17 more days!!

Until I get to eat lunch of chocolate chip cookies, or peanut butter cup cookies. Whichever! I can hardly wait. And I can see that it has served as an added training incentive. Each run is dedicated to getting myself one day closer to a treat. I don't know if that's the right attitude or not, but I'm totally excited nonetheless.

It's just Henry is really loving the fact that he can have treats, and I can't. Like tonight, it was $1 scoop night at Baskin Robbins. We let everyone get their favorite flav, then we all sat around chatting at the food court. Henry casually says, "Hey mom, isn't this your favorite flavor? " And I said, "yeah, it's one of my favorite." And then he says, "I'll let you have a bite....  Oh yeah, just kidding, you can't eat any treats!"

And he thinks he's totally funny.

Today's run was less than inspiring except for the fact that it was tropical by comparison to Thursday's run. Thursday's run was during a snow storm, but I didn't let it stop me from completing 8.1 miles. The snow didn't stick to anything except my body, so I was pretty cold and wet by the end. And yet, it was still an inspiring run.

I have learned that sometimes adversity makes me bring out my A-game.

One thing I believe is universal about dedicated runners, and that is, we are all expert running- injury-diagnosers. My run today was mostly spent confirming a diagnosis I gave to myself about two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I diagnosed myself with Plantar Fasciitis. It has something to do with nerve damage in the heel of your foot. Darin has been suffering from it for about 3 years, so I had him to validate my suspicions. I think I said something like, "I would rather turn into a cow than have Plantar Fasciitis." At which point I may, or may not have been guilty of being a drama queen.

So I scaled back my running over a few days, and had Darin teach me some physical therapy tricks, and I really thought I had been healed.

But today was a bit of a set back. So that's mostly what I have to say about today's run. But, I did it, and that's all that counts right now. And I will be running 10 miles on Saturday. So my foot better get better.

And while it was winter last Thursday, today was a glorious fall day. One that reminded me of the lovely pumpkin soup terrine that Darin carried back in his luggage from Florida (if that isn't true love, I don't know what is!):



And the delicious dinner of pumpkin soup and spinach salad that it prompted me to make last week.



And the lovely fall weather reminded me that I never mentioned our Veteran's Day trip to Nami Island where our friend Travis captured some beautiful snippets of fall:

Travis took no less than 700 pictures that day!  I should just make a post about Nami Island all of it's own...  

So, there you have it.  A running update, a treat update, and images of fall here in the Republic.  

Now it's time to focus on Thanksgiving!