So What's Next?

Cynthia is a friend of a friend who, at 57, is the fittest female I know –  wiry with taut muscles and boundless energy.

She started running in her 20’s because she loved being outdoors and is a high energy sort of person.  It suits her. Her professional life in the field of therapy keeps her indoors and running is a great outlet I’m sure.

The last time she was here she told me about her effort to master the technique called Chi Running which many believe is the best way.  (This interesting philosophy is described as a “revolutionary approach to effortless, injury- free running/walking – go to ChiRunning.com to learn more about it. The novel Born to Run also provides insight into the natural human ability to run)  She was here for the Philadelphia marathon and improved her personal best time considerably using the Chi method.

At the ripe old age of 50, she set a personal goal to run 60 marathons by the time she turned 60.  She’s ahead of schedule since at 57 she has done 58 in 16 different states!  And many of these aren’t the urban runs you see on the evening news.

She lives in the northwest where marathons are held among the high mountains in places like Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon NV, and Choteau,  MT.  This is some serious running.  She must do cities like Dallas, Philadelphia, New York and Las Vegas for rest stops!

I was amazed when she sent me this description of a recent run in Lone Pine, CA.

“It was just a matter of 7 miles straight up against the east side of Mt. Whitney, 9 miles straight down into the valley, another straight up, another straight up, and yet another…. Absolutely gorgeous the entire time.

I loved it.  No spectators (good; the trail was dust so car-spectators would have stirred it up awfully); the best food and drink array ever; and…..I came in first in my division with a trail-time that doesn’t begin to compete with my personal best but those grades were insistent.”

Insistent?????   I can think of lots of other descriptive adjectives for that trip..…

In the run right before that one, she came in fourth BUT– the first three winners were all 25 or 26 years old.  Ah, Cynthia – you make us all proud!

In the time it’s taken me to get this written, she has completed her 60^th with The Prince of Wales run in Alaska and has signed up for 6 more this year.   Well done, lady!

She describes her training regimen as taking it easy.  She runs the marathons because they’ve become a fun way to see microcosms of lots of different communities for a weekend.  She goes back to the ones that were especially fun. Her advise to others is to continue to pay attention to good body rhythms;  swim, walk and bike in between marathons.  Add some tempo work or long-distance training runs, but focus om doing whatever exercise is enjoyable and not painful or boring.  She keeps her life in balance with Tai Chi, yoga, gardening and reading. enjoying music, friends, her cat and dog and her work.

Her inspiration for the rest of us is to:

Start where you are, not where you want to be.

Get advice for doing it well so it is physically helpful rather than harmful.

Don’t underestimate yourself.

Do what you enjoy!

“Oh, that’s what I’m looking for!” the voice said.  Although we were in front of a rack full of shoes on sale for the holiday, the woman speaking was pointing down at the shoes I was wearing.  I laughed and agreed that I love my NAOT sandals and actually own two pairs of the same shoe in different colors.

Turns out we both have long, very skinny feet with no instep and agreed on how hard it is to find sandals  that:

a) fit comfortably,     b) stay on,   c) look good (shoes are so ugly now!) and  d) last forever.  (I’ve re-soled mine.)

I told her where she could find them as her friend joined us. Their names were Ruth Ann and Gina and I don’t remember how the next bit of the conversation went, but we discovered that two of us are doing some sewing again.  After she gave me a tip for where to buy patterns at a discount, I told her about a new fabric shop I had found in the area.

That led to the discovery that we all live 5 miles apart even though we were about 25 miles away from home.   It was an easy, comfortable conversation and we were laughing it up and just enjoying ourselves and I noticed other women nearby listening in, smiling and nodding. Continue Reading »

Do you believe in coincidence???  How about ESP????   Or the importance of listening to that voice in your head?????

This post is apropos of nothing that has to do with my usual topics – I just have to write it because I find the whole thing …..well……interesting. 

In the previous post I described my mis-adventure in Nashville, TN about a month ago.  By the end of the second day on the couch, as I emerged from a drug and pain induced haze, I began to remember a strange string of coincidences that seem to indicate that the Universe knew what was going to happen.

Clue # 1

The aforementioned wallet is merely a slim credit card case that I use when I travel.  It generally only includes my driver’s license, one credit card and some travel cash. For no reason I can account for, I included my health insurance card this time.

This ended up being important since I was at a hospital out of state and they had great difficulty “finding you in the system.”  A small code on the back of the card provided the only key that worked.

Clue # 2

At the last minute, after checking the weather report for the weekend, I removed the little back dress and the pantyhose and strappy heels it would require from my suitcase .  The forecast was for rain and the reception was to be outside; the humidity of TN would make the pantyhose unbearable not to mention I didn’t want to ruin the shoes.    I exchanged that outfit for a pair of black dress linen slacks, a light, airy blouse and a pair of fun flats.

If the roads had not flooded, I could still have worn the slacks over the leg splint and been very comfortable.  There’s no way I could have worn the other outfit!

Clue # 3

For the First Time Ever I allowed a friend to take me to the airport.  I’m such a control freak that I’m always afraid someone else will forget and make me late so I never do that.  This time though she prevailed.

When I returned home in a wheelchair and a splint, she was able to pull right up and get me and I didn’t have to figure out how to retrieve my car from the airport parking lot in Philadelphia.

Spooky, I tell you…. or maybe just happy coincidences…. you pick!

Wow – It is soooooo easy to check out of life and just do nothing!  It quickly becomes a whole new set of habits that are not necessarily good.

On the last day of April, I boarded a plane to Nashville to visit with old friends and attend a wedding.  It was the first trip back to my old stomping grounds in two years and I was excited.

As I finished going through security I tucked my thin, black travel wallet into my jacket pocket instead of putting it back into my purse which was inside my briefcase for it’s ride through the scanner. (This whole thing is TSA’s fault !)

The flight was on time and I enjoyed conversation with the two other “mature” women on either side of me.  We landed a little early; I collected my bag and went outside to meet my friend Kathleen.  As I waited for her to arrive from the cell phone lot, I thought about my wallet and went to put it away properly.

You know what’s coming…..I put my hand in the jacket pocket and found it empty.  My instinct was absolutely positive that it had slipped out of the slash-type pocket on the plane and fallen between the two seats.  As K pulled up to the curb, I told her to take my suitcase and go around again while I ran back to the gate.

I twirled around quickly and as I stepped off the curb I felt a POP in my right knee and almost fell to the ground in pain.  One side of my brain screamed “OMG I’ve broken something”  while the other insisted that I had to “go get the wallet” so I hopped back into the terminal trying to ignore the injury.

Fortunately, the Southwest lost baggage office was right inside the door, so I ducked in there and asked the attendant to call up to Gate 4 to see if they had found my wallet.   They said no, but I insisted that it was just a small credit card case and that it was probably lodged between the seats.

She ordered me to sit down and took off running up the escalator and returned less than 10 minutes later with my wallet in hand.  With the kind of human warmth that only Southerners can emote, she grinned and said, “Honey, I had to crawl on my belly to get this out from under the seats!”    We exchanged one of those good old Nashville hugs and she helped me limp out to the car.

K and I ate lunch at a favorite neighborhood haunt and then I had to admit that I needed medical attention so we drove to the ER.  Four hours later I had a stabilizing splint on my right leg, a prescription for Percoset and a suspicion that I might not make it to the wedding which was 40 miles away the next afternoon.

As it turned out, that was the weekend of the horrendous rains and flooding in Nashville and none of us went anywhere (although the bride and groom did get married!)   I spent the next three days on the couch watching one disaster after another occur in Middle Tennessee .  The rainstorms and tornados wouldn’t let up for two entire days.

My heart broke along with everyone else’s as we watched Mother Nature remind us that she holds all the cards after all.    My hurt knee was a minor injury compared to thousands of people losing their homes and the billions of dollars of damage to almost all of the major Nashville icons.

Thanks to the wonderful inefficiency of our medical system, it took 10 more days to determine that I had torn the cartilage in my knee, and two full weeks after the incident I had arthroscopic surgery to repair it.

Meanwhile I was becoming quite content to sit or lay around the house.  I’ve never had an injury that forced me into almost a month of inactivity – it’s really easy to sink into a state of do-nothingness!   I couldn’t sit at my desk and when I tried to type on my laptop on top of the splint it wobbled and made my leg hurt.

The voice in my head said, “ hey, this is a great excuse to not work!”  I actually started two of these blog posts but never got around to finishing them.  I just checked out of my work life even though one of the advantages of my self-employed work is that I didn’t have to.

So now I’m trying to get back into my old routine but it’s really hard.  I quickly got used to reading fun fiction and listening to NPR talk shows all day not to mention having other people do the grocery shopping and put great food in front of me!

Although I think it’s good for us to take a break occasionally, it’s also a little scary to realize just how fast life can change and in my case, how easily I mastered the art of laziness.

I’m sitting here with tears drying on my cheeks and they are not from sadness.  I’ve been reading archived posts on a blog I found via Twitter this morning.  (That’s what Twitter is good for – finding great websites and blogs, U-tube videos and articles in magazines and newspapers.)

The blog is called The Gypsy Nester; Breaking the Empty Nest Rules.  I’m sure, without having met them, that David and Veronica’s kids are happy and feel loved and supported.  They must since their parents have a practical, healthy and fun attitude about the process of raising children and then letting them go.

Now they are celebrating their empty nest life and by sharing their adventures and day-to-day stories, they are helping all of us appreciate some of the best parts of being Boomers without children. And their observations are hysterical!

I could tell you lots more, but I’d rather you just go read a little for yourself.  I guarantee it will put some laughter into your day!

Their site is at http://www.gypsynester.com      Enjoy!