Well Now I've Gone and Done It

A post that is not about the kids.  Well, not entirely about the kids.  I'll keep it short and get to work on taking some pictures of Magda sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth to feel her new tooth.  It's adorable.

I like to run.  No lie.  It's alone time, and it's good for me, and it's alone time, and I usually listen to podcasts of This American Life or Radio Lab, so I learn something.  Oh yeah, and it's alone time.  The dog does not count - he is merely my body guard.  He does not try to chat my ear off while I jog, and he typically pants more loudly than me.  This does not interfere with my daydreaming one bit.

I've done some races.  They're pretty fun and they come with nice tee shirts.  But they're not very solitary, which is a drag.  At the finish line of some of the longer races, I have reminded myself to not sign up for this insanity ever again.

So how, exactly, did this happen?

I will tell you how this happened.  I blame church, and I blame Kevin.  Equally.  The kids are in Sunday school, and I finally allowed myself to be convinced that it would be normal to check Maggie into the nursery.  She is growing more difficult to entertain in a lap for an hour at a time.  It's true.  So Kevin was leaving our baby in the care of strangers and I was sitting alone in the pew when a woman in a somehow-familiar orange running jersey walked up to the altar.  Either she made an amazingly heartfelt and inspiring speech about the poor children in Africa with unsafe drinking water or the light shining through the stained glass windows made me hallucinate.  You know what happened next.

My speech is far less inspiring.  If I am being honest, I am doing this marathon only partly for Team World Vision and mostly for myself.  I'm turning 35 this fall, and since I don't plan to run for president, I've gotta do something with my milestone year.  I've had three babies and my body isn't as cute as it was when I was 23.  If I don't keep signing up for races, I'll probably quit running and do boring things like washing dishes or folding laundry after the kids go to bed.  I have a fascination with people who have resting heart rates in the 40s (an occupational hazard) and I aspire to be one of them.  Blah, blah, blah.

Here is my Team World Vision fundraising page, in case you are inspired to donate.  World Vision scores well on charitynavigator.org and my experience with them so far has been positive.  You have until October 7 to decide and I won't pester you about it again.

But please pester me, OK?  It's not easy to search for my running shoes and headlamp at the end of a long day.  If my mom and my dad and my sisters are bugging me to know how many miles I logged this week, I might be less lazy.

That wasn't short at all.

Sorry.

One for the road.