Running Ruminations

Well, the fine state of California reopened ever-so-slightly since last week’s writing, though Governor Newsom made it abundantly clear that if local orders were more strict than those of the state, the former superseded the latter. For those of us living in Santa Clara county, or more specifically, for my family and me, everything felt like it remained the same. There wasn’t any discernible difference. 

Earlier this week, on Monday, Governor Newsom announced that at the end of this week, more components of California life would be opening, and he’d be laying out what it all entailed at Thursday’s press conference. Obviously I can’t foretell what this weekend will look like for my family, but I can’t imagine that any of us will be super psyched and willing to go to florists, bookstores, clothing stores, or sporting retailers, the original list of soon-to-open aspects, for curbside pickups. 

Earlier in the week, the governor intimated that some parks may be reopening this weekend — or rather, that he’d be communicating what their reopening guidelines would dictate by the weekend — so I’m curious how parks here (like my beloved ARP) will be affected, if they would be at all. Ultimately though, if local jurisdictions and counties are going to be the ones making the calls on reopening, I don’t imagine anything changing anytime soon because SCC still has a huge number of cases (with SJ, in particular, having more than 50% of those reported in the county). 

So, in other words, the past week has been more of the same, at least for us.

Of note is that A’s principal held a school-wide parent Zoom meeting this week, simply to touch base with us, answer questions, that sort of thing, and as of this week, according to our principal, the superintendent hasn’t expressed any plans to begin school earlier, in July, as Gov. Newsom last week suggested may be the case with some schools. Who knows what will ultimately happen or what school will look like in the fall — my guess is that it’ll be some combination of in-person and remote learning — so just like with everything else related to this, all we can do is wait. We’ve got about a month left in this academic year.  

Mother’s Day is Sunday (hooray!), and I ordered gifts for my sister and my mom (that surely won’t arrive on time) and wrote in the gift messages how much I miss them both. I don’t think they read my blog, so hopefully I didn’t just spoil the surprise. There’s not much “nice” about this whole pandemic upending everyone’s life, but an unexpected byproduct is that I’ve been having video chats with my family way more often than ever before. It’s fantastic for staying in touch, even when we don’t have a ton of new updates to share, but I still sometimes find myself saddened to not know when I’m going to see my family in-person again. The girls and I definitely aren’t going to the midwest (to Ohio or to Illinois) this summer, even if things change, because the risks are just way too high. Additionally, my family has already expressed that it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be spending time together and going out of the country around Christmas/New Year’s like we’ve done for the past 5+ years.

At the earliest, that means I won’t see my parents, sister and her family, and brother and his family until at least winter 2021, which sucks, and I simply have to hope that everyone remains safe and healthy between now and then. I have no idea when I’ll next see my in-laws, too, in person, which is also a huge bummer. Who knows? Maybe we’ll have a better handle on everything before next winter (and dear god can I hope for a new president, too?), but I guess just like most things in life and, conveniently, also in running, our best approach is to stay in the mile we’re in and not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Control that which you can control, and let go of everything else beyond your reach.  

And finally, in the past week, my big girl turned 9! She said that this year’s birthday was her best birthday ever (bless her), even in the absence of the usual kid birthday stuff like a big party, special restaurant dinner, and that sort of thing. Originally, her big present was going to swim camp this summer for a week (a sleep-away camp), but of course it has all been canceled. (By no means am I complaining; it is definitely the right call). I don’t know if it’s because the pandemic is bringing out all sorts of emotions right now, if it’s some motherly guilt that I couldn’t provide for my daughter what I know she wanted the most (as she has been looking forward to being old enough for swim camp for over a year), or if it’s because my girl is now 9 — almost double digits! — but dear god, I was such a hot mess on her birthday. Honest to god, I couldn’t get through singing happy birthday without choking back tears, and I was weepy like that all day long. wth 

(At the risk of sounding a little imbalanced right now, usually I wake up early, drink tea and read the news [and cry a little while reading the news each morning], then I go for a run and finish feeling happy and jazzed and buzzy, and I’m pretty even-keeled for the rest of the day. On her birthday though, dear lord. It was nuts). 

Hopefully your past week has been healthy and uneventful (the good type of uneventful, anyway). Hang in there, gang. 

On occupying time and settling mental unrest:

Cooking: Nothing out of the ordinary here (read: more tacos, this time with a bean dip-type filling). Extravagant! 

Running: April ended up being a really solid month for me, with 242.36 miles (slightly down from March) and 12,769’ climbing (pretty much exclusively road hills, since ARP has been closed). Last week I had a 100k training week (just shy of 63 miles) for the first time in a couple months, a new record during shelter in place. Most importantly, running has been super fun and chill, and I’ve been doing a much better job of consistently doing the ancillary stuff I usually neglect. An especially lovely and fun part of running right now is doing 5k training with A, and I feel like it’s allowing us to bond in a different way. I love it 🙂 A bunch of friends are participating in the virtual GVRAT 1000k, and I considered it but ultimately decided against it. (I instead have opted to support some local race orgs’ virtual efforts). 

Watching: I finally watched the Olympic Marathon trials coverage on YouTube over the weekend (which I agree, was pretty terrible). Even though I knew the results, it was still a lot of fun to watch. Related, I’ve been listening to a ton of podcasts that interviewed runners after the trials, and I feel like it’s a fantastic balance to my mornings: read the news and cry (and generally feel bad afterward) and then go for a run and usually listen to podcasts about runners from the trials (and usually feel fantastic afterward). And for whatever reason, I got on a musical kick over the weekend and watched Oklahoma! (which was definitely *not* what I remembered from high school) and Singing in the Rain (with many parts that didn’t age well). I’ve been trying to watch McMillion$ (because the girls have gotten really into playing Monopoly), but our Amazon Prime app has been buggy lately, so I haven’t yet been successful. 

Reading: After the kids and I finished Ralph S. Mouse, we began Henry Huggins, and in my own mix, I’m alternating among Kindness and Wonder (the book about Mr. Rogers), The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Melinda Gates’ The Moment of Lift (which, so far, is excellent), and I’m wrapping up To Shake the Sleeping Self. It depends on my mood at any given time. You? 

Another week of this behind us. Thinking of so many right now and wishing you all good health. Take care, be well, and happy mothers’ day. xo