The Latest.

Hi friends!

It’s been too long since I last caught everyone up. My apologies. I still need to post about my tri and there’ve been lots of other things that have happened since my last postings as well. You can read about more personal-life types of things on my other blog, which I’ve been writing on a bit more lately. However! If you are reading this (thanks for sticking with me!), you deserve some news – and good news at that! :>)

Today, for the first time, I ran 3 miles.

YES!

For about the last 4 years, I have wanted to be able to run all the way around “the loop”. The road that I grew up on (Turkey Neck Road. Yes. I know. Moving on.) supposedly looks like a turkey’s neck because it has a loop at the end; more precisely, the road loops back on itself  and is shaped like a “P” so that there is an intersection – where, by the way, the road signs read “Turkey Neck Road” and “Turkey Neck Road”. It’s got to be a newcomer’s nightmare. I wouldn’t know; I’ve lived here since I was 2. Anyway, I’ve wanted to run the whole thing for ages but it is very hilly and somehow I’ve always run out of steam partway thru.

So! The last time I was home – in late August – I ran from the top of the loop back to my parents’. The midpoint of the loop is basically the top of a hill; one side has a long gentle slope leading up to a steep hill and the other is more like two slightly less steep but still decently intense uphills. That last run (from the top of the loop to our house) is over a mile. It was rough but I did it! Which gave me hope that soon I would be able to run the whole thing, which I’ve never in my life been able to do.

I hoped at that point (8/23) that I would be able to run the whole loop by this weekend, which is Autumn Glory (a big festival in my home county that is sort of like a Homecoming celebration – parades, arts & craft fairs, dinners, “Oktoberfest”, etc.). Lots of people come back for Autumn Glory; it’s always fun to run into people you haven’t seen in ages and the goal each year is for AG weekend to hit the fall colors in all their glory (hence the name). Sometimes you can wear shorts and a tee shirt; sometimes you can be wrapped in 3 layers and still be too cold. But it’s a good time, regardless. Check it out if you’re ever near western MD in early October.

The reason I wanted to be able to run the loop by this week was that there is a 5k in my neighborhood in Philly on Oct 16th that I was thinking of running because one of my goals for this year is to run a whole 5k before my 25th birthday in late November. Technically, I completed a 5k when I did the triathlon but I didn’t RUN the whole thing so it doesn’t count like I want it to.

About a week ago, my friend Leslie wrote me on fb and asked if I wanted to do a 5k over Autumn Glory, the morning of the big parade. Of course, because this is apparently who I am now (go figure! :>), I was pretty easy to suck in, despite my dramatic sighs when it was first suggested. Our online exchange looked something like this:

“Want to run a 5k w/ me on Autumn Glory?”

“Where and what time and how much?”

“Broadford park, 830am, I’ll pay, what size t-shirt do you want?”

And there it was. I was in.

What a push-over ;>)

And today, along with my 2 totally insane doggies, I ran the whole loop from just down the road from our house all the way around and back to our driveway. It’s about 3 miles total.

In closing:

I did it! I did it! I did it!!! :>D

I am a happy camper. I will be able to do the 5k on Saturday. (Phew.) I can run.

I can run.

It’s the darnedest thing.

I didn’t even have the Black-Eyed Peas to keep me company. Just the woods and the dogs and the cold, leafy autumn air. On we trotted. Amazing.

I’ll stop now, it’s just been a looong time coming and I am quite pleased. See, if I can do this, then maybe next year I’ll do a 10k and then I could do a half-marathon and then I could run a marathon before I hit 30! HA! Wouldn’t THAT be a trip? Who’s in for 26.2 miles in 2015, y’all? Hmmm? :>) Plenty of time to train!

More to come. Soon. Truly.

Love&peace&real-fast-feet!

-the Getty girl

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