Where’s My Medal?

Set the alarm for 5:00 this morning, so I could get bathed, dressed, face made up, fed and out the door for the 7:00 meetup of that run/walk group.

Five o’clock came, but I lay there trying to convince myself to blow walking off and go back to sleep because I was tired from Friday’s luau, but something wouldn’t let me. I managed to get up at 5:30, check in at 7:03.

I've since learned the group runs are every other Saturday, but a handful show up most Saturdays.

And so it was this morning, with just a few of those I met last week showing up for a run.

“You all look fast, so I’ll just head out on my own”, said I.

“I’m not a runner. I’m a walker”, said a voice coming from a woman not there last week.

So off she and I went, with me saying I wanted to train by walking up to the top of that steep hill that I found so difficult last week.

Once again, I made it to the top.

And, once again, it was a struggle, leaving me out of breath.

“Does this breathing thing get better?”, asked I.

“I don’t have it with me now, but I usually bring an inhaler”, said she.

I don’t think I need that. I’m hoping that, if I continue to challenge myself on that incline, my body will adjust, lung capacity will open up.

That is if the knees hold up because right now they’re killing me, and not just because of the incline, but because the route my walking partner took me on from there was not just down the hill, through the college, but completely around the college for a total of 3.55 miles, at such a fast clip that I was back at the car in 1 hour 13 minutes 49 seconds.

I only work that hard when I’m in competition and there’s a medal waiting for me at the end.

However, if I do say so myself, that time is impressive considering, before working out with Trainer, it was taking me 1 hour 20 minutes to finish the 3.1 miles of a 5K and here I was doing almost 4 miles in 1 hour 13 minutes 49 seconds.

I earned a medal today, so where is it? LOL.

The jury is STILL out on this walking group. I enjoyed walking with this woman but I am a loner at heart and pushing myself as fast as I did this morning is just not something I want to do every week.

Maybe once in a while I'll go to the meetup.

The luau was a major success.

Residents showed up, filling the Community Room to overflowing. Management had to set up extra tables and still it was so crowded that one had to guard one’s spot.

Assistant Community Manager would lei residents as they walked through the door, but so many showed up that a little over an hour in, they’d run out of leis.

To latecomers who approached me, asked where I'd gotten my lei, and complained about not getting one, I said, "You should have showed up on time".

The Seer and Shadow made an appearance … as a couple. So I guess they've come to a compromise, insofar as whatever they were mad at each other over, and it's on again. Which is probably why, Not Dead Nancy is staying in her lane, no longer pushing her walker towards Shadow's area of the complex. And, p.s., I've got to think of a better pseudonym for her.

The Seer's aura wasn't as dark as it had been pre-breakup, so maybe time away from him freed her from being such a witch. Regardless, the "fool me once" philosophy is still in play with me.

The food looked to be sandwiches, slaw, cookies. Residents were not asked to bring anything, but Church Lady made a banana pudding. THAT was the only thing to temp me from eating clean but, not wanting to make myself sick, I headed over to the fruit table.

Maybe it’s just my dirty mind, but the melon and strawberry combo, looked suspiciously like a female body part.

Plucking strawberry's out of it felt weird.

There was a photo booth set up, where management took photos of residents.

Don’t know what management plans to do with their photos, but I myself ended up with over 100 photos on my cellphone, to weed through for posting to the residents’ facebook page, plus about 10 videos of residents and staff singing/dancing.

And yes, I was the only one in a grass skirt and no, I didn’t mind and danced the twist, the floss and did a little hula like no one was watching.

Someone was though.

The Baker taped one such.