The Raven's Roost

My nearest neighbor, the one with all the pit bulls ... got rid of them.

Yes, you read that right. And it was a day of much personal rejoicing. She sold all three of the shitbeasts and I'm now happily back to my dog-free existence. More or less, there are still some on my running route, but on a daily basis I don't have her stupid fucking dogs in my yard, barking through the night, or dragging trash everywhere. So it's been a good couple of weeks to be me.

It's also been good to be me because I went to Disney World! I mean, I ran a whole bunch while I was there, too. But I saw a guy wearing a shirt during the marathon that said, "I RunDisney so I can EatDisney," and I was like, me too, brother. Me too.

This year's Dopey Challenge was my fifth. I went into it feeling a lot of anxiety because I'd spent much of my summer and fall focused on a fast half-marathon, then tried to cram a massive mileage increase into six weeks, and felt simultaneously over-trained and under-trained. I couldn't finish a twenty mile run to save my life. I was constantly tired, and I finally just dreaded lacing up and going out the door.

So I was happy when Fox found we were in the same starting group and suggested we run together, with the idea that we could keep it slow and save ourselves for the full marathon on Sunday. Good idea, Fox! And we did more or less that. The 5 and 10k both were done at an easy pace. So far so good.

Saturday's half was almost a disaster. I wasn't sure whether Fox was behind or in front after we got separated, but I was having a great run up until about mile 11.5 when ... my old calf injury woke up and said, "Hey lady, fuck you!" and I limped the remaining distance. My finish line photos are painful to look at. I'm trying not to cry - not only from the pain but because I'm now telling myself, "You've just fucked your marathon, you won't finish, you'll have wasted all this money on the challenge and won't make it, you suck, you stupid, out of shape, moronic fool." I hobbled around that afternoon trying to work it out, stretching, using my accupressure pad (a Christmas gift to myself - a Spoonk mat) and Sunday I woke up feeling stiff. Both calves kind of ached. Well, I can walk, and run slowly, so I'll just take it easy and make sure I don't get swept.

By mile 8 or so I was definitely feeling tired and grouchy - running is stupid. Fox and I caught up to each other just outside the Magic Kingdom and ran together for a while. The companionship was nice and we could bitch to each other, and keep each other's pace in check. After Animal Kingdom, Fox was feeling faded and I had started feeling pretty ... decent? So he said I should run on if I felt like it. And I did.

Holy shit, I felt good. Who feels good in mile twenty? WTF. I busted out some nine-minute miles there, and started hitting the stretch where Disney has set up aid stations every mile. So I'd run between them, walk while I drank water and Powerade and chewed energy gummies, then run again. My race photos from this part are crazy - I look deliriously happy. I'm exhausted but it must be endorphins now. I'm not even remotely going to PR this but at least I'm finishing strong. Fox came up about ten minutes behind me.

I've spent the past couple of days back home just resting, and will start doing some yoga and maybe taking long walks tomorrow. Time to start stretching those muscles out again.

As for me, I'm dead tired again and ready for bed, though it's a couple of hours out from "lights off." But I got used to turning in at seven pretty quickly, LOL. If I didn't think I'd wake up at three, I'd go now.

 I just realized it's been ages since I updated here. Nothing has actually happened, so it wasn't like an emergency dragged me away.

Mom came through her surgery just fine and is back home. So far there are no complications. 

I'm going back to practicing my contact juggling. I've retained a lot of the muscle memory, but some of my movements have gotten rough. I should also pick up tai chi again, that was really good for my balance. I'm still having trouble learning three ball juggling, but I'm also not sure how to fix the problem I have of tossing the balls towards me. Most people tend to want to toss the balls out and away from their body, so there are plenty of tutorials on how to fix that.

I picked up a new manga series - well, an old one but it's new to me - Goodnight Punpun. It's very weird and kind of dark, and I like it.

And I finished mostly setting my studio up and got to work on a new box. But the chair is awful and it kills my back, so I need to find something more acceptable to sit in.