I can't believe how long it has been since I last blogged. And I'm only going to reflect on a small piece of what has happened in my life since my last blog.
First, I have been to two professional conferences. Both were good. Both demonstrated how much I have learned to take advantage of the opportunity to hang out with and learn from others while I still need time to myself to decompress.
Second, the city I live in and have learned to love had one night of riots and several days of protests with several thousand national guard and extra law enforcement in the city. It was sobering. It was disturbing. I documented a run that showed just how odd some of the extra security appeared. And most of all I really do not think that the extra enforcement was necessary for as long as it was around.
Third, my youngest has had some great lacrosse games and auditioned for the School for the Arts after school program for grades 5-8 that would get him on a path toward stage design.
Fourth, my middle son had his first solo skating program and we celebrated that with a dinner out, although still under curfew.
Fifth, after the curfew dinner with a bottle of wine that we ate and drank between 8:15 and 9:45 PM, I was up and running by 6 the next morning. I said my stomach was not 100%. My training partner said she was tired. So we ran 15 miles at an average 7:42 pace. So much for not being 100%.
Sixth, I have continued to work on how to do the parts of my job that required me to have an externally facing presence better.
Seventh, I have been reading a book that calls on me to look beyond my goals in the workplace and to even look past career goals but to really search for my purpose in life. My best statement so far is: "my purpose in life is to provide a lens through which others can view my synthesis of the gifts I have been given so that they to experience enrichment".
Eighth, and finally, I have gotten myself seriously back into the swing of training. The question now is training for what, if anything. On Thursday, I had my first run with one of my training partners since she surprised herself with a slightly faster than anticipated time at the Kentucky Derby Festival marathon. She was wearing orange compression socks, black shirt and shorts, and a headband with small elephants of multiple colors. Except for the headband, she looked ready for an Orioles run. In any case, with my head stuffed from a week and some of allergies and high altitude in Denver for the conference, I felt like an elephant waddling along as we began. But we picked it up and ended with 7 miles in less than 59 minutes. Proving that despite the initial feeling I was ready to run. And despite her concerns with not having run more than 3 since the marathon, 11 days later she was ready to go. Then, this morning, I may have felt a bit like an elephant after my 1600 meter time trial--again just lumbering along to get home. But the time trial itself went great with my best mile in a long time at 5:49. Still have to get faster if I'm going to run a 5K at my goal pace, but I do think that I can come back down under 20 in the near future.
So, this set of small points shows some of what I have done in the past two weeks and some. Not really all that exciting. But definitely signs of never a dull moment in my life and in my city.
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