I’m attracted to ultra distance events because of a genetic mental defect. For some reason my family, at least the women in my family, seem inherently incapable of accurately judging the enormity of any task they want to undertake. If a job can be started it can be finished. We tend to only see the next step, or next shovelful, of our current obsession.
My mother for example, looks out her window at an acre of leaves, and heads out with box of yard bags and a rake. She has been known to rake from sun-up until after sunset and has filled more than 100 bags in a weekend. These are no fluffy, lightweight bags. To save bags she compacts the leaves as tightly as possible. She also collects plenty of sticks and pecan shells, and a significant amount of wet dirt while she is raking. She does this without Gu or Heed or Clif Shot Bloks and sometimes NO food at all!! We ultrarunners are such wimps.
Then there is my sister. She decided to dig all the post holes for a 5 mile cross fence on her property. Ok, it’s not really 5 miles, only a couple hundred yards. Might as well have been 5 miles as far as I am concerned! She did not finish her fence in a day or even a weekend. Turns out her land is very rocky. In some places it took her and a friend 8 hours just to dig one hole!! With the best intentions, I offered to help her while I was visiting. I lasted about an hour. We, she did most of the work, had only accomplished about one quarter of the required depth, and the top half is the “easy” part of post hole digging.
Yesterday I did about 40 miles on my rollers, and another easy 5 with Bonnie. I am already feeling better about the 508. Like I said, it is a genetic mental defect. Unfortunately I apply my dis(functional)-abilities to less productive tasks than the rest of my family.
Cathy, I would be honored to be quoted on your blog >:) . I love how you put a quote in every post. I always seem to want to quote song lyrics which can get like an inside joke if people don’t know which song I’m quoting. I am so sorry to hear about your compartment syndrome. Lower Leg Sufferers Unite! As for mental genetic defects – if you’re going to be stuck with one, it looks like you’ve got a good one to be stuck with. Extreme leaf bagging, marathon post holing, it’s all ultra good stuff! And I agree that daylight savings punishes those who have to get their butts up and out of bed wicked early to get any workout in before work. Just when we started not having to wear headlamps for our morning roll/run/ski/ride !! Grrrrr. I hope to check in and see that you are doing well. Take care.
Kendra, I hope your shin splints are better soon. As far as song lyrics and inside jokes, I think you should go for it. : ) Some people will get it and some won’t. That has got to happen a lot with blogs. It is hard enough to adequately express oneself in writing to people we know well, much less to people we’ve never met in person. BTW, you have a great blog and I love the name!!