So, the long awaited, much trained for day finally arrived.  As the sun was still trying to make it’s appearing, Katie and I headed to join our fellow runners at the starting line in downtown Cincinnati.  In a few short minutes the gun would go off and the Flying Pig Half Marathon would begin.  As we stood surrounded by thousands of people, I looked around me and took it all in.  Men and women of all shapes, sizes and ages surrounded me.  Some people we dressed as flying pigs, with wings on their backs and pig noses around their faces.  I wondered at how uncomfortably awkward that would be to run in.  Some women were all dolled up like they were going out for the evening.  I still don’t understand the concept of wearing makeup when you are going to run 13 or 26 miles…seriously gals, it’s going to come off in after a few miles.

The race was set to start at 6:30am and since my friend and I both are on the Night Watch, we decided to stay on our regular schedule and just stay up a couple hours later.  The race was great!   It was like 60 degrees, clear skies with a slight breeze.  Perfect!  The course crossed over to Kentucky for a couple miles then back over the Ohio River, weaving through downtown Cincinnati.  The course was a VERY hilly route, with a 2.5 mile incline.  And let me assure all my readers that it truly was fully 2.5 miles of uphill.  But as we pushed onward and upward I realized that the hills weren’t getting the better of me at all.  We had trained well, with lots of good hills to prepare us.  We crossed the finish line at 2 hours 15 minutes.  It felt glorious and I also improved my PR (personal record) by 12 minutes.  Woo-hoo!

 

So, I changed my day off this week.  It feels weird since my day off has been Monday for the past couple years.   I am a creature of habit and when my schedule gets thrown off it is always a bit hard.  I have to say, though, that I have thoroughly loved it today!  After sleeping in a bit, I headed to the art museum.  It was a beautiful day…60 degrees and sunny!  I spent a while sitting outside of the museum leaning against one of the huge columns, the sun warmed my face as I spent some time writing.  I hadn’t realized till now how much I really missed the sun all winter!  It was glorious.  I spent the next couple hours inside the museum.  I love art museums!   My favorite piece at the Nelson Atkins Museum is called ‘Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives.’  It is a HUGE painting showing the view of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives (hence, the name).  I could just sit and gaze at it for hours.  In fact, I went back to it three times to simply sit before it, ponder, and write.  I thought of how Jesus lamented over Jerusalem and of all the promises yet to be fulfilled concerning the City of the Great King.  I thought of how it was on the Mount of Olives that Jesus sat and told His disciples about the signs of the times, the end of the age, and of His return.  And how on that very Mount His feet shall one day stand again.  And how He will make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.  There I sat, tears in my eyes as my heart encountered the Lord and His heart for Jerusalem.  One of the museum workers kept walking by and I imagine he was thinking, “What is the deal with this woman?  She has been in front of this picture forever.  Are those tears on her cheeks?”  Oh, well!  

Oh, how wonderful daylight savings is!  This past weekend we gained an extra hour of daylight, which is especially wonderful to a nightwatcher.  My friend Katie and I have been training for a half marathon and thus far all of our runs have been in the dark.  (Not to mention the cold!)  Well, today we got to run all five miles with the sun shining  brightly above us.  I’m loving it!

It is December and still no snow. 

Actually, we are lucky if we see three days in a row below 50 here in KC.  So, here I am longing for winter to truly be the season it was meant to be.  I am dreaming of snowball fights, snowmen, and whooshing down a hill on skis.  I am a Minnesotan…we don’t hibernate in the winter like so many others!!  (Note my header…ahhh, the north shore!)

Yes, it has been a month since my last entry. My writing in general lately has been pretty much slim to none (leaning more towards the none). ***Sigh*** Life has been, well, life. But, now I find myself in a little coffehouse in Wheaton, Illinois with a bit of free time. So, why not blog a little.

It is a couple days before that great american tradition of gluttony and football…Thanksgiving. I decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to visit my brother, Ian, at college. Yesterday was his 21st birthday and tonight the rest of the fam is coming down. So, we’ll get to spend some time all together, which we haven’t done since two Christmas’ ago.

So, here we are doing what we both love…sippin coffee at a ‘non-chain’ coffeehouse on a rainy November evening. (The cash register has a bumper sticker on it that says “Friends don’t let friends drink Starbucks.”) Ian’s doing artsy stuff while I am looking through the four books I just bought at this great little used book store. (A couple biographies and one of Andrew Murray’s books on prayer.) It has been a great day. My sleep schedule is a bit messed up and in the last two nights I probably have gotten a total of 6 hours but o’well. While Ian was a class today I went for a good hour run to try to wake myself up. It was great…I got to explore the little town and found a great path that meandered through some wetlands and woods. It was misting the entire time and so the fog blanketed the marshy areas. It was simply beautiful.

It’ nearly 3am and I am wide awake.  I am supposed to be getting up in a couple hours…yikes!  I have been in Minnesota for three days now and still haven’t really been able to switch my schedule.  As I sit here, trying not to think about how tired I will be tomorrow, the wind is howling outside the window.  I am in Duluth right now, staying right along the shoreline.  As I gaze out at Lake Superior, I see specks of white in the distant darkness.  They are moving ever closer to me, like a freight train.  The closer they come, the larger they get till they crash with great power into the rocks below. 

I spent this afternoon hiking around the falls at Gooseberry State Park.  Sadly enough, the leaves in Northern Minnesota are past peak.  The birches have begun to don their winter-wear and the maples are fading fast.  Still beauty abounds here as the faithful evergreens surround me, standing proudly, arrayed in shades of green.  The air is fresh and crisp.  Wonderful…sigh.

We also stopped in Two Harbors to walk the Breakwaters.  As we walked across it I noticed an animal swimming near the rocks.  “Look, an otter…or maybe it’s a beaver,” I exclaimed.  As it got closer, though, I noticed it’s tail was long and stringy.  Hmm…not really like an otter or beaver.  Yep, it was a river rat.  Now, I have seen good sized rats in Bogota, but this was huge!  All I could think of was the “rodents of unusual size” in the movie The Princess Bride.  I watched it as it swam, probably to it’s home, underneath the rocks.  I love to climb on the rocks along the shoreline…though, now I may be a little paranoid that a huge rat is going to climb up next to me.  Yuck!

The Red Sox have advanced to the league championship, sweeping the Angels.  Yay!!   Game one is this Friday against the Indians on FOX.  I have writer’s group on Friday nights.  Hmm…writer’s group or the Sox?  I think the latter may win it out. 

So, the raccoon was back again last night.  This time he brought a friend.  Okay, I live on the second floor of an apt. building…what in the world!  I think it’s time to call management.