All Downhill From Here

This morning started at about 6:30 am, with me gently admonishing my daughter for quietly collecting all the Easter eggs she could find, before her brother had a chance to wake up and search with her. She and I put them all back, I returned her to her bed, and tried to doze for a bit. After an hour or so, we woke up her brother and father and I gave sleepy-boy a little head start in collecting eggs before letting early-girl at ’em, too. Sleepy boy was very gracious, and left every other egg for his sister to find. No one told him to do that… Aw.

Then we set in to figuring out our clues. In our house the Easter Bunny leaves paper clues, like a treasure hunt, that lead to a basket for each of us. I have on occasion called the Bunny who leaves my clues Psycho-Bunny, for the nasty, un-solvable riddles he’s left me, but this year I was actually able to work my way through them without much trouble.

After one Lindt milk chocolate ball and a cup of coffee I was practically vibrating. I hardly drink coffee in the mornings now, having switched to ginger-mint tea in January, and I hadn’t realized it would affect me so much. I whipped up a batch of waffles for breakfast, and we relaxed together for awhile.

We had a very relaxed day planned and I got dressed for my long run. I dawdled and found one distraction after another before finally getting out the door. Last week’s hard 12km in the snow and wind on whiny legs was still fresh in my mind, and I was dreading attempting 14km. After all, I’d run 8km already the day before, with hills!

Once I got out there, though, it turned out to be the best run I’d had in weeks! The snow was gone again, there was a light breeze at 5C/41F, and I had a lot to think about again. I set my watch to run 10minutes/walk 1, as I felt I needed the structure to keep me going. I told myself I only had to run 10 minutes at a time, and if I didn’t feel good I would turn around and go home. I was very forgiving to myself, and thought about the meanings of Easter and how forgiveness fits into it. I also thought about new life, rejuvenation, and joy.

My legs felt far better at the end of this 14k than they did after last week’s 12k in the snow. I came home, ate peanut butter toast, had a big glass of milk, and showered before getting ready for Easter dinner at the in-laws’.