Surprises

Well, the first 20 miler for this marathon is in the books and, surprisingly, 24 hours after running a half marathon, it wasn't so bad. I ran it all, with walks through the water stops, and only had a few major complaints from my piriformis/sciatic nerve (darn hills). When I returned home, I kicked Gwen the pitoodle and her new buddy, Stray the Walkon dog, out of the kiddie pool and made a slightly slimy ice bath for myself. Then, I crashed on the bed for awhile, awakening to giggle with glee at the Cowboys' loss. Bwahahaha. Anyway, after some initial muscle pain, I was okay.

Today, I got to spend my federal holiday day off at jury duty. This worried me a little - not due to outstanding warrants or past criminal offenses, but due to the thought of having to sit and/or stand for extended waiting periods after running over 33 miles in 2 days. It wasn't too bad - a couple of leg cramps, but manageable. The worrying part was that I almost ended up on a jury of this retrial (it was reversed by the top State court after that decision) for a week-long (at least) trial. I could just imagine sitting for a week listening to testimony with delayed onset muscle soreness and/or cramps. If I had thought there was really a chance I'd end up on a jury, much less one with an extended trial, I would NOT have run both long runs this weekend.

In serving my jury duty, though, I realized that I do miss the courtroom and trials quite a bit. But, then, I realized that, today, I missed my cushy federal holiday, at-will lunches and breaks, and getting off work around 3 p.m. more - for now!