Thanks for the start, KSA.

4 predawn miles in windy conditions.  Thankfully, the rain stopped shortly after I started out.  Some speedwork into headwinds was interesting. 

I'm leaving at 2:00 today, headed to Tammyland for an overnight, then to Portland until Monday.  The memorial service for Karen's mom is Saturday.  I haven't seen Karen since last May, so it'll be good to catch up in person.  And it'll be good to be away from work and questions, questions, questions for a few days!! 

Howdy masters, I've been MIA for a while, and finally checking back in.

Tammy, that was a nice slide show of your dad.   We lost my dad last week, on March 18.  He was 94, and most of the family was there with him.  He was kind, funny, thoughtful, and smart, and he will be missed.  He was in hospice care for the last week, and died peacefully.   It will be hard for my mom - they were married for 72 years - but she lives in a nice independent living apartment at a retirement place, and she has a good support network with friends and staff checking on her.

I was only home from PA for one day before I drove out to Moab, Utah for Behind the Rocks 50k last weekend.  I went with 4 friends, and we shared an airBnB.  They were all very supportive and kind about my dad, and it was good to be with friends.  Two of them were celebrating birthdays over the weekend, too.   The race was less than stellar - it took me 8 1/2 hours, which is an hour longer than the last time I did this race, but that was 10 years ago, so not unexpected. (66 now, 56 the last time).   I did manage 2nd of 3 in my AG, and was the oldest female finisher.

Holly, this is a different race.  That one is the Moab Trail Marathon.  This race was a 50k.  They cover some of the same trails - do you remember a steep scramble down rocks at about mile 8, where you drop down to a road?  My race last weekend went down the same rocks to the road,  but that was the turnaround point, and we had to climb back UP the rocks!  Here's a picture:

I'm sorry to hear of your dad's passing, Carolyn. I'm glad you had that opportunity to see him before he passed and passing peacefully with family near is always comforting as well.

I tell ya, it's been a rollarcoaster of emotions and navigating that path is challenging at times. be prepared for something totally out of the blue being like a sucker punch with a flood of emotions and then other days being okay with life as it now is with a parent that has passed. ups and down for sure.

Hi Masters!  I've kind of got the rainy day blues.   We'd had some very nice late winter weather that we knew wouldn't last, and now we've had snowy and rainy weather for the past week or so.   While we knew the early sun and warm weather wasn't going to hang around long, it was hard to see it go.  On the other hand, I'm glad that I've been working from home quite a bit lately due to how I set up my work schedule, so that I've been home last Wednesday, Friday, Monday, and today, only going into the office last Thursday and yesterday.   Not having to do two commutes in the rain and snow every day is a real blessing.   But now I'll be working in the office tomorrow, Friday, Monday and Tuesday, practically a marathon.  

I mentioned that I didn't get to go to the Masters Swim Meet in Binghamton last Saturday due to the snowy/icy roads between here and there.  That was sort of disappointing too, but I'm trying to not let it get me down.

I did a double yesterday morning, with a good "push" workout in the YMCA weight room followed by a 1-mile moderately hard swim workout following.  But I had to shorten the swim workout quite a bit.  It was supposed to include 10 x 100 yard breaststroke as a main set, but I was so late in getting to the pool that I only did three of those reps.  My times were pretty fast for the effort level:  1:35's.   I'm still doing the 10-2 count on the strength training workouts, and have begun getting up to the weights where I can't get 6 reps every time on everything (I can increase the weight next workout if I accomplish 6 reps in good form).  But I'm always able to get 4 reps, at least, on every set, so I know I'm not increasing the weight by too much when I do get 6 and an increase is earned.

At work, I've been trying to do more in the way of getting old projects cleaned up so that the analyst that inherits my projects doesn't get stuck with trying to figure out what happened so he can rectify an old problematic situation.  Project Managers sometimes start a change order, mess something up in the system, then create a duplicate Change Order so that the contractor can get paid, but they leave the unpaid, bolluxed-up duplicate CO out there and close the project out with it sitting out there.   It isn't a big deal until someone unfamiliar with it tried to figure it out to make it go away and spends an inordinate amount of client-charged time in the process.  The PM's typically have such heavy workloads these days that they need to move on to their next project as soon as one project is mostly complete.  My workload isn't quite as crazy as it was for the last 12 months or so, but maybe I'm just getting used to it, as reports show the incoming work isn't slowing down.  7 months and 3 days and, so long!

I'm sorry to hear you lost your Dad, Carolyn.  He had a good long life, and I know you were good about going to PA to see him.  Congratulations on your race.  It looks beautiful but hard.

Leslie - sounds like their mom

had two great girls to be proud

of that I guess I got to see first

hand at Kate's MM qualifier.

Maybe Forest Park and the Japanese Garden

if more time, and Kizuki Ramen we have up here too

Tammy - nice tribute.

No wonder no obit needed.

How was it done?

Wildchild - will you be going back?

BTY - good luck on clearing

the slate in the next 7mo/3da.

Seven morning miles getting down to the sister city Park in a light rain before the Japanese lantern lighting faded out at the dawning and then another two miles to Lowe's to check out translucent, tinted window shades in case we have any more sunny days this year. Not today, that's for sure. Longest anything since 12/7.