Getting My Vitamin D

Can you believe the beautiful day? It must have topped out close to 80 degrees in the NEOhio this afternoon, and, despite some uber-wind, was the nicest day this year.

So nice, in fact, that I ran 6.13 miles during lunch and maintained my lead in my Nike challenge.

Some people may think I have a problem with my competitiveness with respect to these challenges. And if I were a liar, I would say you were wrong. But, really: what’s so bad about a little teeth gnashing and hard work to outrun a bunch of strangers I’ll never ever meet? Not much, I say.

Counting today’s run, I am up to 15.57 miles for the month of April, which is more than half of my original January goal!

But I do understand the concept of resting. I wanted to take advantage of these past beautiful days before disasters like Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday set in (forecast: 20s and 30s with that snow stuff!). Perhaps I’ll have a chance to snowboard yet this season.

Worry not: I'm making up my swimming days on Thursday and Friday (maybe even Saturday?).

And hope is finally in sight: I have less than four weeks left in the semester. I’m really looking forward to being able to focus on my training with a full week’s worth of lunch hours… and then I’ll work on my thesis this summer at home.

Another Shining Moment

Sure, I lost my NCAA bracket this year, but I ran 6.31 miles this evening like it was nothing.

Sigh. Remember the days when I would book home to blog about running four miles outside? I think that was in February.

I set out this evening to just get in a couple miles: the anxiety of being in sixth place on my Nike+ challenge was making me itch. So, I thought I could add a few miles and inch my way toward the top. But the luxury of improvement is hitting three miles and not even noticing it. In fact, I only turned toward home when I noticed the amount of time I had run (I had to get back to start dinner, homework, and game-watching).

And as usual, I got lost on my run, but this time it was in a residential neighborhood where I felt less terrified of strange people and animals creeping out from the wetlands. Plus, I had the sun setting in the west to guide me home.

Georgetown may not have won the NCAA championship and Neil may have won my office’s bracket pool, but I am topping my Nike+ challenge right now with 9.43 miles in the month of April. And that’s really all that matters to me right now. That and watching this year’s “One Shining Moment.”