Mads J

Mads J. walked through the bar early Friday evening with a bouquet of flowers, a gorgeous engagement ring & her lips on my face. That drive from Boulder to Bellingham is getting love. We shared stories over wine & settled into her 2-month staycation abode. She put on her party sweater & we went to the Shakedown to see a friend's husband's 90's coverband, sipping with complete unhappiness some grapefruit gin & sodas. Every song sung was feelgood, mmmm, the mantras of our youth.

Saturday I met with Ber for a tempo. Motivation: Meeting girlfriends at Homeskillet after. Every minute of hard effort held savory images of cheese & potatoes & dill & mimosa. There are lava lamps in the fireplace, bright bold colors on the walls, hawaiian umbrellas in mason jars.There is only ever 1 cook working, and notices everywhere bewaring cross contamination. I devoured the salmon hash & eggs & got a cheer from the waitress for not needing a box to go. For dessert she brought us gummy worms on a child's plate

Salmon Hash & Eggs

After brunch Mads & I got library cards & checked out one of my favorites: Haruki Murakami, two thick works to sink into on a bench in the sun over coffees. After, I worked a party at the wine bar while Mads started her first day of intensive yoga training. I had this beautiful woman to come home to, watch Girl with the Dragon Tattoo & munch kale chips with. We plotted travel lines between here to Townsend.

Library cards!

Sunday morning marked my last longlong run in Boston training - 23.75 miles in a tour de Bellingham. Ber was incredible, I could just shower her in romantic vacations & pillow fights. As I was probably breathing really heavy through the night, she organized for our friends to meet me at different points along the run with goos & water. She ran the first 5 with me; I started to feel the workout from the day before around 10-12 miles, which was foreseeable. When I hit the harbor to circle the ports, Al & Bron hooked on with water. Al helped me to finish in Fairhaven, at the door to the Rustic Cafe, where we were having a team development meeting. My legs were pretty stiff, a good 36.75 miles in close to 24 hours. But I felt happy, energized everywhere else, in love with my latte, with nuun to recover. We organized our team stats & roles, came up with a name, color scheme, talked finances. Nothing feels better than being on the same page. I'm very excited about being committed to this, and that all of us found each other, coming from so many places in life & across the states, all having a common love outside of running - community/ this town.

Rustic Cafe vanilla latte & blueberry cream cheese muffin

After our meeting Mads & I got postcards & bloody mary's, then met some friends at Archer for trivia & dinner.

The anxiety I had over regaining something I lost, that was anticipation - and I'm thankful it led to something that makes me feel more full, more happy. Good food, good people, good books & hard miles - the most valuable things in my life.