Running update X4

No bees today. I haven't taken any new pictures and they haven't done anything new or terrifying and for that, I'm incredibly grateful.

I just only have so much capacity for controlling catastrophic events on my property.

Though, speaking of catastrophe, I've managed to sign myself up for four races in the near-ish future.

Yeah - I know, right? When have I EVER had four events on the calendar at once? I'll tell you - never. I don't know what came over me.

There was this brief period where, in my head, I had nothing on the calendar race-wise. I was like a bird, just flying through life not planning things and enjoying the freedom that comes with being able to decide on a Saturday morning that it's not worth it to go for a run when you have a headache (AKA hangover) and it's suddenly hot-ish.

When I have a race coming up, even if it's coming up in, like, six months, I go for that run. I chug Excedrin with water slurped straight from the faucet, eat nothing and head out into the sun as though this is how real athletes train even though the only thing I'm doing that real athletes do is spend a lot of time trying not to poo myself as the Excedrin courses its evil way through my empty digestive system.

Somehow, in the five or so years I've been entering races and putting my body through the rigors of regular running, I've never quite gotten the full hang of pre, mid and post run nutrition. Like, I know that I'm supposed to eat beforehand and, if I'm out for an extended period I should eat something while I'm running and then when I get back home I should eat something else before I collapse into a sad heap of wicking fabric, but I still haven't come full circle on the whole thing.

Not that you came here to hear me whine about how I can't remember to eat a banana. Even I didn't come here for that.

No, what I did come here to whine about was, well, nothing. I mean, I have a race this weekend - a 5K, so nothing requiring mid-race refueling, special hydration techniques or a keen eye for old men in American flag shorts - but I'm not feeling whiny about it. I'm just feeling like Oh right, this is one of those millions of races I signed up for when my brain was taking a quick breather from all the hard work it was doing calculating amendment amounts for the garden or something.

During that brief but significant period I also signed up for the Wharf 2 Wharf, because apparently I *am* running road races again even though I said I wasn't, the Horseshoe Lake Trail Run and the Mermaid Duathlon in September.

Does the duathlon count even though it's all the way in September? I think it does because it's in my head, looming out there as another occasion during which time I might crucify someone with my bicycle during a moment of peddle-to-bike shoe failure.

Any chance of public shaming or failure counts as a race to me no matter how far off it is.

So, yeah, I have a road race this weekend and, in another act of out of character behavior for me, I have another one on 5/21 - just a few weeks away.

Since when do I run more than one race a month? WHO AM I RIGHT NOW?

And, I'm sorry to tell you that the X4 of this post was just that tally of upcoming races and certainly no indication of the greatness of this post.

Apologies.