Off My Rocker

The End of Bird Island, Sunset Beach, North Carolina











After a glorious week at the beach, I've returned to posting on this blog. Husband and I spent a week in a rented beach house at Sunset Beach, North Carolina, along with his parents, his sister, her husband and their two young daughters who are 6 and 3 years old. Needless to say, if husband and I had any ambitions of having children, these thoughts were squashed by a week exposed to the environment of the child. Both nieces are adorable, unique and fun. However, on a beach trip, everything winds up revolving around the children's mealtimes, temperament and sleep patterns. Their parents continuously looked weary and aggravated. At moments husband and I went against the grain by venturing out alone past dinner to ride go-carts. The go-carts are one of my favorite elements of a beach trip. For some reason I enjoy the reckless abandon of whipping around the track without regard, the gas down all the way the entire time. We also engaged in what is by far my most favorite beach activity: sitting in rocking chairs on the porch and listening to the ocean swells murmuring in reply. Despite the fact that husband is diligently studying for the upcoming bar exam, I requested a standing date each evening on the porch to rock the night away. Another great part of the trip was frolicking in the surf. The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect and the water temperatures were quite comfortable.

I managed to get some good runs in while at the beach. Mostly I ran the streets on the island of Sunset Beach. I did have one brief sojourn to visit some friends just north of the sandhills in North Carolina, where I had a good morning stroll along some country roads. My final run at the beach, I ran down to an area known as Bird Island. At one time Bird Island was once only accessible at low tide. Seemingly symbolic of our modern times marked by human impatience, some humans have filled in the passage to Bird Island now making it accessible at any time. My trip to the rocks was indeed at low tide though. I found a decent-sized sand dollar out by the edge of the island which is a rare occurrence since the area was made more open to visitors.

Last week's running mileage totaled 32 miles. I wimped out of my long run on Sunday and only did 9 miles, but I felt fairly dehydrated (not enough water on the trip back from the beach on Saturday).

This week's running schedule looks something like this:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 5
Wednesday: 7 or 8
Thursday: AT (6x800s)
Friday:Rest
Saturday: 5
Sunday: 10-12.

Music of the moment: The Eagles, The Long Run