Am I ever feeling my age this evening.
Most recently, the husband I cradle robbed is turning 38 tomorrow. Living with a younger, healthier man is sometimes annoying. Especially when he's all "I exercised for ten minutes so I get an extra five hundred calories today!" Like it wasn't annoying enough that there is actual visible proof of his weight loss, while I look (and feel) exactly the same. And then once a year I am forcibly reminded that I am, in fact, the older one. Just what every woman wants. And I don't get carded anymore so I don't even have that consolation. Although I admit it is nice to finally get alcohol without a hassle.
Nevertheless I wish him a happy birthday, and a happy Mustang, tomorrow.
Anyway he'll get what's coming to him when I'm 83 and he's 80 and I'm too feeble to do anything so he has to wash all the dishes.
The other part of why I feel ancient is the ~10 mile hike/run I went on this morning. Ginny Owen suggested I hike around Rosaryville State Park as a close by alternative to Greenbelt Park. It didn't have any killer ascents, but it was more mileage than Greenbelt, and a lot more ups and downs. I can't really get New England quality climbs without driving quite a distance, so I'll take what I can get. I'm trying as best I can to get in shape / stay in shape for backpacking, so when I go out I don't feel like a wet noodle. Ten miles of up and down ravines isn't strenuous enough, though, so I ran part of it.
Well, technically I ran because I am insane. And I am insane because I signed up for Run Amuck. It's a 5k race, up and down hills, with obstacles. It's in two months. I *really* have to start training. I guess I did already, I just don't feel very trainy. Well, maybe now I do. I'm not sure how much I ran. My GPS app was totally flaky so I have no idea what happened where, and there aren't mileage markers on the trail (as there so conveniently are in Greenbelt.) I know that I ran most of the last mile.
I'm kind of proud of that, actually.. hike/run nine miles, then run the last. I think that proves that I am not made entirely of lard and noodles. Also, maybe it proves the insanity thing.
And why did I sign up for Run Amuck? It sounded good at the time. I completely forgot that I am an unathletic schmo. I am a sysadmin, for goodness sake! We don't DO exercise. We certainly don't do crazy five k races with walls and mud crawls. (Well, maybe John Hord or John Anderson would.. or Fredrik Nyman. I'm not really proving my point very well.)
The problem is that I don't do flabby very gracefully. Also, I am too dumb to give up horseback riding and backpacking, both of which are MUCH MUCH EASIER if you have an intact musculature.
Not that I'm sure I have one, after today. My neck hurt on the ride home (might have been watching my feet while I ran) and my hip hurt after dinner (... because it's angry at me? I have no idea.) And thus I am reminded that while I am still mentally fifteen, my body is actually forty.
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| Pete, JD, Larry, and Susan celebrating JD's birthday |
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| Me, Delee, and Liza. Shirley was taking the picture. |
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| A charming accident |
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| Did I mention the freakily artistic collections of found items along the trail? |
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| Bottle/bucket graveyard |
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| Thank goodness the park was there to help me forget the bustling city |
