Sunday, August 18, 2019

More Birthdays, Less Running

First, this years marathons are coming up. Since falling off of my roof (Father's Day weekend) I have run exactly 2 miles. The next marathon is only 5 weeks away. I can't wait for the trip to Portland Oregon to see friends (that means you Amy) and some hiking to see the big trees and the beauty of Oregonian nature. I'm leaning towards canceling the Tennessee trip the following weekend. All I've done for that is register for the race, no hotel or anything booked yet.

This is the dilemma. Since there has been no actual training for about the last 2 months I should only attempt one of these at most. Boring marathon (OR) has no time limit but is a traditional road marathon out and back course. If I only run 8 miles out of the 26.2 and walk the rest and can mentally accept a 7+ hour finish time that could be ok. The state is done. On the other hand, Tennessee has a 12 hour race where I run a 3 mile loop until I hit the marathon distance. No shame in sitting down for half an hour of stuffing my ultra loving face in between laps, as soon as I get enough laps done to clear marathon distance I can head back to Raleigh. TN has the higher chance of success through trails and timing, but OR has the added logistical difficulty. It's much harder to make another trip to Oregon when I'm better trained.

So let's try a little training for starters. Best idea might be to not attempt either marathon.

Meanwhile, since the last time I actually posted anything, Ella and I both had birthdays, we had the July 4th holiday here in the states, and it has generally been a long, hot, depressing summer. My SAD has been running pretty high this year. One of the bright spots has been the birth of my nephew. My brother Morgan and his wife had their first kid, a boy. It is the first boy born to our generation, so they insisted on him being the next John Flynn, like me, my dad, his dad, and his dad. Such an honor. but they are calling him by the middle name.

The hair is getting big

Hanging out on the new front porch

With Ella on the new front porch

Ella's birthday

It's a blanket that looks like a burrito


Found this gem in a box. Where my nerds at? I can fix your PC

4th of July hanging out on the front porch

Dwight Schrute earrings for my birthday


Hanging out with Super Pregnant Martha

At the gym, I kept getting funny looks. Can't imagine why?

The three living John Flynn's

My ladies with the new cousin/nephew

Lena's indian princess tribe - we recently got together
One other thing that seems hard to believe. My kids have one week of summer vacation left, then Ella starts high school. Still not really sure how that happened! They are starting 7th and 9th grade, only 4 more years until college. woah

2 comments:

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

Congrats on being an uncle to a baby boy - and one with your name! How special! Crazy that this is the first boy in this generation. We had the opposite thing in my family - 5 boys in a row before we got 2 girls and now the streak is back to boy with Paul's birth. Phil's family tends to have boys so when/if we have a 2nd, I am guessing it will be another boy (which I'd be happy with - we'll take what we can get but I've loved being a boy mom so far!).

I can't believe you have a high schooler. how is this possible? I don't believe it! I have a nephew starting 10th grade and another starting 9th grade this fall. The 10th grader got his learner's permit and is counting down the days until he can get his license. He's my Godson and is the sweetest kid. He hasn't become too cool for me yet so maybe he never will? Fingers crossed.

Jess said...

I can't believe your girls are getting so big -- or perhaps that I've been following along with you for that many years!! As for the marathons, as someone who just had to defer a race I was hoping to do this fall, I'd definitely recommend seeing where you stand with some more runs before making a decision. I get the desire of wanting to run in Oregon for sure because it's a new state, but if you're not feeling great after some more runs, it might not be worth the injury risk. Just my two cents! I hope you can pull one of them off though!