Be Kind; Rewind

It's beginning to look a lot like November.

And it is only October 4th.  

I feel kinda like I blinked and missed September, and let's not even TALK about how fast the summer went by, and now my October is filling up so quickly I cannot believe it.

I want a pause -- or better yet, a rewind button -- on the past 6 months.  

Can somebody get on that please?  Because I just don't have any space in my schedule to invent time travel on top of everything else.   And the next two weeks are no better - photography class tomorrow night, a work event on Thursday morning, dinner with an out-of-town friend on Thursday, a benefit for the Manfriend's work on Friday night, and POSSIBLY going to the cabin on Saturday night.  And then next week -- rinse, repeat.

Photography on Tuesday. Family dinner on Wednesday. Work function on Saturday.  

And THAT brings us all the way up to October 17th.  Yikes. And notice how I haven't even scheduled in any trips to the gym?

Something's gotta give -- preferably before the snow flies and I never want to leave my house.

It was a great weekend -- Friday night, the Manfriend and I went to the Twins game for my birthday dinner.  I suddenly realized that between dinner plans on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday night, the last thing I wanted to do was go have ANOTHER big restaurant meal.  So we donned sweatshirts and jeans and tennies, and watched the Twins lose while having a few beers and splitting a fancy burger at the ball park.  Perfect!  We were both pretty tired from a long week so it was an early night.  Saturday morning, my actual birthday, we raced around shopping and running errands before meeting my parents for a quiet dinner (I had the ravioli; it was fantastic).  Upon returning home, the Manfriend and I built a bonfire and stayed up way too late, accompanied for a little while by one of my neighbors.  Sunday, I got up very early, threw a brisket in the oven to cook, and jogged down to the end of my street to watch the Marathoners go by.  I spent about an hour clapping, cheering, dancing, and all around trying to bring a smile to Mile 10.

It was a PERFECT day -- and actually, all the days have been perfect lately -- and I was so envious of their weather (but glad that they'd been graced with it).  Sunny, blue sky... and in the morning, about 40 degrees.  It heated up to about 64 throughout the course of the day, but nowhere near the 80+ degree temps and 90% humidity of MY race day.  I went through all the usual range of emotions while watching -- excitement, pride for the runners, and tears -- for some reason, watching the marathon always makes me cry.

I waited around for the majority of the stragglers to come through -- they need a lot more support than the dude from kenya who runs it in 2.5 hours -- and then jogged back up my street.  And as I jogged, I thought to myself, "Maybe I WOULD like to do this again someday."

More specifically -- maybe for my 35th birthday.  Since I ran the first one in honor of my 30th, and decided 2 years prior to running that I'd do it -- that seems like a reasonable goal.  2 years to get back in marathon'ing shape.

I'm not quite ready to 100% commit to that goal, but I think it is a good one to have.  Of course, I'll need to truly commit to losing those 30 lbs in this next year (34 by 34?), and then about 6 months to just maintaining a high activity level before starting official training about 20 weeks before the marathon (which would be May of 2012).

How's THAT for long term planning?

For now I'm going to work on some short term planning - I have today off of work, and so far I've spent it NOT doing any of the things that need to get done.  Read my earlier post for a fun new recipe -- and now it is time for me to get a move on cleaning, laundry, and yard work on this absolutely beautiful day!

Off and running,
~Jessica