Blog Time and Tacos

All I've done today is take the kids to school and run and shower. I ended up doing a long run today since I ran a race yesterday, but I'll have to blog my photo journey of my 17 miler today in another post, because I have only half an hour until the school bus comes. What a day.

I've been doing it again. Blogging while I'm running. I run along and think about all the things I'd like to write. Then I come home and I don't blog and time goes on and I have this build up of blog things in my head. Sometimes I think - why bother. But then other times I wonder about the people out there, and my purpose for blogging. Why would I write it if I didn't want it to be read? Some sort of shared interconnectedness to the people of the world for reasons beyond my knowledge. (Speaking of things beyond our knowledge, you should read my husband's latest post - my getnout buddy - he's on my list. provokes thoughts and emotions.) But back to my purpose here. I was looking at my cluster map - it's a fascinating thing. I blog around and see names and locations on my comments from all over the country, Canada, and a couple from Australia, and I think one on vacation in Singapore, but as for the rest, I have no idea who they are, and what they get out of reading my blog. People from all over - Japan, India, Iran, Chile, Brazil, South Africa, The Bahamas, Mexico, 8 countries in Europe that I can actually place, and several others, and someone in London who actually frequents my blog, but never comments. Who are these people? Why have they read my blog? What do they take away from it?
My kids have a book from the library - It Takes A Village - The world population is imagined as a village of 100 people. Here are some facts: of these 100, 22 speak chinese, 9 speak english - so why aren't there people in China reading my blog, and why haven't I translated it into chinese? Although there are 100 people in this village, there are 189 chickens - thus nearly twice as many chickens in our world as humans. Makes you think twice about the bird flu. 17 of these people cannot read at all. So how are so many people reading my blog? 24 people do not have electricity - ah, therefore, no internet connection, let alone power and lights. 75 people have safe water in homes or close by, the other 25 spend most of their day getting it. Only 60 have adequate sanitation - 40 do not. Be thankful next time you use a port-a-potty at a race. Although there is enough food in this world village to feed everyone, if it were to be distributed evenly, it doesn't happen that way. 60 people in this village (read 60% of world population) are always hungry, 26 of those are severely malnourished, 16 go hungry some of the time - thus only 24 always have enough to eat. Makes me wonder next time I go for a long run, how much food do I really need to pack?

Random tangents about the world, but it all makes me think - who are all those people out there in the world? I have a huge itch to go seek them all out and meet them. I guess that's why I like to adventure so much when I run - to see stuff. Probably also why people always want to do the interesting marathons like Safaricom - to see the world. I went to the dentist last week. I hadn't been in 15 years - no reason, just weird. This dentist had a poster of the Boston Marathon on the wall - provoked much conversation. He's in his early 50's and has done 50 marathons - as far away as Bucharest and Hong Kong. Amazing stories this man has.

My stories today are closer to home. I have so much to say about running, but there's so much else to say. Why shouldn't I write about the fruit fly traps (I killed 86 one day), or my 6 yr olds first ride on a ferris wheel next to the Space Needle and how in awe she was to see the world from so high up, or how about . . my watch band broke . . . or how I sipped my coffee this morning and watched the sun rise over the mountains . . or how good the tacos were for dinner last night, but I forgot I had a long run scheduled today. Maybe I should write about doing yoga instead of running the other day and how humbling it was, or the bathroom wars in my house with three girls getting ready for school, or the new Soul Asylum CD that we bought, and how I saw them for free at Pike Place this summer, and stood right up front watching the lead singer. How about the freedom I felt on my last low tide beach run, and the lyrics to the Bryan Adams song 'Here I Am' from the Spirit Soundtrack. I think all runners should download the song, and put on some headphones and crank the volume. The lyrics are amazingly powerful, but you gotta be outside, or have headphones, and listen loud. Some music is just better loud. I could write about my husband's half marathon last weekend and how inspiring it was to watch him reach a goal, and how excited and anxious he is for his first triathlon in a couple of weeks - or about the fact that body glide really works, and I just discovered that today. And what about my run in the park the other day - my husband encouraged me to make the 5 minute drive, and I was in awe of the trails and the leaves and the autumn season approaching so much that you could smell it in the air. Or how about my thoughts that the best proven way to learn a language is total immersion, so wouldn't the best way to learn about life be total immersion in it? Really getting out there and living life.

And then while I'm on such a long post, there's running, and that 10k I did yesterday, and my 17 miler today. I wanted to go out and pace the race yesterday. Not go hog wild for a PR, although that would've been great. But I have a difficult time reigning myself in at the beginning of a race. I feel good, and I'm confident, so I feel like I can go out fast and hold the pace. And I know I've done adequate training to sustain it. (Well, I tell myself that at the 1 mile point when I hear the fast pace.) But I think I get greedy. I go out too fast and pay for it midrace when I slow down. And then I can finish strong, because that's just my mindset. But my goal yesterday was to go out slower. Not slow, just conservative. I'm always afraid that if I go out too slow, that I'll inevitably get tired later and slow down, just as if I went out fast, and then I lose time at the start that I can't get back. Does that make sense? I'm gonna slow down anyway, so why not go out too fast? But in my brain, I know there's a fine line. You can go out conservatively - fast, but not too fast, and reserve some of the energy for mid-race. I went out at 7:10-7:20, and I held close to that the whole race. I didn't PR, I ran a 45:30 I think, but I accomplished what I set out to do. Part of me wonders . . if I had gone out 10 seconds faster, then slowed down 10 seconds later, wouldn't it still be the same? But that's that fine line you have to discover - how hard can you push and still leave some?

I've got to leave it at that for now - my ramblings for the moment, and come back tonight when I have more time - my munchkins await . . .