July 21, 2011

Love you for always, VA

Last week, we lost one of the finest humans ever.

Virginia G. Gentry, ill the past couple years, finally gets some much-deserved peace and rest.

I could say so much about my remarkable mother, but for now I'll just leave it at this poem that I wrote on the morn of her memorial service. Overheard my dad Sam tell a visitor about this pesky plant the night before.

Gardening and words were among my mom's many passions. She really, truly was something else. :)

Two Blooms

Fully formed, forest green

Four-year-old Peace Lily

Standing guard from its gracious front-porch perch

Four years old. Never bloomed.

Until Tuesday, July 12, 2011.

Two small, creamy blooms.

One for Sam.

One for God.

July 2, 2011

The July Project

Here it is. July, in all its glory. Right before my very eyes. Begging to me from my Runner's World online training log.

I hear it calling to me in its soft, sing-song voice: "Hit me back ev. ry. day. C'mon. Lemme see what you got."

So far, I have a pair 2-hr. runs posted. Yesterday, July 1, Me and Jack knocked out the standard Tuesday/Friday 7-minute run/3-minute walk at a casual pace. Nice one. Great way to start a day, that. This afternoon, I pushed out a 4/2 on blistering roads in Harrisonburg. Shoulda gone first thing in the morning, before it got to 85F. Lesson learned? Guess we'll see.

As many of you know, i have a run streak going. July 6 will be Day 1,600. OK, you say, so don't you put an entry in your log for each day? Not exactly. Only the runs of 2 hours or longer get logged. Easier to keep track of the long stuff that way, plus this supports my assertion that the long stuff is all that really matters anyway – especially for me.

I don't always go 7/3. Sometimes it's 3/2. 4/1. 5/1. 25/5. 20/5. 12/3, or some such. That's if it's roads. The countdown-timer thing doesn't work for me on trails. At least on most trails. Don't need to force walks on trails. :)

Hello, July. Vaycay at the beach is in there. So is Catherine's 50km. And the mostly regular Tues/Thur/Fri group runs me and my bunch always do. I can usually squeeze another longish one in on one of the weekend days, and often on the other weekend day, too. So the greatest challenge will be those pesky workday Mondays and Wednesdays, that always require 0400ish wake-ups. Just from memory, I think my largest one-month total is 20 days. So far. :)

So ... here I am. Staring at July. Two boxes filled. Twenty-nine still empty. All with such promise. Sights to see. Moments to share.

Miles. to. go.