This week is the longest week EVER and it feels like Friday (and beyond) will NEVER EVER EVER get here. YES, it’s anoooother post about Boston and I swear it will be one of the last (for a while). I registered for Boston on Monday and people can register until Friday. We still won’t find out until they verify everyone’s race, which will be sometime next week. Hopefully. There’s many more registrants than spaces available so it makes the entire thing really difficult. More waiting. Sheesh, so what’s a person to do while waiting for news? I just want to know. Now. I read Mark Remy’s article in Runner’s World titled “6 Ways to Pass the Time While Waiting for Boston Confirmation” and I decided to steal his idea. Here’s my list of “10 Things to Do While Waiting to See if I Get Into Boston”. Thanks Mark! At least it gave me something else to do!
1) Math – I have dusted off my calculator and freshened up my math skills this week. I’ve twisted all the Boston numbers around so many times, it’s kind of crazy/bordering OCD. There’s 5,000 spaces available. Based on equal spacing in finish times with the people who have registered (I was using a lower number at first which made me happy but it’s now at 7,900 which makes me unhappy) I have a faster time than 34% of the finishers who, theoretically speaking, finished less than five minutes of their qualification time. Blah blah blah blah, at this particular time, I would miss making the cutoff registration by 214 runners. Of 22,000 runners. Now that’s a punch in the gut!!! Then, I had to figure out that I would miss it by less than 1%. So it’s kind of a big reminder next time to be sure to kick that last few miles in the ass and just haul it til you cross the finish line. Or throw up.
2) Learn to Knit. Read a good book. It’s fascinating how blankets and clothes are made by some yarn/spun stuff but I really have no interest. I wanted to, but I just don’t. So reading a good book is a great way to pass the time.
3) De-clutter a room. I moved 1,200 miles in July/August. I’m tired. But I have one “catch-all” room that is desperately needing a de-clutter. It’s called a bonus room because once you clean the entire regular house, you get to clean another room – A BONUS!!! Yeah! So it took me a few days, but I cleaned out my room. See?
Ok, this is totally not my room and I found this picture on the Internets, but that’s how I feel.
4) Practice spelling and vocabulary. My son’s school in Texas stopped spelling tests just into his 3rd grade year and never had vocabulary. And from what his papers show, it’s quit quite obvious. Since we moved to NC, he now has spelling and vocabulary (thank you, NC!!!) so might as well brush up on that stuff yourself, so when you’re kid asks you what “exquisite” means, you know the real answer without distracting him while checking Google. Mmmhmmm, I’ve never done that.
5) DVR and watch the new fall TV shows. I watched the new Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Andy Samberg. It’s hilarious. Dr. Phil’s new episodes. Am I the only one who feels really good about themselves and their parenting skills after watching his show? Duck Dynasty. Makes me want to drink tea. Food network. How do they make such good meals in 20 minutes using Spam, vegetables I’ve never heard of, and a can of icing? House Hunters. Ahhhh, to be able to just pick up and move to the islands. Many more shows are starting next week, so if I feel the need to distract myself further, there will be plenty to see. Sleepy Hollow. It’s fantastically evil but I have a little crush on Ichabod Crane. I like the other characters too. Well, not the headless guy trying to kill everyone in order to find his head and start the end of the world. And that leads me to….
6) Watch Hollywood. They shoot a lot of movies and TV shows here in little ole’ Wilmington. Sleepy Hollow is shooting downtown today, so guess what I am going to do? Try and see Ichabod Crane, played by Tom Mison. I watched the show and realized that I need to only watch it during daylight hours and when I know I won’t be home alone at night. For me, the creep factor is pretty high up there, but it’s really good and I’m still going to watch it. Especially if I can see them filming it.
Tom Mison plays Ichabod Crane
7) Be depressed and plan pity party. I tried depression on for size and it really doesn’t fit. I know I’ll be upset if I don’t make it in, especially since I found out (using my wonderfully toned math skills) that the timed entries were only increased by 400, not the thousands that the BAA had announced. THOSE spaces were for the people who were not able to cross the finish line last year due to the bombing (kudos to the BAA on that one) and for charity runners (totally missed the boat on this one BAA, totally missed it). It’s not fair, but really, there’s just things in life that aren’t fair, so get over it and move on. I’ve sort of moved on in my head already since once I realized that my chances of getting in are basically impossible, I have already done a lot of grieving this week. And if I had a pity party, we would have chips. Lots of chips AND dip. And beer.
8) Cook. And eat. I am almost two months into my training and the longest run I’ve been on is 9 miles and the most mileage I’ve done in one week is just about 30. That isn’t very much YET, but when you add the cross training I’ve done with swimming and biking, plus the strength training, I’m burnin’ up some serious calories. I. Love. This. On Monday, I was so hungry all I wanted to do was eat. I knew I had to be careful so I didn’t get that “oh sh*t, I just ate an entire chicken and now I feel like one of those big huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons” feeling, but I ate as much or more than a huge man would eat. My husband runs and my kids are in football, so this family goes through some serious food. What better to do than to cook something good and then get the pleasure of eating it? A lot of it, too. I love the way my body changes to be stronger, leaner, and faster all while I’m shoveling down hundreds of calories. Snacking? It’s a must. And I get bored with the same old things, so finding healthy and hearty recipes is always something to do while distracting oneself. Chicken Ole anyone?
9) Write or call someone. Write a letter to your grandma. Write your long-lost friend where the only communication you’ve had is “Liking” their pictures on Facebook. Talk to people. Call someone. It doesn’t always take much for me to be able to hit the RESET button on my day and one nice person in Harris Teeter startled me into realizing that I probably looked like the Wicked Witch of the West when I was standing there getting my fresh fruit and veggies scanned with a frowny wistful look on my face. Oh poor me, I can’t get into a race that I spent three years training for and attempting. Well, that’s a first world problem if I’ve ever heard of one, so get the hell over it. (You know as much as I do that I won’t totally get over it, but just get over it at that moment.) Then I felt guilty for being all grinchy and always resort to gratefulness, because I really am lucky to be standing there buying fresh fruits and veggies. Then I smiled and decided to get the hell over it (at that moment). The moral of this thing-to-do is to reach out to someone because maybe that contact can be what they need to hit their RESET button. Hmmmm, I wonder if I could install a RESET button on my grumpy cat. He’s always going around biting people and whining about how he doesn’t want the food in the dish, he wants CANNED food and that the water in the bowl is stale, he wants it as soon as it comes out of the faucet and will stand there looking at me until I turn the faucet on and then he takes two licks and is done. Hmph.
This cat does not want to have a RESET button.
I got him a really nice RESET button and installed it but he immediately de-installed it. We went round and round until he ate the RESET button, which I had to remove from his mouth because everyone should know that you just don’t eat RESET buttons. The good thing is that there were about 300 seconds that I didn’t even think of “that” marathon. Success.
10) This is kind of obvious, but necessary: Go out and run! I’m not one of those people who hates to run but does it for the exercise or to be a triathlete. I really truly love to run and it’s a part of who I am. It also allows me to drink more beer without gaining weight, but that’s not the point. I think I’ve only had about five times EVER when I went out for a run and then regretted it. One time, it was because my leg was really hurting so I shouldn’t have done it. Another time I got over heated and yacked. I kind of laugh about that one because it was when I was living in Iowa and I wouldn’t run if the temps were over 70 because it was “too hot”. How ironic that a year later, I would live in southern Texas and it wouldn’t get BELOW 70 for five months in a row. Then two years after that, I would move to the jungle where the humidity is always 1,000,000% (and some days it feels like more). I digress. I know I can improve on my marathon time, so besides continuing my training, I’m reading about nutrition and how I can fuel better for those longer training runs and races. It’s time to put my game face on and get this thing done. Again.
So anyway, it’s never fun to be stuck in what seems like the time stopping abyss of ??????? but there could be worse things to deal with. Just look at it all with a sense of humor, distract yourself, and the time will come when all the questions are answered. Is it freaking Friday yet?
Running Boston And Beyond 
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