Sometimes I (forget)

Sometimes I forget things...

For example, I occasionally forget to go to meetings. I regularly forget things that students ask me to do (my mantra to my students is that they should email me if they want something from me because the likelihood of me remembering to email them their grade (or whatever they want) when I return to my office is slim and none). I also often forget that I've assigned homework for a class until a student asks me if I'm going to collect it (oh yeah, I was going to collect that at the end of class)...

I used to forget to pay bills all the time (which is why Walter is in charge of that aspect of our lives).

To my credit, I've never forgotten to pick up my kids after school or from an event when I am supposed to, although I think Walter lives in fear that I will...which explains why he reminds me OVER and OVER that I need to pick up the kids after school on Thursday (or whenever)...I consider the fact that I've NEVER EVAH forgotten one of them a great testament of my love for them and one of my greatest accomplishments. I remember when I was pregnant with DramaGirl, my reoccuring nightmare was that I'd forgotten her somewhere (although I've read that all expectant mothers have that dream...so maybe that wasn't just me).

I did once forget to take DramaGirl to a doctor's appointment when she was something like 18 months old.

One year, I forgot my mom's birthday (bad, very bad)...although I blame that on finals.

The list of things that I forget is pretty lengthy...and this morning my forgetfulness extended to running.

Betty and I went on our weekly long run. Thank God she sent me a text at 7:30 this morning asking if we were running because if she hadn't, I'm sure I would have conveniently forgotten, which wouldn't have been true. Let's just say, I was lacking some mojo this am. But once I got the text, I wasn't going to say "no...let's not run," so we headed down to San Diego Bay and were thrilled to learn that the weather on the bay was nicer (warmer and the sun was peeking through some clouds) than it was inland where we live (where it was cool, cloudy, and looked like it was going to rain...and by the way, have I used enough parenthesis in this post yet?)

That being said, it was a little colder than we are used to (I won't say it is cold, seeing as some of you are dealing with ice storms, and blizzards, and snow, and other kinds of serious weather)...but it was colder than we SoCal weather-wimps are used to.

So...this morning I realized that I'd forgotten some things about running in the cold(ish) weather...and about planning for a long run in the cold(ish) weather. (We ran 9 miles this morning, which is a long run in my book). Here's my list.

1. I FORGOT that no matter what, I need to go to the restroom at the last possible moment before running. "Holding it" for 9 miles is just not any fun. We wished that Elsie was with us because she would have been able to explain why pee is not just absorbed back into our systems even when we appear to be sweating out every other last drop of fluid.
2. Speaking of sweat, I FORGOT that even when it's cold, I sweat. And even though it was cold enough to wear running tights, I forgot that chafing could still occur, thus it would have been really important to remember to apply Glide to some areas in the upper thigh/lower butt region that cannot be photographed for verification unless a porn site is in the making, but I FORGOT to apply the Glide, thus my upper inner thigh is so painful tonight it hurts to sit, and I have no idea how I'm going to put pants on tomorrow.
3. I FORGOT that wind blowing off the bay = running uphill...or that's what the last 1/2 mile of the run felt like as Betty and I ran into the wind.
   
4. I FORGOT that there would still be tourists on the Bay Front taking pictures. This means that loads of people were standing around gazing at the Carnival Cruise Ship they'd just gotten off of, which meant that they NEEDED to stand in the middle of the walkway to take a picture of it. Why anyone would want a picture of only the ship is beyond me. I mean, I have pictures of my family ON a cruise ship when we were ON A CRUISE, but if I really wanted a picture of the ship, I'd buy a postcard... In any event, there are a fair number of what appeared to be Japanese tourists who have pictures of a Carnival Lines Cruise Ship and BETTY AND ME, running by, for their family vacation albums.

Not a forgotten item, but of note...There were some pretty cool new public artworks at Seaport Village called "Cool Globes," all with environmental themes. Betty and I ran past them (oh yes, we were so speedy) but they definitely are worth another look. I only took one picture of them.

Aren't they cool? That's Betty speeding past them...I know she's thrilled that I got this shot..haha

So....how'd we do? If only these were easy questions to answer, but alas, they are not. I recalibrated my Nike+ sensor, so I think it's a little more accurate than it has been, but I think it's still off by .10 mile for every 5 miles, so I also mapped the run on MapMyRun (which used to be a really cool mapping tool, but is now so weighed down with advertising and other garbage that its becoming less fun to use. Maybe the "paid" version is better).

Here are my stats from both Nike+ and MapMyRun
Total run time 1:49:32
Nike+ - 8.95 miles/12:14 mm
MapMyRun - 9:19 miles/11:55 mm

Also, Betty is getting back into the swing of things by running for 8 to 8.5 minutes, then walking for 1.5 to 2 minutes, so when she walked, I'd run ahead for about a minute, then run back to her so that we could run together...My map on MapMyRun doesn't take this into account, but I figure I may have added another .10 mile or so by doing that...which would support my idea that the Nike+ sensor is off by .10 for every five miles...

In any event, I think I ran a bit under 9.5 miles this morning...which is what I wanted to do.

As for the week coming up, all my finals are done by Tuesday morning, then I'll have some grading to do, but my goal is that by Wednesday morning to be FREEEEEEEEEE, which means more time for running and blogging...and oh yeah, at some point I'm going to start planning for this holiday thing that's coming up...GAH! (I'm not forgetting it, but I am ignoring it).

Have a great week peeps! Don't worry, I won't be FORGETTING to stop by your blogs...