Choosing Sleep

So around 8:30 Friday night, I was still in Minneapolis, 3 hours away from Hayward, WI, the site of the Birkie. I had not yet waxed my skis, or done many of the things I really felt I needed to get done before heading out of town. I had pretty much convinced myself that instead of going up late at night, I'd just get up at 3 a.m. and drive there, when it occurred to me that I didn't actually have to go. Something I had signed up to do for fun was now becoming a major stress, and while I'm all for pushing through difficulty, this was not what I had signed up for.

The thought of not spending all that time in the car, dealing with shuttling to the start and back from the finish, and the exhausted drive home...well, it was a breath of fresh air to stay at home and get some things done.

So I woke up around 6 anyway, and eventually made it out the door and got in a 22 mile run. The run went well, and the afternoon nap was delightful! The next morning my marathon training class did their half marathon, so I got up and ran the course at 5:00 a.m. to get the mile markers out. It was pretty snowy and slow, but the class did a great job, with lots of strong packs of marathoners-in-the-making working together to get to the finish.

Friday, my wife Taj and I leave for a two week trip to India to visit some of her extended family. It's exciting and will be a great experience...but there's a lot to get done before we leave. I'm now in decent running shape, but I'm not sure how much training I'll be doing while we're gone. There are a few days for sure where it's just not going to happen. Hopefully I can get out enough to keep myself sane. We'll primarily be in Kerala, in southern India, both near the coast and then in the mountains. Hopefully I'll get some good pictures.