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Month: June 2021

late june running updates!

late june running updates!

i gotta say, so far i was enjoying our relatively humid-free summer. even though it has been HOT, it’s been pretty dry, and i’ve been at least not dying on my runs. some highlights from the past month, which i’m really sad that i hadn’t written about earlier:

  1. ragnar sunset was in early june. liz, jane, doug, and i relayed and each ran 2 loops of about 4 miles. while jane was out there, it hit 100º. and the sun was bearing down! to prepare for the run, i bought a long-sleeved white wicking shirt and a light colored baseball hat. both EXCELLENT purchases. the long sleeve white really does make a difference; it keeps the sun from hitting your skin and eliminating radiant heat. my first run was pretty unshaded, so yes yes yes. my second run of the day was more shaded and it actually got a little cloud, so i pulled out a run tank for that one instead. i also chugged pedialyte, which i’d never tried before. that was an excellent choice. good news on this race: we FINISHED and we were hydrated.
  2. outrun bigfoot was the third week in june, a virtual on-your-own race. basically you had to run a distance in the top 2/3 of all the runners registered for it over the course of 4-5 days (can’t remember). the top runner ran more than 100 miles during the days, which is insane. i managed to run 27, which was pretty insane for me. that week was probably the most miles i’ve run in a week ever. i ran the 27 and then also 4 miles the day before it started. i’ve been just chugging through my running shoes these days.
  3. i’m signed up for the firecracker 4-mile on the fourth of july down in la crosse, which should be a breeze. the only downside to it is that it starts at 7 a.m. which i will be grateful for at the time because of the high of 90º it’s supposed to get to that day, but still, 7 a.m.?? good thing the adrenaline of a race sort of wakes me up.
  4. then it’ll be time to start training for ragnar trail! oof duh.

yesterday i went for a run. after a month of dry runs, i’d gotten used to the non humidity. but last night it was 70º and humid. i thought it’d be great with the 70º, and the temp WAS great. but my run clothes were just sopping wet from my sweat that wasn’t evaporating. thanks to my mom’s sweaty genes. anyway, that was a gross thing to share, but something that is pretty typical if you run and sweat.

that’s all i’ve got! i might actually head out for a run right now!

thoughts on june

thoughts on june

june is sandwiched between scene-stealing months.

may is glorious in its sudden greenness with the new growth taking over after months of dormancy. the weather is finally warm, and there are days when you finally feel like you can take off a couple layers while outdoors instead of adding layers. the month ends with (for many) the first paid holiday since january. it’s the “start of summer” even though still technically in spring.

july is bold and bright, snagging the limelight with the bold and bright independence day holiday. july is the height of summer, though summer continues on for another two months afterward. it’s warm and hot and green and steals the spotlight. if there were ever an extroverted month in this country, july would be it.

in between nestles june, silently warming up and taking may’s bright green and mellowing it out into summertime greens. the holidays are mellow as well: flag day and father’s day and now juneteenth. the most exciting thing about june is the absolute pinnacle of light during year during the summer solstice and the two weeks of long light on either side of the date. at the beginning of the month, the frogs are still croaking at night and delicate spring flowers bursting, but at the end, june has fully settled into summertime crickets in the ditches and hardy flowers that will hold blooms for the next couple months.

and somehow, june slips by so silently and fully that it’s hard to remember that just a month earlier, we were excited by the new growth and springtime. we don’t notice when the frogs stop and the crickets begin. last year’s cattail remnants were swallowed up by the new sometime in the past three weeks. we’re still in the blush of springtime with eyes on summertime.

every year i tell myself that i will slow down and enjoy june. every year i miss it.

ah HSH

ah HSH

a final wrap-up to the east coast trip! our flight left at 12:30 on saturday, so we headed out at 8 a.m., expecting not great traffic and a long bus ride to our terminal. turns out, the drive was ok (minus the rain – ugh driving in rain is the worst. except rain and dark), rental return was fast, and the bus to the terminal took no time at all. so we were 3 hours early for our flight. i was going to get coffee or breakfast or something, and all the eateries were closed til 11 a.m. bizarre, considering they all open up at 4 a.m. at MSP.

(the more i fly, the more i realize how awesome MSP is and it totally deserves its best airport designation.)

lori tried her hardest to get on our flight, but it was full, so she had to fly into detroit, then MSP, then bismarck. and they lost her luggage. what a way to end the trip for her!

trip takeaways:

  1. lori, doug, and i would do well on an itineraried trip. liz and jane would do well on a sit-at-home and do-nothing trip.
  2. i dispelled wisdom to lori about helping liz and jane get out of the house to do stuff. (aka: make the plans yourself, then tell them when it’s time to get ready to go. but casually.)
  3. looking at my ancestors’ grave markers in the albany cemetery, with dates in the mid to late 1800s, is NOTHING. i have no concept of old.
  4. always expect to spend more on food than you plan or want to.
  5. 4 days is too short. 7 days almost too long. would the sweet spot be 6 days? 5 days? maybe it’d be different if i were with nate?
  6. crab>lobster

the flight was a flight. i read. i snoozed. i enjoyed my silent seatmates. i was happy with the shorter-than-expected flight time. as we descended, i popped up the window to check out what was going on. (oh yeah – totally got a window seat.)

i checked out the good ol’ midwest just as we were crossing the big river, then caught a glimpse of the lakes, and as much as i like checking out new places, and as much as i like looking at big water, i sure do like coming home where i have a lot of little water.

saturday after the drive home, i took a nap, then that evening i sat on my patio with the cats strolling outside, my outdoor light game top notch and lit up, the green the GREEN, frogs croaking, my irises in full bloom, peonies about to bust, and little neon shoots starting to poke their way up through the black dirt in my garden, and lo and behold a faraway loon call. welcome home.

so, of course, it’s time for my coming-home quote from michael perry:

“…to this day my two favorite things in the world are solitude and motion. I’ve found them in the next county, in a semi crossing the Nevada state line, on a Hungarian train, and on a bus approaching the Guatamalan border. In times of trouble, motion is my morphine. But as much as I love to run, I love even more to come home. At every latitude, my compass swivels to point back here, to little old New Auburn. This place is my true north. A stray dog running, as it turns out, is just circling the rug.”