Staying’ Alive

Life has been hectic but good the past few weeks, and I’ve got the pictures to prove it:

I cat-sat and staged an impromptu feline photo shoot:

One of my favorite people in the world paid the Big Apple a visit:

Reem Reunion!

We ate (a lot),  we drank (in moderate amounts), we gossiped and giggled (endlessly), and we actually took pictures (very few):

Just like old times! Best remembered fondly, but vaguely...

• I faced another fear of mine and ran in the rain during a cooling summer shower. Turned out, I loved every minute of it. Fear? What fear?

• I ran five miles, all at a sub-ten- minute-mile pace. Wu-hoo!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	00:49:33	5.15	09:37
1	00:09:27	1.00	09:27
2	00:09:45	1.00	09:45
3	00:09:33	1.00	09:33
4	00:09:47	1.00	09:47
5	00:09:34	1.00	09:34
6	00:01:24	0.15	09:14

• My knees were bothering me during the run, but then I went to yoga and felt so much better afterwards. Seriously. I’m not 100% sure what happened, but my knees and the rest of my body were so completely stretched out and relaxed afterwards. I shall call this “Magical Yoga”.

• I ran 15.3 miles, my longest distance yet!

Hot mess in action

• 13.3 of those miles, according to my watch, were during the Queens Half- Marathon. Which was nice and flat (yay!!), but hot (boo), humid (gross), muddy in some places (literal hot mess), with no shade (sigh).

• I also realized, once again, how much running is an endurance sport for the mind.  During the last two or three miles of the race, my legs were fine, my knees were fine, heart and lungs were great, but I just didn’t want to be out there anymore. Clearly, I had to kick my own ass by pointing out that: 1) I was almost done, 2)  to have gotten this far and then drag the last few miles out when it’s 85 degrees, 60% humidity, with no shade was a terrible strategy and 3) It was all mental. ALL Mental. So shut up, get out of your own way, and finish the damn race.  You’ll be happy to know that I scared myself enough that I got through the end with enough steam to sprint across the finish line. The million walking breaks I gave myself probably had something to do with that as well.

Apparently, I was bracing myself in case I decided to face-plant myself across the finish line.

Smiling because we are done!

• I then inhaled an entire takeout container of nachos:

Mine. ALL. MINE.

• …and topped it off with a bucket container worth of guacamole:

A delicious recovery, indeed.

• I went to a not-so-magical yoga class on Sunday, and faced another fear head-on (and upside down) by getting into my first headstand and staying in it for a full five minutes! My muscles must have been so inspired that I was able to do a full wheel for a whopping two seconds right after that, which was also a first for me. Nice! And totally worth the shoulder soreness I woke up to this morning. Watch out crow pose; I’m coming for you next!

What a Wu-nderful life I lead, indeed! Cheesy (like my nachos, perhaps), but true.