26.2

I want to be a runner again. I want a runner’s body.

I want a runner’s lung capacity.

In the back of my mind I have always wanted to run a marathon.

I want a runner’s euphoria - you know, that moment when you no longer feel your lungs or your legs. When you recognize all that is good and beautiful around you. When stress is erased and solutions to problems become clear and all is right with the world.

AHHHHHHHHH!

I just have one problem. Well, two, technically.

My knees are lame. Literally and figuratively. I blame it on several factors.

Track.

Gymnastics.

Heredity (more on that later).

And some kind of injury (meniscus I’m guessing) incurred last summer when I first decided to reclaim my running glory days, and that I keep irritating every time I think it is healed and try to run again.

I am a slow learner, but have finally reconciled myself to the fact that I cannot be a runner.

So, I have decided to be a biker.
In the Schwinn sense, not the Hog.

I guess cyclist is the more accurate term, but don’t you think it sounds a lot better to be a Biker Momma than a Cycling Grandma? I do too.

So Biker Momma it is. I have found a 2 ½ mile circular route in the neighborhoods around my house that suits me pretty well right now. How much time I have to exercise determines how many laps I do. There are a few moderate hills to keep things interesting, and not much traffic to keep things safe.

FACT: I am a little paranoid about cars. It is justified.

One of the teachers at the high school has broken bones twice in the past year after being clipped by cars while cycling. So while I hope to feel more comfortable around cars in the future so that I can venture down by the beach, for now I love the solitude of the neighborhood.

FACT: While the definition of my bike says otherwise, you will NOT find me on any mountains. I value my knees, elbows, and face way too much. (If you know mountain bikers you know what I am talking about.)

FACT: You will NOT find me racing. Think much more turtle, much less hare.

Slow and steady. My knees seem to be okay with this. Not completely thrilled, but pretty happy to be off the pounding pavement.

So, hopefully, soon I will have a biker’s body. A biker’s lung capacity.

Is there a biker’s euphoria?

I think it is the moment when my ride is finished and I lift my backside off the seat.

AHHHHHHHHHH!

DISCLAIMER

Some people - okay just one daughter had the guts to say it out loud - have told me that it is lame to keep putting up posts about our trip last spring. (Especially, she says, since Dad has already described even the most minute detail of every day to everyone.) I get that. However, I refuse to feel bad about the posts, including one more to come of our last few days in Nauvoo. The posts were really only written for the benefit of those of us who went, because we believe the quote Annie has on her blog by Anais Nin. “We write to taste life twice - in the moment and in retrospection.” We wanted to remember all the fun, funny, awesome, awe-inspiring and spiritually uplifting things we saw and did, and by doing so remember the bonding it created for us. We have taken many family trips over the past 30 years and we have written very little about them down. Big mistake. We have fond, vague memories, but nothing that brings a vivid recollection of a glorious day viewing God’s creations or of a tender moment between siblings. So we wrote down all the details we could remember about this last trip, in order to “taste” it again and again and again when we get hungry. So humor us one last time, and then we will try to be less lame.