The Journey and Journal of an Aging Runnah, Who Still Smiles Too Much
In case you haven’t heard I retired again today. You can read about it here, but now that it is done, what did I do after I left where I used to work?
Of course I went for a run on the Augusta Rail Trail.
No photos, no GPS data, nope just me, myself and I doing a relaxing run along the Kennebec River, taking a quick lap around Capitol Park, running through down town Hallowell and then back to the Augusta Trail Head. Continue reading “A Head Clearing Rail Trail Run – RunLog 6-30-17”
Retiring Again
Retiring – it seems as though I have done this before, that deja vu kind of feeling you get at the oddest moments…mmmm wait a minute, I remember now — I have done this twice before.
Let’s see… Continue reading “Retiring Again”
Well it is time to get back to routine posts, you know the ones that are all about my running that day.
Part of getting things back to normal, whatever to hell that is.
Today’s run was one of those that you just love to get outside and run. The temps were in the 60’s, a light breeze, low humidty and partly cloudy. I started out a bit slower than I thought I would and then on OCCDr, I started to pick it up.
I didn’t want a hard or fast run, so I got slightly above comfortable running and held it there for most of the run. Going down Leighton, just seemed pretty easy and I am sure that I was going faster than usual and then coming back up Leighton, while it is a slight uphill grade, it is a bit longish, I maintained a consistent pace.
Once I turned the corner back onto OCCDr, I did pick up the pace to comfortably hard for the rest of the run.
The Hoka Infinite’s did everything I asked of them during the run, although I did feel the PF a little bit after wearing my other shoes to work this morning. So the other shoes will go into the give-away pile even though I do like them. I just can’t take a chance on re-aggravating my PF, just when I am getting back to running without PF discomfort.
I was very happy with this run and without working at it too hard, I came within 7 seconds of my best time for this course, which surprised me because I know that I put a lot more effort into that run than I did today.
Very good run and it feels good to get back to just posting about running again.
Well we all need a nice vacation week now and then. With everything that has happened in June this year, it was definitely needed!
I pretty much gave social media a break.
Katie and Nate came out with the grandchildren. So we got to spend some time together and wander around Acadia National Park a little.
Events have overtaken the finishing of my Vomero 11 review, I am now up to 30 runs in them and while everything is pretty much the same as I would have written at the 20 run mark, there are some minor updates.
Let’s get back to it.
The Nike Vomero 11 in EE width, yet another last year’s model. The way it is going I have a feeling that I won’t be doing too many of the newest and greatest current running shoes. However, that is okay with me, it means that I am getting great shoes for a lot less than the price they were when they first come out.
I purchased the Vomero 11’s from Running Warehouse on closeout for a decent price at the end of April, since then I have done 20 runs and over 13 hours of running in them
This has been updated to:
plus a lot of walking and wearing them to work.
Sometimes I do have a brain and do use it.
Yesterday, I ran outside in 85* to 90* temps, it wasn’t bad because I didn’t attempt to do anything stoopid. I ran comfortably to start and then purposely slowed down a little more after getting up by Taco Bell. I could tell that it was not going to be about speed, but running easy. Once I got that through my thick skull, I had a really nice run despite the heat and finished feeling stronger than I thought I would.
Today the temp on my phone told me it was 87*, so when I stepped outside and walked to the car, I decided that running two days in a row outside in that kind of heat might not be the smartest thing. So I drove over to Planet Fitness and headed for the treadmill.
When I got there there were only two others on the treadmill, which surprised me, but hey it gave me a lot of choices of which one to run on. 🙂
Today the first step was taken.
After talking a LOT with Mary, we decided that it was time for me to go back to being retired. We have worked hard, been frugal and are in a position where I don’t have to work unless I want to.
While I like where I work and believe that what I do there is important and how I do it make me an asset, not an arse.
However, since Phil’s death, we have done a lot of thinking and talking about what is important in our lives. There is a LOT of stuff that we will have to take care of moving forward and my continuing to work will get in the way of what we need to do.
This morning I talked with my supervisor and submitted my resignation effective June 30th. She is a great boss and understood completely why I was getting done, but it didn’t make it any easier for me to actually do it. That guilt that is felt when you are a member of a team and then decide to leave is tough.
In spite of those feelings, I know that it is what needed to be done.
On July 1st, I go back to taking the road less traveled.
Last week I attended the funeral of my brother-in-law Phil on Thursday – it was not something that I expected to do for many more years.
Since Mary’s brother Phil died unexpectedly of natural causes on June 1st, there has been a lot of grieving, pain and yes, more than a little hard work. Phil’s sudden loss has also been an eye-opening experience for me.
Since his death I have repeatedly asked myself:
The three plus hour one way drive to Phil’s house, has given me a lot of time think about those questions and a multitude of others that we ask ourselves after someone close to you dies unexpectedly.
Books are written on this subject so a weekly summary blog post is not going to do it justice, but needless to say the wheels have been set in motion for changes for me/us going forward.
Now it will be interesting to see where it leads.
Getting back to more mundane things and even some running. Continue reading “A Tough Week – Week Ending 6/11/17”
This was a LONG day.
I got on the road at 6:20 AM and got home at just about 5:00 PM. In between I made a trip to Waterville, then flipped 4.0 hours to Lancaster, NH (Vermont border) to meet Mary, her sister, SD1 & SD2 at her brother’s.
Since Mary’s brother Phil died last Thursday, things have been a blur of figuring out what to do next. All the planning, setting things in motion, seeing all the people who need to be seen and getting ready for the service on Thursday @1:00 PM.
Then adding in attempting clean out a house that belongs to someone else is a tough thing. You are going through their most private things and seeing how they really lived, then trying to figure out what needs to be kept, what needs to be given away or thrown out is stressful as hell.
So many memories.
We did a bunch of cleaning, loaded up the truck/car, dropped stuff off at local church, loaded up other stuff for the return trip and flopped 3.5 hours back to the house.
