16 Weeks To Go

i have signed up for the chicago marathon. last year, injury scaled me back from a marathon to a not-sanctioned-by-physiotherapist half marathon. and i came out of 4 month therapy knowing that i must take my time and be kind to my knees and don't push them to hard. so now i have to get ready for the 26.2 miles by taking longer and longer runs and my knees are giving me a painful run for my money. after a crippling 6 mile run on sunday, i took a few days off and went for three miles yesterday.

oh that run. my knees. so i warmed up at home and did some stretching and walked briskly to the park and stretched some more and then i started running. okay. tried to start running but my knees were all - where do you think you're going? and then at a point my knee buckled and i thought, damn, i haven't even gone 400 metres. but then i thought, if i am going to stagger, i'll stagger my 3 miles. and like half a mile into it i was thinking, i feel like a weigh a tonne, maybe my body is too heavy for my knees. then, as though to prove my point, some skinny and lanky runner sprints past me. i tell myself - pandave, don't let it get to you. don't judge yourself using their yardstick. do what you can. just keep going. it may take you an hour but what you need to do is just do it. by .85 of a mile, the pain was more manageable and the knees had eased up a bit. i no longer felt as though i needed to put some motor oil in them. they allowed me to move them a little. my limp began to finally resemble a run. a very slow run. and that is how it went. until the 3 mile mark. i did it. and then when i felt like going straight home and collapsing, i took the time to do a cool down mile walk before taking my 80 year old knees, one painful step at a time, up to my floor. and THEN i stretched a little. i put ice on the knees and forced myself to sit for a good half hour. and then at last, unable to keep more than one three letter word in my head i obeyed.
bed. bed. bed.

Shhhh...I Won't Tell If You Won't

i don't have internet in my apartment so i am using my neighbour's computer and internet. i couldn't take it any longer... i'm itching to write.

so this is the deal. about a month and a half ago my apartment was fumigated. like put all your belongings in plastic bags fumigated. the preparation was a headache but they told me i could go back in after 24 hours. then as they left i received various instructions

• don't walk on the floor barefoot for at least 30 days.
• don't mop said floors for at least 30 days.
• keep clothes in plastic bags for at least 60 days.
• wash EVERYTHING you own.

so walked back into my apartment after the stipulated 24 hours and was overwhelmed by the confusion i faced. my furniture had been turned upside down and stuck in corners. i thought to myself - thank goodness i don't own a lot of furniture or i really would have been been devastated. i walked around, half-heartedly tried to move a bureau, started sneezing and the left.

over the next couple of weeks, i donned a face mask and entered the apartment and moved furniture back into place, swept floors, and wondered just how poisonous everything was. my eyes would burn and itch and i would get seriously congested. then i would leave. then i took some trips out of town and out of country. i passed through london for all of 24 hours, during which i slept, talked to relatives on the phone and ate nando's chicken. i went to new hampshire for a college graduation. i went to puerto rico to learn how to surf - except it is not surfing season. and, finally, i went to providence for work and went running in the morning using a map that forgot to include the new mall that has blocked off a bunch of roads on my chosen route. i'm sure many drove by me and thought - she's not from around here. i finally got back home last friday and had just enough time to mop (30 days were up!) and tidy up a bit before my new cousin came by for the weekend. oh but i digress.

i got home to NO INTERNET! i called my cable company and they couldn't fix it over the phone - which tends to be my experience everytime something breaks. so i had to set up an appointment for a tech, except the cable company's computers were down. they had to call me back later and when they did all their weekday appointment slots are during times of the day when people are working. i must remember to rant about the absolute inane nature of that business practice. so someoen is coming in on saturday. in the meantime, i am sneaking in and using this machine. because, as i have said before, sometimes you just have to let it out.

shhhh...

Diversion

i am working on a post about what has been going on in my life and today i come across a piece in the paper that i heard about on the news yesterday. a three year old boy was beaten and died in the care of his godmother and her companion. she is 30 and he is 25 and the boy was 3. and there was something that he did that they felt he needed to be punished for. and what did they do to this three year old boy? they forced him to do push ups and march in place. i'm sure THEY don't do push ups themselves - i mean this country is not famous for its svelte population. but they took a boy who is not even ready for the first grade and doused him with cold water and sodomised him. it makes you wonder. the neighbours said they had seen some things that concerned them but they didn't want to butt in - like a freezing cold day where the godmother was bundled up but the baby was barely dressed. i hope they never saw this training for the marines-esque behaviour and thought it was okay.
and, wow, she is 30 and he is 25. they both should know better. but i must know i am wasting rational thought to a couple that sodomised anyone, let alone a 3 year old. i mean seriously, what do you do with folk like this?

well, while we're thinking, let's put them in a subway car with the classic unwashed crazy dude and broken a/c. temperatures are 96 in the shade. let's take our time.