16 miles

Today could have very well been a 5,6 or maybe even 7 mile run. I’m currently in between my marathon training and decided i’d just run when I wanted and however many miles I wanted for these weeks. (FYI: I officially start NYC Marathon training in 3 weeks).

But a bunch of my running peeps are training for a very crazy event. It’s called Center of the Nation 555 series. 5 marathons (or half marathons) in 5 states, in 5 days! I’m actually joining the “crazy” but only doing halfs for either 3 or perhaps all 5 days. We’ll be running in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska in mid September. So the gang is trying to get back to back double digit runs in now so that by August they’ll be closer to getting 5 consecutive double digit days.

Anyway, this morning, my 2 Brooklyn peeps Lisa and Mike came out to MY island (Staten Island) to run. I mapped out a 15 mile course (which ended up to be just over 16.2….oopsie, my bad=) that was mostly along the beach. We had a easy great run! While it was quite flat and the temps were below 70, there was no shade to speak of. We started out keeping a 10ish minute pace….but after our photo op/short break at the base of the Verrazano Bridge we were hovering more at an 11 minute pace.

Yay! Group photo at the Verrazano Bridge….Oops forgot to get the bridge in this shot.

Mike-Lisa/Lisa-Sally and BRIDGE! Perty!

And by mile 13 I fell back and stayed at a 12 minute pace! But knowing it was just a few miles until we were done I knew Lisa and Mike only had to wait 4-6 minutes for me. And tomorrow I rest while they do an 18 miler!!!!!

Best mile of the run was when I got to vent about my water heater fiasco. That mile FLEW by!

So there’s my wisdom tidbit for today. Take the frustrations and anger that life can bring and use it to fuel yourself in a positive way. 

share this

Well what better way to get this blog off the ground than with a true Sweat Out The Small Stuff (SOTSS) experience.

I’ll keep it brief.

1. Woke up to notice my hot water heater was leaking. It’s old. It was time.

2. Called service company “ABC” (rhymes with ears) who offers “same day installation” and 15 minutes later was the proud owner of a 40 gallon hot water heater. I was told i’d get a call within the hour where they would then give me a “window” for when the installation would happen. One hour became two and two became four. In the meantime Duncan (my labradoodle furkid) got a bath and a haircut and went from shagamuffin to puffball

either way, the cuteness factor is off the chart!

3. By 3pm I got antsy…. I called back the service company to find out what is going on. All they could do was give me the phone # of the company they sub-contracted to do the installation. I called the number. Got a machine. Left a message.

4. Got real hungry so slaved over the hot stove ordered chinese food =)

5. Well to make a long story endless, there were a few more phone calls, being left on hold for 51 minutes, seeing that my credit card had already been billed the $1,000 and then being told at 6pm when I finally gave up waiting and canceled the purchase and install that it will be 7-10 business days before my refund will be posted to the credit card. Seriously, that was the breaking point. The frustration of today is what I consider the perfect description of the “small stuff” I tend to have a hard time with in life. So what did I do? As soon as I hung up the phone I put on my running gear and went out for a run! 3.75 miles at about 9:50 pace. That’s fast for me! Worked up a good sweat and now I feel so relaxed!!!! There’s only one little, small, teeny-weenie issue….that good sweat i worked up….well, I have a broken hot water heater…so the sweat might be sticking around a little longer. HA!

Consider this post a preview of what’s to come. I’ll be spending the next few weeks getting the rest of this blog up to snuff and giving you a formal welcome too!

What has been your worst repairman/service call story? Anyone think they can top mine?  Anyone have some good running plans this weekend?

share this