Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Swim?

Yesterday, we had on and off showers all day.  I procrastinated my run until my daughter got home from school.  She arrived, but by then I decided I was hungry and would rather eat than run.  I thought I might go when Pete got home at 7, but I had a borderline catastrophic (well, catastrophic to me) evening between a Sharpie masterpiece on the new couch in the den (courtesy of two year old), my two eldest kickboxing to the point of tears, and my son puking up his entire dinner while picking up #1 from soccer.  Running might have calmed my nerves, but by the time Pete came home, all I wanted to do was run away to Italy with my young, imaginary boyfriend Leonardo go to bed.   My 9 miler evaporated into thin air.

Today there were no excuses.  Pete shuffled me out the door a little after 9am.  It was very foggy, damp and 38 degrees.  I ran my first two miles at an 8:30 pace.  I figured this run was going to be slower than I planned.  The next five miles I picked up my speed to what I thought was half marathon pace.  It was tough.  I thought by my effort that I was dragging along.  It ended up being a 7:26 pace.  The last mile I cooled down.  I cut the run short because Pete had to get to work.  I finished 8 miles in 1:02:24, a 7:48 pace.  This actually really surprised me, but I'll take it!

I wanted to mention my friend, Lori King.  She is not a runner.  She is a swimmer.  Not just your ordinary run-of-the-mill swimmer.  She swims marathon open water events.  And she places overall (meaning above the guys).  You would never guess this upon meeting her.  She is adorable, tiny, self-depracating, and modest beyond belief.  Her next big adventure is swimming the Catalina Channel in August.  This is no easy feat.  It is 20 miles from the coast of California to Catalina Island and the water temperature is typically cold.  Part of her training consists of swimming in the ocean off Coney Island, Brooklyn in the middle of winter.  Yeah, crazy.  But dedicated.  The reason I mention her is because she is looking for corporate sponsorship.  If you're a swimmer (I know there are a bunch of triathletes out there!  Yeah, I'm talkin' to you!), know a swimmer, or know anyone in the swimming apparel/gear industry and think you'd like to help, please visit her site www.lorikingswimming.com.  She's pretty awesome.  (For the record, I'm a terrible swimmer and I dislike swimming in the ocean immensely.  And yes, I did sail across the Atlantic Ocean in a 44 foot catamaran as a lass.  Did I mention I'm a sucker for adventure?)

Hi Lori!

6 comments:

  1. Wow, what a day you had yesterday. I can understand why you wanted to run way with your boy toy. It's a good thing you overstruck that part. Can you imagine if Pete saw it! What a great run today though. It sounds like you managed the fog far better than I did.

    I'll tell my triathlete friends to check out Lori's site. My friend KWL will probably want to follow in her footsteps.

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    1. That would be great if you could share her site/story with your swimming buds!

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  2. Hi, Lori!
    Oh boy, what a morning. Probably why I stopped at one child. I smiled when I read that Peter "shuffled you out the door" - it must be wonderful to have such support. Lucky girl you are! (Even luckier if you also had Leonardo..) ONLY KIDDING, PETE..
    I'll shut up now.

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    1. Sometimes it's a case of now or never, as far as running is concerned. Small windows. It happened again today where Pete was like, "Go now or forever hold your peace." Leonardo would have actually joined me on my run. And beaten me. Because he is super athletic. Then he would have taken me out for some gelato because we would be doing our run in Rome.

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  3. What an athlete, Lori is.

    And great job yourself with the running.

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    1. She is great! Being a west coast girl, are you familiar with the Catalina Channel swim?

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