Joy and the Marine Layer

(Kitty) Thank God for joy and the marine layer! We had to run 8 miles today - BY OURSELVES because John is visiting his family in Michigan for the weekend. Normally we don't do well by ourselves. Nor we do sleep well by ourselves after 18+ years together. So when I finally dragged myself out of bed this morning at 7am, having not slept well and with a sore neck from a dream that was a cross between Burn Notice and Law & Order (I get tense in my dreams!), I had to tell myself how very much I really wanted to run. :)

But I remembered something wonderful from my Thursday run. I had done some really great work on my book on Wednesday and was still so excited about it that I was thinking about it when I was running Thursday morning. Every time my thoughts drifted to my book and I got excited, I ran faster! And when I started getting tired near the end and started thinking about my book, I still slowed down a little but not a lot. I ran really well, in fact!

So today when I woke up and finally got going, I listened to some writing lectures I have on my iPod instead of music. The first lecture was by Susan Elizabeth Philips and Jayne Ann Krentz. They are hilarious! Listening to them and laughing while I ran kept me going for the entire hour of the lecture. The next lecture wasn't as funny, but it kept me thinking about writing instead of looking at my watch and wondering how much longer I had to run.

Plus, we had a really heavy marine layer this morning (and Thursday, too, which was great!) so I didn't have to run with the sun in my eyes. If you're not familiar, the marine layer is the fog/clouds that settle over the ocean near the beach during the night and don't burn off till the sun comes up. Or in today's case, not until after 11am when I was already home! I still put on a little sunscreen, but I was so glad not to have to run for two hours in the blazing sun! (Yes, it took me 1 hour and 55 minutes to run 8 miles (averaging 14.5 minutes per mile) but I'm just so darned pleased that I did it! And I probably could have run 9 if I'd had to! Thirteen miles, here I come!)

Today - back to finishing my book proposal for the editor and agent who requested to see it at the conference I was just at. I'm so excited! Hope you all have just as happy a weekend!