14.6 down, 11.6 to go

I met the girls this morning for a lovely run - 14.6 miles, pretty much following I-90 from Bellevue across Mercer Island to Seattle. It's the same run we did the previous two Saturdays, but further (we did 10 miles the first week, 12 the second, and this week we went all the way).

I felt great the entire time and really didn't want the run to be over! It's just so much fun to run with other people - and when you're fit like I am now, it just doesn't hurt. Maybe I'm not running fast enough. :-) But we were going a solid 9-minute pace, which is faster than I plan to run the NY marathon. Who knows, if I keep this up, maybe I'll naturally run a sub-four-hour marathon instead of the 4:20 I kind of have in my head for New York. We'll see.

Gabriel came with us on the bike, and is just getting better and better. He's staying to the right, he's going up the hills so fast most of the time that we don't catch him, and there's no whining. He did need to stop and eat a few times, and towards the end, seemed to be bonking - he would stop and wait for us to catch up, then when he was trying to get going again, he had trouble balancing - but we just stopped and fed him more and helped him get going again. I'm so proud of him! And every cyclist going the other direction that passed by him had a huge smile - people think what he's doing is cool. One group of women even stopped us to ask how old he was and how far we'd gone - they were amazed that a six-year-old could do what he can do!

And I just think, thank goodness. This kid is going to grow up being very active, and won't know that there's another way to be. He'll not likely be fat, either!

So this afternoon I went clothing shopping. It was actually quite fun, and I confirmed that I'm still a size six (especially since I'd just eaten a big lunch). I got two new pairs of jeans, two new pairs of shoes, and a couple other things. John and the kids started out shopping with me but quickly got bored - so John said, "Hey, can you just walk back to the shop from here?" (His shop is about two miles from the mall.) I looked at my shoes - three-inch high platform sandals - but said sure anyway. So I walked in these ridiculous shoes when I was done shopping, and now I have blisters. But that's okay, because I love that I *can* walk two miles after shopping and I don't need a car and the closest parking space to the door possible. Like last week when I went walking to get lunch for the family, I can rely on my body to get me where I need to go - and that's awesome!