Triathlon

Not really, but today had three distinct parts--each very tiring. First came a 5K run at Stormont as part of the weekly ParkRun program. I came 69th out of 142 people in my first ParkRun a few weeks ago and today I came 40th out of 124 people in my second run. I was 22nd out of 64 women in the first run and 8th out of 56 today. My time fell from 26:50 to 25:12, so now I have a goal of getting under 24.

The race cracks me up because I get so stressed out. Obviously I run faster than when I run by myself, but if I run too fast, I won’t cross the finish without walking, the thought of which horrifies me. Throughout the last 10 minutes I’m dogged by this fear that I won’t make it. I try to tell myself it’s only a little park run, for heaven’s sake, but there’s some kind of adrenaline cocktail that makes me feel like I’m at the Olympics.

I walked 15 minutes each way from the house to Stormont then, after a shower, I walked 12 minutes to the bus stop to go downtown. Once downtown another 15 minutes to Writers’ Square, where I heard David perform with the Belfast Guitar Orchestra.

A friend of mine from choir sang in one of her other choirs (she’s in three), and two of our other choir members were in the audience. The event was in honour of International Women’s Day. Check out the suffragette:

I took these photos on my phone and I can’t seem to get the rotation function to work the way it works when I upload photos from my digital camera.
Belfast does a lot of creative things with railings. See if you can see the alphabet scattered on the railing--an homage to Writers’ Square.

Part three of my day was hanging with my old friend Julie Brown. We walked back to Stormont, walked all over the grounds, then found we were locked in because it was past dusk. We had to scale a fence that was a bit taller than I am. We managed to do it and had a good laugh at ourselves. We’ve known each other since we were 12, so it was fun to feel like we were on a childhood adventure. Long walk home. Luckily, we talk nonstop, so I was better able to ignore my aching legs. I was in bed shortly thereafter.
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