Chicago Marathon?

I worked from home today and was crazy busy. I had planned to work on specific items, and although I did accomplish most of those tasks, I didn't get as much work done on one project as I had hoped. That was thanks to a late notification of something that was supposed to be completed tomorrow. I told the manager that requested it that there was absolutely no way I could go through over 200 documents and fill in a spreadsheet by the end of tomorrow. It would take me at least two weeks to do that... Dream on... He'll ask for an extension from the group that wants the spreadsheet completed.

On days that I work from home, I eat lunch with Kyra and then pick her up as a "car rider" after school. I don't let her watch TV on weekdays as a general rule. However, after she completes her homework on my work-from-home days, I let her watch TV if she'd like just so she's entertained while I finish working. But today, she didn't even turn on the TV; she got on the computer instead, which was fine with me. At about 4:30, I heard her talking on the phone and then she came into the dining room, where I was working, and asked me if she could go over to Sophia's house to play for a little while. I was deep in the middle of a work item. I told her I would need to talk to Sophia's mom. Tonya offered to send their babysitter over to pick up Kyra. Wow, that was a relief! I had Kyra change into her swimsuit so she'd be ready to go to swim lessons when I picked her up later.

Around 5:30, I stopped working and changed into running clothes. At 5:45, Kyra sent me a text message asking when I would be coming to get her. When I wrote back that I was walking out the door, she wrote back saying she never wanted to leave! I'm glad they're having fun! When I got there, the girls were hiding in the tent in the yard. Tonya came out and said she's been thinking all day about how she wants to run the Chicago marathon. It's in October. She ran it a few years ago and loved it. She's not allowed to run yet (had knee surgery a month or two ago), but she's dying to get back on the road. I told her that I plan to run a fall marathon but I haven't decided on which one yet. She smiled saying Chicago is flat and fast, and Sophia squealed all excited "can kyra go too???". The happy feelings were all around, so I said it sounded like a great idea.

We had planned to run the Disney Marathon together this past January, but she had to bail because of her torn meniscus, and I decided to drop out because I took too much time off after my first marathon in late October, and couldn't easily come up with a solution of a babysitter for Kyra while I ran a race that I really wasn't prepared for. So, Chicago sounds like fun!

Laura and I had talked a few weeks ago about running a marathon together. She was on the fence about it. We looked at a few that aren't too far of a drive, but didn't decide on anything. They are in November and December. She's not 100% committed to it because of the large amount of time it takes to train for a marathon.

So, my thought is that if Tonya is able to run, I'll set up my training schedule to run Chicago with her on October 11th. And this year, I'll put in a lot more base miles prior to the marathon training start so I won't need so much time to recover. If Laura decides to do one of the marathons we were looking at, Space Coast Marathon (November 29th) or Kiawah Island (December 12th), I would have 6-8 weeks of time to recover and be able to do one of those too. Wow, that sounds insane...

Now back to today... I took Kyra to her swim lesson at Mountain Park Aquatic Center. After signing her in, I went for a jog around the complex. I've never gone running here but have seen what I thought was a trail. (Tonya confirmed that it is.) It's slightly over a half-mail asphalt trail loop of rolling hills. I enjoyed it, but got bored with it after four laps. So I only ran 2.08 miles, then grabbed my Runner's World magazine and went inside to watch the end of Kyra's swim lesson. Wow, she's fast (at least compared to the other kids in her lane)! She didn't want to leave after the lesson and pleaded for me to let her swim a few more laps (and she was serious). I let her swim for about 10 more minutes, but that's it because I was starving. I grilled chicken while she showered. She read Chapter 2 of her book and fell asleep while doing so. What a full day!