One year I ran the MDI Marathon as a warm up for faster course Philly or CIM.  However, a loved one of mine did not realize it was a warm up for a faster course and had a party betting on me like a horse with an awful group of people, and was livid that I had not run a sub 3 Marathon.  MDI is one of the most difficult courses in the country and is really like a 30 mile feeling course.  It really disrupted my life to be punished if you will, and it was inappropriate to say the least.  So my advice is to never bet on a runner like a race horse, especially under 24 with one of the most difficult courses in the country for the Marathon distance.  It is kind of a funny story like the mommy dearest movie, I wish my grandpa lived until I am finished with my grad degrees that I started college at fifteen to eventually have…😼

Love this book, and reading on my parents deck.

Excited for my sister weekend coming up, hopefully we will get a good run and walk or two with Gweny(my sisters puppy). To get in shape, I ran five miles early this morning and went on a three mile walk tonight. Such progress, I feel like if I train all spring and summer fall race season will be a good time. 😻

Gweny😍 Will the blue sheltie like our new blue leather hand binded Pride and Pejudice novel? Shelie's are smart and know how to read, my Chihuahuas are always shocked by how many tricks their cousin knows and how many snacks she has. Luna loved Gwens giant busy bone last time, because she has the Chihuahuas sized busy bones and Qwen has the largest size which was cute.

It is quite the thing to come back from a running sabbatical, but hopefully I’ll pull it off in the next six to ten months or so. That is why we do things over a long period of time and not all at once, I collected a lot of race experiences over the years so I feel comfortable in my skin climbing back into that 'peak’ shape. Hopefully by August I will know for sure what my fall or early winter race destination will be. I always like to have a base of fitness and go into a three month training cycle for a particular Marathon. In those three month training cycles it is a good idea to add in a road 5k or half marathon, as a part of training and being social or competitive. You get in a whole rhythm in the running world with socializing, fitness, or being competitive and recreational. It’ll feel good to be back in a running routine. I will be very happy after my fall race, so happy it is one of my main focuses outside the day job, in shape and fast on an excellent race day will be my bliss. 😸

Someone in my family replaced my expensive copy of Pride and Prejudice with a personalized copy not having anything to do with the literature, which was a poor decision on their part. I could just scream over what happened to some of my most beloved books. So, I ordered a new replacement that is blue leather and hand bound, I am very excited. I also ordered a new Christopher Marlowe copy of Faust… My family or whatever it happened to be, needs to stay away from my expensive bookshelf, because it is like not ok I have to replace some of my classics that take years to collect, I do not know what they were thinking. 😂 When I have time to read outside of work or grad classes, I am very particular about the dialect and standard of writing I read for pleasure, I am too old to read the personalized version of my books that remind me of horrible papers I used to grade tutoring back in the day. My bookshelf is in the five year plan of things to fix, it would be like if I had to replace my old porcelain dolls, would I? We shall see, even paperback summer series are expensive. Where do I begin? 😬

This book is so beautiful, I am looking forward to having my hands on it and making a nice display on my shelf!😍 The best thing to do is add to my book collection or get back on the horse, and pick them out myself so I only have pleasant thoughts admiring and reading my favorite pieces of literature. If that disaster didn’t happen I never would have found this gorgeous copy, I bet the leather will feel very nice and it will be the original novel instead of a personalized version that made my old nice copy go missing. 😊 I have almost ten more to replace in time, it’ll take at least a year, the moral is never touch your best girlfriend’s classics collection…😼 Evidently some people do not realize that book collections are very extravagant and my book shelf was expensive, it is replacable but I so wish that no one touched my books as it is not something I am going to replace in one day. 🙈🙉🙊

I usually only wear black leather bags, but blue leather looks very nice on books! 😍 Special way to begin my new book collection. 📚

In college, I wrote a short story about a girl who finished a degree by nineteen, but her grandfather who paid for school passed away.  Then, her aunt pulled her from the private school, and told the private school that she was too upset over her grandfather to return, she is chastised a lot by peers and professors over it.  In the story, the girl takes care of her grandmother for years in lieu of living her life, until finally she goes back to school and finds a fiancé.  The aunt makes the girl graduate early, break up with her fiancé and go back to taking care of her grandmother, versus getting married whilst working on a doctorate.  That summer the aunt marries her third husband in her sixties whilst her niece continues taking care of her grandmother, because it will never end.  The grandpa rolls in his grave, supporting his least favorite daughter’s third marriage versus his favorite granddaughter's education and career. At the end, her uncle on the other side of the family just writes a check for school and she finds a new fiancé, because she rather would have died than been degraded and dammed to a life of being careerless and taking care of her grandma. The new fiancé buys her a nicer car than the grandmother's car her aunt wouldn’t let her have. There was no adapting to the new life her aunt forced her to have, and she eventually found a way to be normal again. The aunt tries to reconnect with the niece when she is all perfect again, but the girl got a restraining order against the aunt and the third husband of hers… My advisor published a snippet of my short story in a magazine and it was an honor to have my work published, even in a magazine no one actually reads!😅

It was nice to receive a coolibar.com mask in the mail. I ordered my compression arm sleeves for running with the SPF 50 and received a mask too. I really do need to be careful not to burn, because I do not want more skin surgically removed from getting too much sun damage. This mask is nice. I always use Zink on my face and SPF 100 Neutrogena, but some places the sun is so strong you need to cover up with a hat or SPF clothing, for instance on my trip to Haiti I needed more than sunblock out there volunteering. Sunglasses, SPF clothes and Zink with SPF 100 is the thing to do for me not to burn. I’m lucky to have mature and considerate friends who do not make fun of my ways not to burn, wearing my hats with coverings and long sleeves, or taking sun block breaks lathering it all on like I can in front of all to see. I am a girl who needs water and granola bar breaks, and sunblock breaks with access to hats or sunglasses or my special SPF clothes, which should not be a real problem anyway but be careful not to volunteer in the sun with a group whom is absolutely nuts. Even skiing I would always wear sunblock, I wore sunblock in Alaska too up in the snow capped mountains. I had the worst sunburn of my life after a day in Terror Lake, I have to tell you. Lather on the sunblock!! 😊

In marathon running, you are outside for hours and it is very important to protect your eyes and skin with the proper lotion, clothing, and sunglasses. 😎 It is also important to have two pairs of shoes for a race being on your feet so long, as you would have two pairs of shoes for a long flight or even a long drive. I would wear compression arm sleeves with SPF driving long, like my old Boston to Maine route or the end of Long Island to JFK, because they help circulation and sun shines through windows. Those little things make a big difference, and seem like such common sense. 🙊🙉🙈 Marathon runners love new compression gear, it feels so good I never want to take it off.

I love my little ring with my sister's names engraved on it. It’s nice to look at whilst running, and think about my two favorite people, all my rings mean something even though I have an entire jewelry box full of them. If I flip it over, my ring looks like a professional band which is nice.

I'm looking forward to wearing my NYC Marathon jacket running trails around NYC pretty soon. This was perfect for a rainy three miles today🗽🚕😊 It will be fun finding Balto in Central Park wearing this jacket!!

I was so significantly blindsided and disappointed about my lack of marathons this year, after my years of devoting time in my life to running them well. However, I know that I am still an expert on the distance and upon being back inshape I will probably attain everything that I want out of the race distance and personal records. Even though I look like I am behind in the world major marathons and running the goal time, I’m really not. Marathon running is a lifelong sport that evens out, even if after a training cycle of hundred mile weeks something makes the race not work at the last minute, it is just a sick learning experience. How do you work through torture and still end up with your personal goals? I’m being sarcastic when I say torture, but it feels like torture to devote your life to something and have it taken away, like a particular event not working out. No one is magically elite in a field, it is supposed to be difficult work and upsetting when the goal does not come to fruition. World major marathons are kind of like my graduate degree, people are really rude about me not having either by my age. I like to laugh at those people, and not let that attitude impact my daily life. I would rather have my ten years of work experience in software and obtain my graduate degrees simaltaneously to advance in the career I already have, than not have any work experience and the letters. In marathon running, after the past ten years of running the long events and learning how to do them well, I imagine when I run the big name marathon I’ll place pretty well. If I run the fast time, do I care where I am? Not at all. It can be hard to ignore or grow through criticism, but the biggest things that matter are so personal that common critism from outside of my circle is not valid in reality. So I like to be very organized, do things a particular way and think long term. My coach, he never ran a marathon until he was in his forties, competitively, so I am really not concerned about achieving my running goals.

My winery expierience was very extravagant. I love the swans. 😍