Beautiful things

This weekend I received several really wonderful gifts: a bottle of vegan wine, an adorable photo of my nieces and nephew, and a gorgeous day to run and hike with KJ and the pups (the quest for zero impact was not entirely successful, but the few gifts we gave/received were incredibly thoughtful and useful).

Saturday was the clearer, but slightly cooler day of the weekend and it was perfect for a jaunt out to Great Falls with the dogs. Initially I had planned on checking out the towpath-Billy Goat A-towpath loop, but there was too much foot traffic and Billy Goat A is not safe for the dogs. Instead we parked across from Old Angler Inn, dropped down to Berma Road and then picked up an uphill segment of the Gold Mine Trail (to the Great Falls Tavern> Billy Goat C). The weather was perfect, Sascha and Hippo were reasonably well behaved and I got the opportunity to run a little in my new Roclites. Great day, great company, fantastic little shoe.

No Impact - A Christmas Without Gifts

This gentleman was on Democracy Now this morning discussing his family's Christmas without presents. I feel vindicated (not that I really required it, maybe validated is the better word choice) for our nearly no present Christmas. We've bought gifts only for the kids and for the dogs, but are not exchanging gifts amongst the adults in my family--its better this way, the pressure to spend spend spend is gone so instead of shelling out money that we should be saving we will spend our Christmas day enjoying each other's company. Win-win.

What next? Good question...

On the running front I'd been considering two upcoming longer options: HATRun 50 K (now full) and the Bull Run Run 50 Miler. Both runs are fairly early in the year and both would have required me to get off my rear end right now. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet as I've semi-settled into shorter running bursts during the week interspersed with strength training days and hanging out with KJ and the dogs. BRR is still under consideration since the lottery doesn't open until late next month, but HAT is sold out so clearly that one is out.

I've also wanted to run in my hometown again so I've been looking at the latest addition to the RnR marathons/halfs: Seattle! As silly as this may sound, I've been avoiding marathons--yes, I've been running far longer distances and for longer times, but there's something about me being so slow now that is resisting the speed work and tempo runs required to get me back into a road race. Have I whined enough yet? For sure.

The real answer is I'm not sure what's next--there are a lot of races coming up and a lot of miles still to cover so I'll think about it a bit more, get a few runs in in the meantime and get back to that.

I *have* decided that I need more dancing in my life though. I don't yet know if that means finally taking a belly dance class or getting back to my old standbys: jazz, modern and ballet?

Today one of my horoscopes says this:
You are a star, as evidenced by your full calendar. Today, examine the force behind your gift. It is not by accident that you excel on stage.

I'm not sure that means anything other than that I need to learn to take a compliment and that my hoop dancing exhibition at the work talent showcase may not have been as silly or as bad as I'm assuming it was. So, cosmos, thanks for the reminder.