Relentless Forward Motion

Okay, no more mooning over Hawaii's wild, South Seas beauty and mourning the fact that I'm back in buttoned-down, pinstriped Wonktown. This is a blog mostly about running, after all. Or it's supposed to be.

But wait just a sec. I'm going to Florida for an overnight trip late next week, and I've already put in two calls to surf shops down there to see if I can schedule a surfing lesson Friday morning. If I do manage to ride Atlantic waves, I'll rip it for all you RBF'ers ....

Running Update: 5 miles on Tuesday on the shady Capital Crescent trail in under 42 minutes. Hmm. That's fast for a training run, and I didn't feel especially winded afterwards. It seems the week and a half of running massive hills in Hawaii paid off. Plus, it was a cool 72 degrees, not a sweltering 95 degrees in the shade, which I've run in much of the summer.

On Thursday, I ran 8 miles with M., chatting the entire way. It was a nice and easy run. It took about 76 minutes.

On the first mile, we passed a guy with no shirt and sunglasses. He ran with a swaying motion, his hips swaying from left to right, kind of like a hula dancer. He gave the impression that he was One Cool Dude. I remembered thinking that his hips or feet must get really sore, given all the wasted motion he generated.

After a couple of minutes, we heard the patter of feet behind us. It was cool dude. He caught up and ran by, almost clipping M. as he passed us. Then he slowed down.

Running at the same pace, we passed cool dude again a minute later. He didn't like that, apparently, as he quickened his stride, and swayed by us. This happened two more times.

Talk about exasperating. We weren't racing cool dude - why did he seem to feel the need to prove that he can beat two girls?

After the last time, he stopped running a dozen yards ahead of us, clearly exhausted, and walked with his hands on his hips, breathing heavily.

M. and I were only on mile 3, and we breezed by him, trying our best not to laugh.

Tomorrow is 10 miles with my training group. Bright and early at 7:30. It'll be the first time I'll have run with them since mid-August, when I left for the land of killer mai tais and blooming plumeria. They'll probably smoke me.

Is that why I'm compulsively eating chocolate-covered macadamia nuts?!

Note to Jeanne: Don't worry too much about the calf pain. You will take care of it and the pain will go away. You will continue to run. You will continue to getfaster. If you think you can, you will.