public restrooms

Despite my claims that I have no interest in running a marathon, ever, I had a flash of interest when my friend R. mentioned a half-marathon in October. I have no idea why that briefly sounded like a good idea.

Then I googled "half-marathon training schedule" and I had to laugh at myself. What possessed me to think for even one second that my knees would allow me to run 11 and 12 mile practice runs? 

Hint: they won't. 

I ran three days in a row this weekend, and now I can't walk down the stairs. And that was only seven miles in three days. (I fully intended to run more, each day, but things kept getting in the way. Things like laziness and phone calls from my Momma.)

Today, I intended to run 4 miles. I was actually at the parking lot when my Momma called, and of course I had to talk to her. After we talked for a while, I had to pee, but there were no bathrooms around, so I started out on my run without going.

This does not work, by the way. 

Just over a mile in, I found a clump of trees that appeared to be large enough to hide me, and I burrowed in. (One has to be careful which set of trees one chooses in this town, since many of them are already inhabited by camps of homeless people. I do not need anyone watching me pee.)

That would be the second time I have peed outside within the city limits of a city in State of Happiness. The other time was... worse. There were no trees, only bushes, and everything was people's yards. But it was also dark.

The bad news today was that I was nearly limping at the end of three miles. Adding another mile seemed unwise, so I headed over to the bars where I am working my way up to one single pull-up. 

Hey, I never claimed not to have gimpy arms. My arms barely function sometimes. Last year I was very proud that I could do 20 pushups in a row on my toes. It wasn't until I stopped taking a constant stream of ibuprofen that I realized that I was only masking the nerve pain. Now I trying to stay off ibuprofen, and I am back to pushups on my knees, most of the time. I might have to go back on ibuprofen for my knees, though, if I want to keep running. Sigh.