Regaining (Kelsey)

Well, I didn't get my miracle. I didn't start feeling any better til Saturday. I had talked to some people, who suggested that since it was just sort of a head cold to try and run anyway, but the dizziness made me really leery of attempting. Walking straight was even a bit of a challenge, so I refrained. My good friend, Tammera, who was an excellent track athlete at the college I attended, told me that I had about a week window where I would could not exercise and still not lose progress. And I about used up my week. However, on Saturday, I decided to bike instead of run, so I biked about 9 miles. I felt alright while doing it, but when I got back, I did feel like I was gonna pass out. Monday, I ran an easy three, and it went pretty well, except my throat got really dry. And tonight, I ran 4. It went fairly well. I didn't have to stop at all, which made me really happy. And actually, I made pretty great time. About 10.7 minutes per mile. So not bad at all. My heart rate and lungs were fine, which I was so thankful for. But by the end, my left hip was pretty sore, and an old blister on my right foot, which has had plenty of time to heal, was KILLING me towards the end. So not sure what I'm going to do about that.

Tonight, I noticed that it was a little bit cooler outside than usual so I wanted to run in a t shirt rather than the tanks I usually run in. I was just going through the t-shirts thrown on my bedroom floor, and happened to stumble upon my hardcore shirt.

Backstory: my hardcore shirt is this tye-dye shirt that I have owned since the 7th grade. I didn't wear it much til the end of high school and during my summers at camp, but hardcore things tend to happen to me when I wear the hardcore shirt. I built homes in Mexico in this shirt. I have rock climbed ledges in this shirt. I have rushed 100+ children to a small basement and entertained them with my guitar until my wrist bled in a monsoon-like thunderstorm in that shirt. I scaled a wall and cut open a gash in my toe in that shirt. (Yes, I know, blood shed from toe is not necessarily the epitome of hardcore, but still, it was blood shed as a result from scaling a wall. It counts.) I think other hardcore things may have happened in that shirt as well. So as a result of the frequency of blood, sweat, tears, work, mud, rain, and dirt that have been laced in the fabric, I have deemed it my hardcore shirt. And tonight seemed a decent occasion. Getting back on the horse after laying on a sofa for a week may need some hardcoreness. I succeeded with a good time, so I guess maybe that's hardcore. However, nothing that was astronomically hardcore happened. Except that today was the day for dead animals.

Little fact about me.... I enjoy stepping on crunchy leaves when I run. Because there's been such a drought, there's almost as many crunchy leaves on the sidewalk right now as there is in the fall. You see, when I step on a crunchy leaf, the crunch sets off an exothermic reaction, releasing a level of motivation through my body, shooting straight to the motivational cortex of my heart at a level that directly correlates to the level of crunch.  The result: a crunchy leaf crushed beneath foot results in a surge in motivation. Completely scientific. Also hardcore. So today, like usual, I was aiming for the crunchy-looking leaves that were distributed upon my path. I got about a mile into my route, when disaster struck. As my eyes caught glimpse of an approaching leaf, I prepared to crunch upon it. Then, at a moment that gave me long enough reaction time to avoid the step, but not long enough to avoid said step without doing a ridiculous girly looking hop, skip, jump, stutter step move thing, I realized that this leaf was an impostor. It was not at all a leaf. It was a dead..... thing.... I am not entirely sure what it was. If I had to make an educated guess, I would say that it was a naked mole rat. However, since those are not exactly a native animal to the mid-Michigan area, my second guess would be that it was a newborn squirrel. Whatever it was, it was dead, it was gross, and it was naked. Thank God I managed to miss it, because stepping on that would not have sent a surge of motivation. In fact, I'm fairly certain that would have caused an exothermic reaction, releasing nausea straight to the pit of my stomach.

I carried on, being more cautious of the leaves I was stepping on this time, and again, at around the 2 or 2.5 mile mark, I came across a dead frog! My entire training, I have not seen any dead animals tread upon the sidewalks that I have run upon. And then today, there were 2! It must be the hardcore shirt. Poor things. I'm sure they didn't see it coming.

In other news, STACEY AND I FINALLY ACTUALLY REGISTERED FOR OUR RACE!!!! :) And it is now "senior year." Hard to believe. It is getting so close....