The Oracle/Catalina/Oro Valley Marathon (officially known as the “Tucson Marathon)
Last Sunday, I participated, for the third time in this event (my 10th official marathon – 15th if you count coaching). And it went pretty well. As usual, it was cold and dark at the starting area, but at least they let us stay on the buses, which were heated. And as usual, the general downhillness of the course pretty much thrashed my legs. I was cruising along pretty well for the first ten miles or so – even thinking I might have an outside shot at hitting another 3:30 if all went well – but as soon as we turned off the highway and onto Biosphere Road for a 4-mile out-and-back (and started running up a hill for the first time in about 6 miles) I knew that wasn’t going to happen, mainly because my hips started barking at me – and they were pretty loud and pretty insistent. They continued to yip, yap, and yelp for the final 16.2 miles. First one would raise a ruckus, then that one would settle down and the other one would start up. But it was still a good day, and I almost hit my goal time of 3:45 (finished just a smidge over 3:48). The weather was beautiful (a little too warm, if anything), my calf held up all the way through (made sure to walk up the hill that thrashed it last year), and I didn’t feel totally wrecked at the end – even managed to do the last mile in around 8:30, which is a pretty strong finish for me. The typical 24-48 hour-after-running-a-marathon soreness kicked in right on schedule, but I went for a swim Tuesday morning, then a very slow, very short shuffle-run on Tuesday afternoon, and those seemed to work out most of the kinks. My favorite part of the whole thing, as it is every year, was the annual letter-of-complaint in yesterday’s newspaper from a grumpy retiree living in the area along the marathon route (this year’s edition was complaining that the marathon ruined the “overall atmosphere” of their golf tournament because participants were forced to wait in traffic while leaving the golf course – can you hear my heart is weeping for these poor, grumpy people?). So now we’re gearing up for the Rock ‘n’ Roll marathon in Phoenix in January (where I’ll coach and Katie will run for time) and I’ll jump back into my training for the 50-miler in March by hitting the trails as much as possible.
I’ve got gas… and I’m happy about it
If you read last week’s entry, you might remember we had a gas leak, which led to having our gas cut off, which meant no heat or hot water for at least a week. It’s actually turned out to be a week-and-a-half (but who’s counting). The good news is that the weather gods have been smiling on us, and we enjoyed temperatures in the upper 70’s and lower 80’s the whole time (and there’s a storm moving in today – yeah!) so not having a furnace wasn’t really an issue. And we learned to adjust to the whole cold shower thing. All you need to do is heat up a big old pan full of water, set it next to the shower, use a cup to dump it on your head, and voila – you’ve got a makeshift shower ready to go. We only ran into a couple of issues while fixing the gas leak, the biggest one being another leak that was between the entry to the house and the furnace (it wasn’t really leaking, but the line wouldn’t hold the pressure when they pumped it up to the level required for the inspection). So they wound up replacing that line as well, and we’ve now got all new gas lines for the house that hold way more pressure than they’ll ever need to. Yesterday, we passed the inspection with flying colors, and the gas company is supposed to be coming out this morning to turn everything back on. Needless to say, I am really, really, really looking forward to a nice steamy shower this evening after my run.
More on the kitchen
The other good news is they started putting in our cabinets yesterday, and they look fabulously wonderful (or wonderfully fabulous, whichever you prefer). The upper cabinets are in place, and they’re installing the lowers tomorrow. It’s actually starting to look a lot like a kitchen again – I think I’d forgotten what one of those was. Katie went out and spent more of our money yesterday on the new stove and microwave, and if all goes well, we might actually have the appliances back in place before the end of the year, although I’m not sure I’m actually going to be able to bring myself to use them – everything is going to be so nice and new that I’m afraid I’ll be hesitant to touch anything. Until then, I just keep telling myself, “It will all be worth it in the end,” and trying to ignore our rapidly deflating savings account. As Katie keeps reminding me, “It’s only money,” which I have never really believed before, and I don’t really believe now, and I doubt if I’ll ever really believe in the future, but I will keep trying to make myself believe, because it’s a much happier world to live in than the one where money does matter and your stack is being burned through at an alarming rate.
That’s all for now, so until next time, may your furnace keep pumping out heat, may your hot water heater keep pumping out hot water, and may your days (and nights) be filled with holiday cheer.
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