Sunday post Saturday rain Day

ERA of ..WTF….joy and resistance

This is Thanksgiving week. Gobble, gobble — bitches. This month has been an exhausting rollercoaster ride… what’s new?

With 43 million people being told their SNAP benefits will be cut, nursing and social work degrees no longer being considered professional by the Department of Education, the government flirting with shutdown with workers being furloughed, and MTG announcing her retirement after qualifying for her pension — it’s all insanity. She started out making $700,000 and is now walking away with $25 million. The madness of it all.

Yet still… I rise. We rise.

I decided to run the Jingle Half Marathon on December 7th. A Christmas gift to myself. A real test to see where I’m at with my health and running fitness. I need more miles on my feet. My original plan to run Saturday got derailed by the rain, but today — Sunday — I was ready.

It was cold. It was quiet. I was mentally prepared… except I forgot my Garmin watch. But that was okay. I was at Mystic River Reservation, so I knew I had at least five miles in me.

I’m not going to lie — I got tired fast. I ran, then walked. I don’t think I fueled properly the night before. It took a while to find my groove, but around mile two, something clicked. I turned on my interval tracker, and that changed everything.

My goal is to run at least three minutes at a time. The more three-minute intervals I completed, the shorter my one-and-a-half-minute walking breaks became. I could feel myself building momentum.

And honestly, despite the cold, it felt really good to be outside and run.