Wooo! Woooaaa! Man, those sessions can be a challenge, especially if fatigue is a factor at all, and I guess I was still a little tired. A visit to the foot Dr. left me hopeful at first, then grumpy when the new tape job he administered didn't work as planned. I go back Friday. I'm forever grateful to this Dr. though, because I know without the surgery, I wouldn't be running, period. He's a great guy. I'm just wanting a tad more out of my foot, but, ultimately, he thinks I will be able to bump up my training and even move the race distance up to a 10K soon enough. It's all a matter of what my foot can handle, and right now a 5K is all I can manage.

I'm having an issue with this very messed up book idea. The author must have some kind of brain damage to think that this is a good idea. Given the way the cover depicts the child, and after reading the synopsis, it appears that the message is clear: Fat is bad and Thin is good. Really, it could be stated in this way: Maggie realizes that only girls have problems when they are fat, and that true happiness comes  in the form of a size zero. Popularity and self confidence are just a number on the scale- a smaller number, that is. 

Come on...really? This couldn't have been about a little girl discovering that being happy and healthy doesn't have to be based on a size or fitting into a fucking dress? It states that the girl is depicted as dumpy- why? because she's not thin. What 6 year old (the book is aimed at 6-12 year olds) is longing to wear a smaller dress size? This is so incredibly messed up. And people wonder why eating disorders are hitting younger and younger children. Well, look at the pressure the media and people like this author put on kinds! Here is something the author should have thought about before creating a piece of work like this:  "Nearly 100 children aged between five and seven in Britain have been treated for anorexia or bulimia in the past three years."  

Ahh, well. I'm cutting this short today. It has been a busy week, and I have a ton to do today, including a PT session, which I need.

The rose I got at the race is looking very nice. It opened up and has lasted much longer than I thought it would. It's funny how a little thing like a flower can put a smile on your face. Plus, any time I think of roses, the Little Prince and also my trip to France years ago pop into my brain. The roses in Monet's garden in Giverny were spectacular and smelled incredible. I like less perfumy roses-ones that smell more like fruit. Mmmm. Somewhere, I have a picture of my sister sticking her nose deep into one of the hanging roses. There was one we kept coming back to, because it was so stunning and smelled wonderful.

Monet's garden-Beautiful Rose bush