Getting my groove back

Crazy how life goes sometimes. A series of unfortunate events (none of them big or catastrophic, but the sum of which has been somewhat overhwelming) has caused almost three and a half years to go by in the blink of an eye. Hence the curtailment of most things recreational, including, unfortunately, both hiking and blogging. 

Which brings us to today when, I'm happy to report, the queen mum's getting her groove back.

Oh it's not like three and a half years have gone by with NO activity. Somehow during that time I managed to complete my first half-marathon, hiked the Manistee forest with the man I love (it was part of our 20-year anniversary celebration), ran a few 5k races, a few 10k races, got myself all smitten with yoga, and a few other things. But I won't kid you—all this took a backseat to just getting by. Basically I've been kinda busy with slogging through some wicked-hard parenting struggles and general midlife BS.

But now I'm back. The ship's starting to turn in a good direction. THANK GOD. Evidence:

• I'm training for my 2nd half marathon, which will be in October. It's the same one I did a couple years ago, the Detroit-to-Windsor Free Press race. I'm pretty geeked about it.
• The general climate in the household (I'm talking emotional/spiritual, not the indoor temp) has become fairly agreeable about 70% of the time, which I can live with. Because that's a hell of a lot better than it was a year or two ago, or even six months ago. Oh and have I mentioned that parenting is really hard? Yeah.
• As part of my half-marathon training I've been doing a couple 5ks here and there and this morning I did one in Lansing to benefit the Greater Lansing Sports Hall of Fame. It was a beautiful cool morning and crazy-fun to run along the riverside boardwalk next to the Grand River, and near the Michigan state capitol (you can kinda see it in the picture below). 

Oh and guess who got first in her age group? Yeah, this girl.

Now please don't equate that with the notion that I was fast, because I wasn't. I ran my typical pace of about 9.5-minute miles. But as luck would have it, all nine of the other ladies in their forties were even slower than me! Wooty woot!

A medal for my trouble? Why yes please, I'd love one. (Excuse the hair.)