Cruisin.

Okay...cruisin, sure...but a little tired. : ) Finished up about 4 this afternoon, but by the time we'd found a place to stay, I'd taken a shower, found a laundromat, washed some running clothes, eaten some dinner...well, I'm just now getting signed on here, and it's bedtime...

But. I promised updates, and moreover, I need to get a couple things jotted down before I forget! I promise to try to add some more details tomorrow, but here's the bare bones:

Day One: 40 miles (according to Garmin)

Day Two: 39 miles (according to Garmin)

Pictures (some! to be captioned asap...): kellebelleruns.shutterfly.com

Quick Thoughts, in chronological order, more or less:

day one.

*I hate not knowing where I'm at, in the most literal sense...this makes me laugh for a number of reasons. : )  I have written out on cards very detailed instructions, not just about which roads I should turn on, but which roads I should cross while I'm not turning.  When I get to parts of the route where I haven't written down tons and tons of streets and I don't have a map out, I hate it.  The more I think about it, the more it makes me laugh.

*I love Halloween decorations!  I really think I'm going to go out and get some cobwebs and stuff to put on the railing outside my apartment when I get home. : )

*I am so exceedingly fortunate and grateful to have the people in my life I do- from my dad, showing up at just the right time with a van full of coconut water and Clif bars, Scott and Chris, for pacing me through the first day and getting me off on the right foot (is that a pun of some sort?  I'm too tired and too anxious to get into bed to think too hard about it, but I think it has potential...), the friends who've texted and called to wish me good luck in the past couple of days, and everyone who's supported me...wow.  

day two.

*So I don't typically eat at dunkin donuts...but that egg white sandwich this morning was outstanding.  I think the people there thought it was a little peculiar when I put three packs of ketchup and 3 packs of salt on it.  Mmmm, salt.  

*Great Milton quote:  The mind is a place, and it can make a heaven out of hell, or a hell out of heaven.

*This "some guy's name-some guy's name effect" (maybe one of them is Kruger?), named for the two sociologists who studied and stated it:  'Ignorance instills more confidence than knowledge. '  I don't know that I really fully agree with this, especially as I write it down now, but I think it's interesting.  The idea is that this effect protects us and enables us to begin things we otherwise would not, because we would be put off by knowledge of the magnitude of effort they require.  I think it's kind of cool, thought provoking to say the least.

*Both of these past two from a book I listened to this morning, 'A Complaint Free World.'  Great premise, great idea.

*Sometimes when I'm running, I am totally struck anew by a song I've listened to a hundred times before.  Today it was Mr. Jones, the Counting Crows song.  I definitely rolled down the shoulder of a road in rural New Jersey singing, loudly, about believing.

*After you run all day long, when you've gone a little too long without any electrolytes, you have some moments that are rather amusing in retrospect.  Although I'm being careful to treat my body well on this thing, this afternoon I was getting a little tired, was a little dehydrated for this one little stretch...anyway.  I saw this possum up ahead of me on the side of the road.  Somehow I got it in my head that it must be rabid, if it was out in the afternoon, and I was really, really nervous about running past it.  It all turned out, and the little guy ran back into the brush when I passed.  Anyway.

*I was craving a really good piece of fruit for much of the day today, after I had passed a sign that said 'Fresh Jersey Peaches.'  (Never mind that I thought that was Georgia.  Isn't Jersey supposed to have...cows???)  Anyway, at Mile 23 or so, I decided I was going to run into the next place I saw that I could buy an apple, and take a break for an apple snack.  Well.  Turns out southwestern New Jersey is not very well populated with apple selling shops (or any shops).  However, 16 miles later, I happened across Kerr's Pumpkin stand, with baskets and baskets of some outstanding looking produce...mmmm.  Including beautiful apples.  A Ginger Gold apple kind of made my afternoon...if you really, really, really want to enjoy an apple, running 39 miles for it's kind of a sure bet.

And...

it's bedtime.  Sorry for the rambly-ness- more, better, later.  Sleep, rest, recover, now.  Tomorrow: repeat. : )