Dodged another one...

The STORM OF THE CENTURY (CENTURY, Century, century...echoing...) fizzled out in the middle of the night. I have NEVER been so happy to wake up to pouring rain!!! I snowed ALL DAY yesterday and despite the rate of massive snowfall, it didn't all stick and by this morning much of it had melted already. PHEW. The wind is CRAZY - I'm really feeling for all the folks who ran the Boston Marathon today...it's hard to walk across the parking lot let alone run 26.2 miles!! Special congrats to Joe B who ran a great race despite the horrid conditions!!!

Had a fun weekend - ran 9 miles on Friday evening and actually felt pretty good. My new running shoes are too small... :( Same exact shoe I got last time, same year, but a different color and they're just a tad too tight on my bigger right foot. SIGH. Not complaining...just sad that the website didn't encourage me to order a half size up!!! I suppose that's the pennance I get for not staying loyal to Road Runner Sports and their 60 Day Perfect Fit Guarantee. Live and learn...

Saturday swim has become distance day so we did some timed 1500 yard swims. I swam a new PR by 15 seconds at 25:05 so I felt pretty good about that.

AND (drumroll please...) I finally ordered my very first wetsuit!!! This suit will hopefully be for this season only as I continue to stay on the wagon and shrink that backpack (bellypack?) I've been carrying around. I had hoped to hold off and reach my fighting weight before I invested in a suit but I'm just not there yet and my first race on June 2nd will be mighty chilly without one, especially with this weather. I expect ice-out will happen, oh, about the last week in May. Yeah. Chilly.

Anyway, I got the Quintana Roo Ultra John - they still had some 2006 suits on closeout so I saved some cash that way... QR is the only suit I could find that came in a variety of short sizes. I'm built much more like a guy than a woman... kinda like an apple, no hips, and little legs... all my weight is in my tummy (to put it gently/nicely) but I'm only 5'3" so finding a suit that fits around me that isn't going to be WAY too long has been a challenge. This is a good solution for now. I will, however, need to stay on the wagon for the next two months as I've got about 8-10 lbs to go for it to fit well. I'm committed...

The eventual plan is to go with DeSoto and get the Pullover AND the Vest along with the separate bibjohn. This is the ultimate solution for my height/weight ratio problems... Emilio DeSoto III responded to my email by calling me himself to discuss sizing and I was totally impressed with how much he wanted to help me out so when I'm ready to make that big of an investment, he will certainly get the business. Awesome company...

Saturday night I went to my first contradance! I'm, er, a pretty terrible contradancer, I discovered. It was a fun crowd of small town community members - some really great dancers too and people from 8 to 80 years old! I'm good at the Chicken Dance but that's about it!! Hopefully I'll get better with practice...I was starting to get it toward the end of the evening but it's hard to remember what's next!! My eyes/brain can't translate to my feet what someone is doing with their feet. It's practically a miracle that I can swim as well as I can because I have absolutely zero body awareness when it comes to dancing!! But my swimming ability gives me hope that some day I'll be a dancer. Even if it's only at a community contradance... or a gay country bar... Here's hopin' anyway...

Once the snow melts and the ground dries up a bit, I'm gonna try playing some soccer. For now I really need to spend some time on my bike. Or at least spinning. Feels like I'm running out of time!!!!

Train hard!