Dearest friends, this is Pink Swan, my first peony to bloom at the Parker Plantation. I've left a trail of peonies across Lee County over the past 20 years.
Now for my Mr. Bean reference.
I know my manner of living worries my loved ones. True, if I had a TV to occupy my time, I'd have far less opportunities to injure myself. But, I don't plan to croak from a massive cholesterol induced coronary on the couch. If you hear that the oxen have trampled me to smithereens, then you can know that I died doing something I love and somebody had better get their butt down here to take care of Cole and company!
Be thankful I'm not as driven as the people I admire and wish to emulate. Then you'd have something to worry about.
Dean Karnazes, running phenom, best-selling author, has run marathons in every continent, yes that includes Antarctica. He'd give any parent a full head of gray hair.
#421 is Nikki Kimball, a woman my age who wins most ultra marathons she runs. The picture is from this month's Marathon des Sables in the Sahara. The toughest foot race on Earth: 156 miles in 100'F temperatures, divided into 6 stages, runners pack all their own supplies (food, sleeping bag, ect), the organizers only provide water and tents. Nikki won the race, of course. In the picture, she was encouraging her main competitor to pass the slow pokes.
She lives in Montana and runs with her pointers... remind you of anyone?
She took a bad fall during a run with her dog, leaving her with a deep gash in her leg... similarities are astounding, aren't they? She ran the Marathon des Sables with this injury, more worried that if the organizers knew of it they'd disqualify her.
When Cole and I do our Northwest trip this Winter, I will make it a point to join one of her Nordic skiing adventures. I'm hoping some of that craziness rubs off on me!
Have skis, will travel.
Recent injuries have made me realize that I need to treat this ageing body with more compassion. I have officially dropped out of my Brazilian jiu jitsu class (with much chagrin), but I'm thinking of joining the kick boxing group -- see, I'm progressing!
I'm not 'that' old yet, but a lifetime of manual labor and years of doing my own stunts have put some serious miles on my odometer.
As a kid, whenever we'd fall out of trees, wreck our bikes trying to fly off loading docks, try to take an inflatable dingy down waterfalls, do spectacular Super Grover moves off a horse's back, fall off the back of speeding snowmobiles, thought it was a good idea to try out the competition ski jump at night with regular skis... I can go on but I would be in breach of the confidentiality agreement my cousins. We weren't concerned about maiming ourselves, it was keeping mum and never telling our parents.
But, here's the good news. After a week of lazing around, waiting for that crunching feeling to leave my neck, I went for a wee 5 mile run yesterday. No pain. I'm baaaaack! Mr. Bean rides again, baby!
