Snowbound!

I was tired yesterday, so I left work at 4:15. I wasn't sure I could make it home without coffee, so I went through the drive-through Starbucks.

It was my mistake. My normally 30-minute commute at that time of day took an hour and 20 minutes - and then, as soon as I got to the kids' school to pick them up, the snow started.

It was POURING snow. Seriously. I've never seen so much snow come down at once - and I lived in Massachusetts and the East Coast for 21 years, then when I moved here, where it rarely snows, I started snowboarding and spending as much of the winter as possible in the mountains. Yesterday was amazing.

One mile from my house, with three kids (my two plus the neighbor's) in the back seat, my car decided it would no longer go up my hill. I was stranded.

To make a long story short, after a harrowing half hour in the car and a tow by some guy who didn't know what he was doing, my car was left at a parking lot half a mile from home with a broken transmission and the kids and I got a ride with some friends.

So clearly today I didn't go to work; school was closed, so we walked for about a mile or so in the snow (I had to carry Camille most of it) and played outside.

This is all a really long way to say I didn't do any formal exercise, but I did walk and play with the kids, and my body pretty much feels about as normal as it did Saturday - before I did the marathon.

A few people have asked me how I can do three marathons in two months. Well, Dean Karnazes did 50 marathons in less than two months, but that's a goofy answer. The real answer is I'm in excellent shape and I didn't "race" any of these runs. I ran them fairly comfortably; on the Endurance 50 marathon I was uncomfortable because my calves cramped, but was otherwise okay; on New York I felt pretty good the whole way; and on Seattle, I only felt bad when I forgot to eat. I think had I raced and pushed myself for a PR, I would not have been able to run as many.

And that's a reasonable trade-off, I think - I could be the fastest possible and really need tapering and recovery time and proper nutrition every day, or I could just enjoy what I can do at whatever pace I'm feeling at the time and do it as much as I feel like. It's a valid way to be.

That said, I'd like to qualify to run Boston, which means I need to be able to run 26.2 8-minute miles. That will take weight-loss and a heck of a lot of hard work. And some day, I'll be ready to focus on that and get that done.

But for now, I can look back at this marathon season and say Wow! I had a lot more fun than I expect to when my focus is going fast, not enjoying the experience and being with my friends.