This morning's walk is brought to you by...

the America's Finest City Half-Marathon.  Half-marathons are 13.1 mile affairs and this one is in San Diego, a point to point race from the Cabrillo Monument to Balboa Park.  You drive to the park, leave your car there and you're bussed up to the Monument.  Unless of course you want to spend $200 and up for a night in the sponsoring hotel in the Harbor area.  Then you're bussed directly to the starting line and back to the hotel from the finish line.  I was more of a Motel 6 runner at the time, so I drove.

The reason that this race is on my mind is that my walk this morning was cut short.  At first I wanted to turn around just 100 yards or so from the front door to the building, because my hamstring was aching.  But I forced myself to walk anyway.  Then, after I was about 13 minutes or so from the front door, and nearing a point I'd had trouble reaching on earlier walks, my hamstring spoke to me with more volume.  And I recalled the 1996 edition of the above-mentioned half-marathon.  My hamstring cramped badly in that race at about 10 miles.  I spent 20 minutes resting in the medical tent near the ten mile marker.  Then I insisted on finishing the race, and managed to injure my achilles tendon.  Probably because I was favoring that hamstring.

Now when I was running regularly, I was kind of a fanatic.  Okay, okay, I was a fanatic.  I once crashed my mountain bike on the bike path on a Friday, cracked a rib, sprained my thumb and had road rash and yet I insisted on running in a 5K the following Sunday because I'd already paid the entry fee.  I even rode my bike to the ER for treatment and then home afterward because I didn't want to have to put my bike into the trunk of a cab.

So now, when my hamstring started being more strident about me paying attention to it, I listened.  I walked home comfortably and now it feels fine.  But I will definitely pay more attention to my body when it tries to tell me something.

I did notice a few things on this morning's walk.  The adult novelty/lingerie/footwear store's "bustin out" sale is limited to bras.  That means you can't go there and get 25% off of what they are advertising as the "world's #1 vibrator for couples".  For couples?  The only couple I ever knew that both got enjoyment from a vibrator was an old friend who once told me the story of how he'd bought a vibrator for his wife.  She loved it and stopped asking him to have sex with her.  He'd lost interest after his vasectomy, so it was a win-win for both of them.  Please, spare me the visuals of two people using a vibrator simultaneously.  This is an R-rated blog on its worst days.

One of the beauty salons I pass has an advertisement for some product in its window with a strikingly beautiful woman in it.  So the implication is that no matter how a woman looks when she goes in, she can look that good when she comes out.  The lion's mane of hair, the slender figure, the expensive outfit, all that can be done by sitting in the chair inside that window.  Well, that is the implication.

I let one of the other residents upset me yesterday, not because that's easily done (although there are times when it is easier than others).  I let my frustrations at my efforts to get back online while my laptop is in the shop get the best of me.  I was seeing someone about the ease at which I can be irritated but I stopped in June.  This was a warning that either I need to practice the strategies we discussed more efficiently, or maybe I wasn't done dealing with the root issues behind this.  Probably the latter.

But I also had a joyful moment yesterday and without the laptop frustrations I wouldn't have experienced it.  When I went to get that useless adapter yesterday, I ran into a former student of the school where I'd worked.  She recognized me and stopped me before I could leave.  We had a wonderful visit where she updated me on her life after graduation.  She's a college graduate, in grad school and planning on going to medical school.  One of my two primary functions when I worked at that school was to find ways to let families put or keep their kids in school when they weren't able to pay in full, in advance.  I helped this family in that area and they are still grateful.  Me, I'm grateful I was able to help families like this, and my favorite moments are when I run into the students later in life, seeing how they blossomed after getting exposed to the wonderful education that school offers.