Half Marathon Outside!

I did an OUTDOOR half marathon today!  I actually ran a total of 13.3 miles (~21.5 km).  It felt very nice being outside running again.  I do know I will be sore as hell tomorrow.  I usually am sore for a few days when I transition to a new running venue.  In the late Fall when I migrate inside, there is a bit of learning curve as running on the track (or treadmill) uses muscles a bit differently.  And, in the Spring when I venture back outside, there is that same sort of learning curve as I re-acclimate to outside running.  Mostly it is, I believe, from a change in stride length (I have a longer stride length out-of-doors), and also a different cadence.  

Getting my Summer class up-to-snuff.  I feel I am ready to dive in tomorrow morning.  My Summer schedule for decades has been to teach intensively on Tuesdays and Thursdays (basically from 8:00am until 5:30pm) with only ~2 or perhaps occasionally 3 - 15 minute breaks.   It is a different type of effort, for sure.  But, it is the pattern I inherited so many decades ago from my predecessor.  And, it does work.  It is nice having the M/W/F unscheduled time.  

• Had some significant frustrations with the subject I no longer discuss here during the weekend.  It put a huge damper on Sunday.
• Went to Mass on Saturday this past weekend because I was scheduled to help distribute Eucharist at that Mass.  When I arrived, the scheduled Lay Lector came over and asked if I would be willing to take over with reading the 1st and 2nd readings and Intentions at Mass for her as she had a sore knee (she is in her late 80s), so I did.  I also ended up being the altar server as the scheduled person did not show up.  It was a bit chaotic overall.  
• PCS = 8.  I have been in a perpetual mood of thinking about smoking my pipes.  I had two very pleasant dreams (that I partially recall) about smoking my pipes.  And, as odd as it sounds, after I finished praying the Rosary while I ran, I had a fair amount of time left in my run, and I spent pretty much all of it lost in thoughts and memories of pipes and pipe tobaccos I would like to smoke again.  I think the failure I had in Des Moines has been affecting me more than I realized.  That, or perhaps I am maybe just struggling to remain standing on a very slippery slope that perhaps I created for myself with the beautiful Chicago experience.  I do not really know.  

PipeTobacco