Ponies and Baseball
There’s something blissfully unfocused about that bit of life which immediately follows a major race on the calendar.
Right after the Day of the Tread Half-Marathon, I pet-sat for my super-cool hot air balloon pilot friend Charity. She lives in a neighborhood more rural than mine, which lo and behold boasts lovely routes for post-race recovery runs. I saw dozens of dogs (mostly friendly), some cows, horses, a couple of goats, and even – insert ecstatic schoolgirl squeaks here – a pair of adorable, exquisite little ponies. If only their owners hadn’t been standing there…hmm. Anyway, you just don’t see that stuff in Albuquerque’s Northeast Heights. As for the distance I covered on those runs? I have no idea.
The “drift time” after a race also opens the door wide for an unarguable source of pleasure: new running shoes! With this latest pair, I really do mean new. I’ve sported Nike Lunar Glide 2s for my last few running shoe iterations. We’ve gotten along very, very well. But the time has come to venture out, and I’ve decided to give the next generation, the new Lunar Glide 3s, a whirl. We’ll see how they work out – new relationships can be tricky, after all. Fingers crossed!
While I’m breaking in the new kicks (ok, I admit, I’ve wanted to use that word for a while now), I’m taking advantage of the current little dry spell of local races that always pops up between late October and Thanksgiving to savor another sport that I love: baseball. I have to admit: I write this a little distractedly, as I have Game 5 of the World Series on my TV. My Colorado Rockies regrettably didn’t even make it to the postseason, after starting the season as the #1 team in baseball. Sheesh. Apparently, going out too strong is not just a problem in the sport of running.
Since the Rockies missed the Fall Classic, I’ve temporarily thrown my loyalty to the St. Louis Cardinals as representatives of the National League. Come on, how could you not like a team with a Rally Squirrel? Well, unless you’re my dad or anyone else with a vendetta against the furry little guys. Let’s just say that Virginia’s Civil War battlefields got nothin’ on the state’s suburban backyards.
Finally, I’ve noticed that recovery time tends to boost willingness to try new things. Things you never, ever thought you’d try. Things you’ve mocked for years. Things like…Twitter. Yup, I signed up. If you’re also a…um…tweeter (I really don’t know what noun to use there), come find me: @Shananigannz. I’m still quite skeptical; usually when I combine “@#!” it doesn’t mean anything good. But, who knows?
It’s about to get cold. The holidays and their chaos wait around the corner. I say right now it’s time to soak up these last beautiful warm days – and if life has all the focus of a twirly falling leaf for a little while, what’s wrong with that?
