Hello 2017!

I love beginnings. There's so much promise held in beginnings... the excitement of a budding relationship, the first day of a much anticipated vacation, a crisp clean sheet of paper that greets you in a new sketchbook, or the first line of a book that draws you in and begs you to read more. And the beginning of a new year is no different. It's a jumping off point to set our goals, map out a plan, and work towards achieving our dreams. Just like a sprinter coming out of the blocks, we all like a good start. 

But as much as I love beginnings, I hate late starts. Ten days into 2017, and I haven't even written my goals yet, much less mapped them out. I feel this sense of anxiety looming as each day passes and I haven't taken the time to even write down a goal. I have some vague ideas of smaller goals like sketching everyday, or blogging more, or writing a couple of new stories every week, but I've already balked at accomplishing these. If I were a sprinter, I would have been disqualified from this year's race. 

I don't know why it's so hard to recover and start again without that shiny new, first day of the year beginning, but it is. January 1st holds the promise of everything you hope to achieve as you set sail into the year, while January 11th feels like you missed the boat. But I have to remind myself that everyday I wake up is a new beginning. Every day holds promise to accomplish great things. So instead of staring forlornly at the January 1st boat quickly disappearing over the horizon, I'm going to bid it farewell.  I'm opting to step onto this January 11th boat. It may not seem as clean and fresh as that first day of the new year boat, but hey, it's right in front of me, and I can't wait to see where it takes me. In fact, we're already off to a good start:

-Write a New Years blog post.

-Make a sketch for this post

-Use tired analogies about boats and races in one post.

Okay, so maybe I just now added that last goal, but it feels so satisfying to mark things off a list, who wouldn't want to keep riding that gravy train?

I apologize.

Here's to making things happen. Happy January 11th, 2017!

xo

nessa dee

Capitol 10k

You might recall last year when I posted about running the Capitol 10K with our friends. If not, just click on the link and refresh your memory. The Cap 10K is the largest 10K in the state and fifth largest in the nation. It’s quite a spectacle because a good percent of the participants dress up in some sort of crazy outfits. Last year, we ran as the Indiana Jones Trilogy. This year we decided to run the race as the Flintstones, complete with foot-propelled cars to carry us to the finish line.

Our beloved Dino [Dan the Chicken Man] was unable to join us this year and we missed him.  Betty has a little Bam Bam on the way, so she met us at the finish line.

We ended up arriving a bit late, but with over 22,000 people participating in this race, we still had to inch our way through the congestion at the starting line.

A photographer managed to catch a lovely action shot:

http://galleries.statesman.com/gallery/2011-capitol-10000-032711/#163000

I think I was being goofy and dancing to some band music. I don’t think, or at least I hope I don’t look like that when I run.

I honestly don’t know why more people don’t dress up for this thing because if you stand out, you get cheered on throughout the race, which makes running the 6 miles more bearable even when you haven’t trained a lick [this seems to be a trend]. About halfway through the race one of the racers led the crowd in an impromptu and very garbled version of the Flintstones theme song. One of the bands playing along the route incorporated Yabba Dabba Doo into the end of his song. We even managed to belt out the song in between gasps as we approached the finish line, although we mistimed the performance and finished the song about 50 meters too early. Oh well. During the race, we managed to plan our costumes for next year’s Cap 10K. Even little “Bam Bam” or “Pebbles” will be a part of the madness. This race certainly spoils us. It’s always a good sign when you just finish a 10K and can’t wait to do it again. It just makes it hard to ever want to run a serious race. [Which I hope to do if my rickety joints will ever recover].

On the mile walk back to our car, we were getting a lot of honks and waves, points and stares. But the funniest response to our costumes was the ambulance that approached from behind, lights on and sirens blaring which actually slowed down on its way to the call to gawk and laugh at our get up.

Another perk to such elaborate costumes…the kids now have new toys that will occupy them for some time:

Now for some ice pack therapy.

xo

nessa dee