Are You Living It?

As I sat in meditation today by an open window, a dog visiting my neighbors barked and barked. The barking was regular but not at rhythmic, predictable intervals. Yap . . . yap . . . nothing . . . yap, yap . . .

So today I headed out to the track with Tela to meet up with Jennie Reed for a workout. We snuck out to Redmond before the eventual deluge hit the area.

On tap for today - some standing starts, jumps and accelerations.

“Be concerned with what you must do; Not what the people think.”

- Anonymous

No not the beer. The singer. You know the song, “I think I’m in love, but it makes me kind of nervous to say so.” Reading my blog over the last year, or even the last month, would make you think I was bipolar (and with my genetics you might be right). Things are great! Things suck. Things couldn’t be better! Things couldn’t be worse.

On Friday, April 24, Highway 20 opened to traffic. Meaning the gateway to the North Cascades is officially open and the shortcut to Mazama is available!

Anyone want to travel East?

With my running group, I enjoyed the Valle Crucis 15 Miler on Saturday. The course had beautiful views, because it quickly led us up a mountain before descending and finishing along the Watauga River. That meant five miles up, five miles down, and five miles gently uphill. On the first long uphill, my Garmin auto-paused twice, either because I was running so slowly or because the GPS couldn’t hold the satellites on the switchbacks.

Taylor is off the ventilator and awake. He’s got a long road ahead, but it’s truly a miracle. Our family is so blessed to see and talk to him again! We love you Tay…way to fight the good fight…

a

Yesterday Chris and I took a jog through Point Defiance. Conveniently located directly behind his house, you can access it by walking through the parking lot of SBN (Salmon Beach North) and head into the Old Growth forests. The trails are blanketed in pine needles, soft mud, occasional puddles. The views are amazing - you catch glimpses of the rhododendron garden, Puget Sound, ferries, and listen to eagle chirp.

My nephew fights on…

Meanwhile, I’m a mom. A wife. A coach…a GOOD coach. A puppy owner, a friend, a sister, a daughter, a cousin, an activist, an environmentalist (saw the movie Earth today and cried, even though the kids and I had seen the BBC footage before), a sickly patient, super strong, a forgetful person, a grocery shopper, an OCD housekeeper in recovery, a triathlete, a yoga teacher….

Yesterday I hit a major reset button. Major.

I took my track bike down from the wall where it’s been sitting and collecting dust since last September. I pumped up the tires and put on pedals. I located my heavy track sack - laden with chain rings and sprockets. I dug out my Broadmark jersey and headed east to Marymoor for the first time in months. One of my skin suits still has the USA Master Nationals jersey numbers pinned onto it.