Saving Turtles and Losing Toenails, Not Necessarily in That Order

I lost my toenail last week.  The day after I ran the Boston Marathon, I knew I was going to lose the 2nd nail on my right foot. It looked very dark black and blue and had a blister under it. It’s been a few marathons since I’ve lost one and I don’t really understand why it’s THIS toenail either, but whatever. Small price to pay for a marathon, right?

I was taking my toe nail polish off the day I realized it was going to fall off soon and I started singing, “Nananana, hey hey hey, goodbye”. And that got me thinking of songs that my toenails and I could sing to each other in sort of a,  “You say tomato, I say tomahto” fashion.

ODE TO MY TOENAIL MEDLEY

Jammin’

Time After Time

One Week

The Final Countdown

“Goodbye, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu”  (that song the Von Trapp kids sing at the end of The Sound of Music)

Say Goodbye

Good Riddance

Breakaway

Killing Me Softly

Please Don’t Go

I Will Remember You

I Can’t Find the Words To Say Goodbye

I Used to Love Her, But I had To Kill Her

Hanging by the Moment

No, I didn’t actually sing these songs to my foot and they certainly didn’t sing back, but it was enough to entertain me for a while. Now I have a small little nail growing in, so I just paint where it should be, and not many people are the wiser. Sometimes you don’t remember how important the nail is either.  Less than an hour after the thing came off, I dropped my iPhone. Yeah, right on my friggin’ nail-less foot. Ouch. Then my cat came up and bit it later in the day. He’s bitey anyway, but sheesh, pick the one with protection, dude!

This is just to prove that he bites. He’s kind of an A-hole.

On other notes, I’ve been feeling a little triathlony lately. Here’s the rundown of what I’ve been doing:

Last Monday: 5 mile run and .93 mi open water swim

Tuesday: 1 hour on the bike on the trainer

Wednesday: 5 mile run and .65 mi open water swim

Thursday: Nothing

Friday: 8×400’s at 1:35 and 2 at 1:45, 6.5 miles total

Saturday: Yard work

Sunday: 11.5 mile run at 9:00 pace

Monday: .93 mi open water swim

Tuesday: 5 mile run

Today: 25 mile bike ride

Scheduled for Tomorrow: 5k race – the WILMA Dash, and all women 5k downtown Wilmington. Will be my first evening race in the heat. Sorta wish I would have skipped this one, but oh well, I signed up so I’ll go.

The open water swimming is going well. I’ve been able to swim in pretty rough conditions as well as really good, rather perfect conditions. I have come to enjoy it, except when I breathe wrong and I’m floating there all gagging and stuff. I’m super slow, but I’m just trying to learn how to sight, which is totally easier than what I thought. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m swimming by myself (well, smaller than groups of 5 plus a “safety person” and I’m WAY behind so essentially I’m by myself), which is the opposite of what I’ll be doing on race day, but each practice is helping.

The view from where we got out of the water on Monday.

When I went on a bike ride a few weeks ago, I was almost home and saw a turtle heading straight into a four lane road. I pulled over and put him back on the other side of the creek/drainage ditch so he didn’t become turtle soup, at least not on my watch.  Then this morning, I was riding along and saw this tiny little thing just making his way across a road.  Of course I had to stop and put him on the other side and across a fence. He was probably between the size of a quarter and dollar coin. Just teeny and cute!

I do have to say, I had one of the best weekends in over a year.  Last year at this time, we were all stressed out with getting our house ready for sale, two kids in baseball, and getting our house ready for sale. I still don’t know why it’s taken so long for me to get settled here, but I’m slowly getting more put away, hung up, and relaxing. I guess when you live with adrenaline for over three years, it takes a while to get out of your system. So I’m a little dreamy about the weekend. We spent time with the family, swam in the pool, got kayaks to take out in the waterway, went to the beach, hung out with friends, got some yard work done, got some good exercise in, drank, ate, and relaxed. It was just fabulous. Oh, we even took the kids to the restaurant/pub where my husband and I met 16 years ago.

Cheers to almost 15 years of marriage! And a $5 pitcher of PBR.

So THAT is what I’ve been up to.