THREE

ONE

In the pre-dawn hours of a glorious October day, I got in my car and drove five minutes to the start of my first organized race.

And then drove forty minutes looking for a parking spot.  Who knew getting there an hour early was not early enough?  In any case, after much travail I finally found one, and then followed the crowds to the starting line at Girod and Convention Center Blvd.  I dropped off my gear, did some yoga stretches, and breathed the cool morning air as the sun came up.  When the horns went off, I was near the back of the pack, but not nearly far back enough.  I spent the first full mile or so being passed by approximately one zillion people from the future, many of them dressed in Halloween costumes, before I finally settled into “my people,” as I liked to call them.  There was the older, heavyset lady in green, who had a timer on her watch that went off every three minutes or so.  She would walk for three minutes, then the timer would go off, and she’d run (way faster than me) for three minutes.  Repeat x thirteen miles.  Though she technically walked half of the course, she ended up finishing before me.  Also in “my people” was the girl who was always three steps in front of me (her shirt said YES I’m a girl, YES I’m an athlete, YES I’ll kick your butt, which I read many, many times over the course of 2 1/2 hours); Rainbow Brite (awesome costume, but I can’t believe it didn’t chafe her to death); Skanky Saints Fan (black and gold tutu, and not much else); and SWEATY Tall Guy in Blue (we were all sweaty but this guy was all caps SWEATY).  At about mile six, after I stopped to use the restroom, I put on a burst of speed just to catch back up to my people.  I felt comfortable running with them, and they kept me on pace.

Mile one was a breeze.  By mile six, as we were turning into Audubon Park, my joints were starting to feel a little creaky but I was still feeling pretty strong.  At mile nine, I decided that this was so easy, I was going to do a marathon next.  And then mile ten came along.  I deflated like a balloon.  I really need to buy some of those gel food things, because I was utterly depleted at mile ten and could barely gather the energy to drag myself the final three miles.  My joints hurt, but not terribly.  My muscles were fatigued, but not terribly.  But I just had no energy left.

I was running eleven minute miles for the bulk of the course, which for me is damn fast.  But my last three miles were much slower – I got slower, and slower, and slower as time went on.  Greenshirt Lady-with-Timer left me behind first.  Then I said good-bye to Yes Ima Girl and Saints Vixen-in-Tutu.  Last of all, big SWEATY was gone, and soon I was being passed left and right by all kinds of people I’d never seen before.  I ran the whole thing, but people were walking faster than my jogging pace by the end.  When they called out my name as I entered the chute to cross the finish line, I felt like a million bucks.  I met a friend who waited for me there, and we ate chocolate popsicles and drank a celebratory beer (9:30 in the morning!  I love New Orleans), and then we went home to our respective homes and napped our butts off.  I’m definitely doing it again.

For the record – I was number 1,571 to cross the finish line, I made it from starting line to finish line in 2:35:36, which is an 11:53 minute mile.  And I was aiming to get in under 2:36 (a twelve minute mile), so I’m quite pleased with that result!

TWO

Turns out, besides being a stubborn-but-slow runner, I’m also a pretty decent parrot-costume-maker.

I got the design from the web, and I think it looked great!  He wore it like a trooper.  His brother gave us a little more trouble, refusing to wear: earring, eyepatch, bandana, hat, and felt boots.  But the sword helped broadcast what we were going for, I think.

A good Halloween “tricktreat” time was had by all.  Jack’s favorite part was the house with the bubble machine where the bubbles were filled with SMOKE.  Is that not so cool?

THREE

Today we had Jack’s parent-teacher conference, where they told us he’s doing beautifully and a real favorite with the other kids.  He’s not the bottom-of-the-class, talking-wise (not the top either, but I’ll take average!).  He’s not alone in being nowhere near potty trained.  He eats more variety of snacks than I expected.  All of this is very boring to you, but to his parents, it was fun to see a little window into this whole other world of our kid, this whole part of his day over which we have no control or participation.  I’m glad he’s experiencing it, but sometimes I wish I could be a fly on the wall, just to see what he does when I’m not around.  To see who he is.

After the conference, I took the boys on a walk to the park, and Jack climbed all over the slide.  Liam lectured with great consternation and modulation of tone from his perch in the stroller.  Then we walked over to behind the Wendy’s to see the trains.  “A too-too!  A too-too!” Jack shouted with glee.  Yes dear, a choo-choo.  “Fwies?” he asked, seeing the Wendy’s sign.  No dear, no fries today.  Now we’re home, and Jack is napping, and Liam is not.  Here’s a picture from when he was:

And that’s my three things for the day.  Happy Halloween, and now on with Thanksgiving.