Memorial Day Weekend Run

Memorial Day weekend is probably my favorite holiday, and not because it usually falls on my birthday but because it reminds me of my father. He died when I was six and sometimes I think I've been missing him my whole life. When we were young, my mother and grandmother would take us to the cemetery and my sisters and I hopped from gravestone to gravestone, trying not to touch the grass as my mom and gramma fixed up their husbands' graves. It's a happy and comforting memory.

So today as I ran 13.3 miles in the sunshine I thought of many things: Life and death and choices and how random it all is, how the fact that we are all alive and breathing in such a small miracle. Because when you think about it, there is so much damned beauty in the world.

Here are a few pieces of beauty from today's run along Resurrection Bay:

And the loonnggg hill, which was so fun to run down and so not-so-fun to run back up on the way home:

The run went well. I ate organic cereal two hours prior and then half of a Shot Blok every 20-30 minutes during the run. Nutritionally, I felt strong.

The problem was the traffic. Since it's a holiday weekend Seward is packed with tourists, cruise ship passengers and Alaskans driving down from other parts of the state. I'm used to running in the middle of the road and alas, I had to run on the shoulder, which was narrow and sloped. Plus all of those RVs and rental cars zooming past--ugh!

Still, it was an awesome run and after I finished, I grabbed the dog and headed out to Fourth of July Beach, which is tucked away in a secret area that most tourists don't know about, and we like it that way just fine, thank you very much. I'll post pics of the beach later. It's incredible, like something out of a travel poster.

Running: 13.3 miles, 2 hours, 2 minutes 9:10 pace
Reading: "Fear of Flying," by Erica Jong  (Oh Erica, how I admire thee)
Writing: Almost finished with Chapter Four of my very, very final novel edits