Run For Your Life

I recently started running.  Why?  Well, there are a couple of reasons I guess.   I used to run everyday when I was in high school, and even for awhile after that, but somehow with a job and kids and everything else, I just sort of stopped.  Over the years I've thought many times that I should start up again, but somehow I never did. 


I think it began really with a particularly gruesome episode of one of the many (my husband says too many) crime dramas I watch.  This one really got to me for some reason, and I actually dreamed that the killer was after me the night I had watched it.   I woke up in a cold sweat, afraid to go back to sleep.  As I lay there in the dark, I was thinking about the nightmare, and I suddenly realized something very important.  If a killer was ever actually chasing me for real.....I'd be dead.  I couldn't outrun a tortoise...okay, maybe a really old, slow tortoise, but still!
I started thinking maybe I should stop thinking about running, and actually do it. 


Crazy, right?  I may have got past this idea and put it behind me in a few days, if it hadn't been for my brother.   My brother Steve is 5 years younger than me, and like all younger brothers are supposed to, he annoyed me greatly growing up.  As a teenage girl I was always conscious of my weight, and he would always tease me about the way I watched what I ate, while he could eat anything and still be as skinny as a bean pole.  He would take double and triple helpings of things just to rub it in.   Well, we all grow up, even younger brothers, and Steve did too...getting married and moving away.  We didn't see much of each other - just at holidays, and during one visit, I noticed Steve getting a little soft in the middle.  Over the next few visits, it became even more noticeable that he was gaining weight! 


Don't get me wrong.  I love my brother and I don't want him to be unhealthy...but I have to admit to a certain smug satisfaction in this!   But then it happened...another holiday came around and a get together with family, and my brother was....thin!!!  And not just thin....in shape!   What was going on?


Steve had taken up running!  Sigh.  He said he never felt better.   I tried to tell myself that he didn't really look that good...he was too thin!  But I didn't really buy it. 

And then he did it.  Out loud, for every one to hear at the dinner table:  "So, Sis...didn't you used to run everyday?  But I guess that was a long time ago!...he he he".  In my mind, that laugh sounded much more evil than it looks here!  

Brothers.

A few weeks went by and I really didn't have the excuse of bad weather anymore.  I went out with Rascal one night and we ran.  It was at that point that I began wondering how to teach Rascal how to dial 9-1-1 on my cell phone.  He's a very smart dog.  He could do it!  Maybe if the keypad was bigger.....?

So I went on the Internet and found a site that promised to teach me to run 5 km in 8 weeks...without dropping dead by the curb!  This was encouraging.  I could do this!  I was pumped! 

The key, was to alternate running and walking, and of course increasing the running time and decreasing the walking time each week.  Makes sense.  I asked a few of my friends if they were interested in joining me in this life affirming exercise!! 

No.

So, I was on my own.  The first night I went out I thought I was going to die.  Two minutes have never seemed so long.  I kept checking my watch to make sure it was working!  It was.  Later that night, when I was going up to bed, I hit the first couple of steps and my knee felt like it was on fire.  Luckily, I work for a company that makes products that help with things like that!  

The goal was to go out three times a week, and just follow the program.  The first couple of times were hard!  But it did start to get easier.  I think it was the third or fourth week where the timing changed significantly on the running side of things, and that was hard too...but I powered through it.  I found it made things easier if I knew exactly how far I had to go.  It was easier to push myself to do it if I knew the end was around the corner, or at the next block.  There is a dirt path through the woods near my house so I measured it and found that the longest section of it is 1.5 km in length so I know I have to do it 3 and half times to hit 5 km. 
At this point, I can do it, but it's still not easy.  That will come. 

A few years ago I worked with a young man who ran marathons.  I was asking him about it once and I remember he said that he had reached a point where it was no longer a question of how far he could run....just how fast he could do it.  I like that.  Maybe one day! 

Thanks Steve.  Love you little brother.  : )

Victoria Day

I know they say that we Canadians talk about the weather...a lot.  And it's true.  My husband even puts the Weather channel on when there is nothing else good on tv...I know, I make fun of him for that too.  But we do like our weather.  And given that yesterday was the nicest Victoria Day (or May 2-4 if you prefer) that I can remember in a long time.. it will surely be talked about for some time to come.  Especially next year when it will most likely be rainy and cold again! 

It was such a nice day in fact, that we decided on an impromptu barbecue with our friends.  While I was inside getting food ready, my husband was outside on the patio with the hose, washing off bird poop that really did seem to be every where.  He was not a happy camper.  And I didn't need him to tell me that it was my fault...me and my crazy love of nature....putting out a bird feeder and bird bath...honestly!!!   But I love watching the birds in the yard..hopping along the grass under the feeder..  splashing around in the bird bath.

And watching them is exactly what Rascal and I were doing while we sat in the backyard waiting for our guests to arrive.  Well..Rascal was mostly sleeping in the sun.  I spent a lot of time that first summer with him, training him NOT to chase the birds!  So now he just ignores them.  

As I sat there enjoying the moment, a large black Grackle swooped down from my pine tree and took out a small starling in mid flight.   Having gotten hold of it, he forced it to the ground.  It happened in the blink of an eye.

I just sat there stunned for a second.  I couldn't believe I'd actually seen what I thought I had. But no.. there it was, in the grass by the tree, pecking at the poor little thing.  I thought I was going to be sick.  I jumped out of my chair and ran at it, yelling and waving my arms until it reluctantly flew off.  But it was too late, the little starling was dead.   My first thought was to bury it under the tree and I headed towards the shed to get a spade, but then I realized that Rascal or a raccoon or something would probably dig it back up and that would just be....bad.   So, I disposed of it elsewhere.

I'd seen these birds before, and I noticed that when they come around the feeder, the smaller birds will scatter, but I just thought they were bullies.  I never thought they'd actually kill one of them.  When I came back outside, the Grackle was back, swooping low over the yard.   Alright, I don't honestly know that it was the same one, but it probably was.  I ran out into the yard again, waving and yelling at it. 
Rascal finally took notice and ran out into the yard with me...ready to do battle, but not really sure why or with whom.    The next time it flew low and landed I poked Rascal and said "look, go, chase it".
He gave me a look that clearly said, "Oh, so now you want me to chase the birds?"  Obviously, this is going to be up to me. 

I hate bullies.