My Last Road Marathon

2021 Boston Marathon-Just after turning onto Hereford

The title might be a lie. I won't say I'm never doing another road marathon again, but I can tell you that I'm done with them indefinitely. It wasn't because the 2021 Boston Marathon went so horribly because it actually went exactly as planned. Definitely slower than expected, but still hit the only goal I had and that was to finish. I had made up my mind prior to Boston that I was done with road marathons. I did actually attempt to train for it. Made it through 3 "long" runs that weren't long at all. A 15-mile and two 16-miles. The second run wasn't so bad, but the other two were so painful. The strange thing is that I wasn't out of shape for that distance. That part was easy. It was my body. It just can't handle longer road running right now. It's mainly both feet that hurt so much. I tried 3 different pairs of shoes with the ones that felt the best being the ones that I wore at Boston. Omg, though. My feet have never been in so much pain EVER than they were at Boston. So painful that I could barely run the downhills in the last half. I was begging for more uphills because they were easier on my feet. It isn't just the plantar fasciitis. It's the lack of road running I've done since Covid hit in 2020. I used to road race at least twice a month. Now it's rare. I can do the short distance, but the second I hit 15 miles, my body is just done. The only thing that got me through Boston were my firing glutes. Although they fatigued toward the end, they still gave me the boost to finish the race. The last 3 miles were the worst since my right groin locked up. I could barely shuffle it in. The last stretch to the finish was never ending. I could have kicked something in since I didn't run "hard" at all, but with the locked up groin, I could only stay at the one speed called slow. Haha. 

I destroyed myself with so much hard road running/racing that I think I'm mostly done with anything over a half marathon. I ran a pretty good half marathon a year ago, and I feel like I could run a semi-decent one, but past that, I'm done. I don't like the road training. It's just not what I want to do anymore. I still love road racing, but I'm sticking to the short stuff. 

To actually recap Boston, I'll say it was a pretty good day overall. I came into the race with a sinus infection and no training. My only goal was to finish. I had no plans to ever put in a hard effort. I planned to run an easy, even effort and that's what I did. I never once pushed myself hard. With the first half being most downhill, I just coasted along. As the race got harder and the pain crept in, I slowed down, but I was still moving at the same effort. I watched literally 100s of people pass me. Literally! And I didn't have a care in the world about it. I relieved the boredom by reading the backs of everyone's shirts. I played leap frog with one woman the whole way so her shirt is the only one I remember. "Team Beef". Haha. Unique. I mentioned boredom, and yes, it was insanely boring running that pace. I knew I'd finish somewhere around 3:30, and at one point I looked at my watch and realized I still had an hour and a half; I wanted to die. That sounded awful. The last time I ran a marathon like this was the 2018 Baystate Marathon. Bored out of my mind! I honestly can't run another road marathon "just to finish" again. I used to think they were easy and fun, and I loved being competitive at them. Now that none of the above is true, I have to call it quits. Last Monday was my 2nd worst marathon in 3:34:15. My worst being the 2012 Boston Marathon when it was almost 90 degrees and miserable in 3:34:52. 

There were actually fun parts to the day. I got to ride the bus with my friends, Christin Doneski, Amy Bernard and Lindsay Close. We had a great time chatting and then we all started together. 

Had to steal this one off Amy's IG story

I can't say enough great things about the race organization this year. Superb. The rolling start should be kept forever. Really well done. I'm glad they toned down the Expo. I tried the Maurten Gels for the race and have FINALLY found a gel I can tolerate. They were also the gel sponsor this year. Everything was just so efficient. And running Boston in October was fantastic. I thought the weather was great. Got a little warm and sunny at the very end, but a very light cool headwind made it perfect. I wish I could share more race photos, but they are unbelievably expensive. It hurt me just to buy one. Most of the 92 photos are horrible, but there at least 2 others I liked. I didn't choose the best one, but it's one that really shows how I felt during the race. The smiling ones are forced. My favorite photo is one of me in a mask after the finish. It's so bad that it's hilarious, but I couldn't justify the cost. Haha. I leave this Boston bit with a photo from my first Boston Marathon 10 years ago in 2011. I was just about to cross the line in 3:17, an 8 minute PR. I was 34 years old. I was in no pain. I had been able to train really well. I was running my first Boston! The look in my eyes as I'm staring at the finish line still gets me vaklempt. I would go on to do well with my running over the next 9 years. I had so many great experiences. The girl in the photo is right to be glowing. I have few regrets on how things went up to now. The few regrets are allowing myself to get permanently injured and not realizing what I could have done to stop it and for selfishly dragging my son to so many races over 5 years (and I mean MANY) that he now wants nothing to do with running.

John and me at the 2018 Vermont City Marathon finish line where I had my first marathon DNF

As soon as I finished Boston, I shuffled to my car and drove home to my family. Ryan surprised me with flowers for finishing. He was originally supposed to come down and bike the course while I ran, but he ended up catching my sinus infection and was miserable. I had just gone through that misery part of it so there was no way he should have come down and tried to bike. Instead, he sucked up his misery to buy me flowers and make me dinner. He's the best. How did I get so lucky?

So now. How to recap this since August 11th! So just because I'm not running road marathons anymore, that doesn't mean I'm not racing. I'm definitely not wanting to race that much anymore, but I still enjoy them. Other than Boston, I ran 3 races since my last post and did the Great Glen Trails Fall Series for "speed work". We also tried to do the MMD event in August but didn't finish it. August and September were honestly miserable for us. Neither of us can stand the humidity. I didn't even enjoy a lot of the runs I did, but I still kept doing it. Ryan on the other hand has been dealing with this crazy hip injury for a year now! He was able to run a little still in August, but it just became too painful in September so he had to quit again. He not only struggled in the humidity, but he couldn't run and has been really frustrated with putting on weight. Well, he finally got to the point of making some changes. 

MMD was a rockbottom moment for him. It was a run following a route across the Carter's, Wildcats, dropping down to Glen Ellis then back up the Sherbie and eventually making your way to the Great Gulf and back out. I think 28ish miles. I honestly don't enjoy long runs in the mountains. I have better things to do than spend ALL day in the mountains just to look like I'm a badass. There are things I enjoy doing in addition to mountain running so it's just not my cup of tea. So needless to say, we didn't train for MMD.  And I wasn't super thrilled about it. We accepted to do it because we were surprisingly invited and most definitely for the last time. What happens when someone lies to the world about you is that you become ostracized, and it really sucks. So we didn't even want to spend time near some of the people who would be there. We didn't go into it feeling good mentally or physically. It also sucked that it was almost 100% humidity at the midnight start. We were thankful for the darkness so we couldn't see certain people, but unfortunately, nothing could block our ears from the annoying voices nearby. 

I find it the most interesting that someone who claims to have been abused has no problem being around the person she accused. She laughs loudly...on purpose... and carries on like nothing ever happened. Yet the person she accused is so distraught to a near panic attack by being around her from the hurt and damage she purposely did to him. So distraught that he can't even function and had to quit only 7ish miles in. Who abused whom here? Believe all women? Well, then why don't you believe me? This man is no abuser. This woman is the monster, building her foundation of support all based on lies. She's feeding off of squashing us publicly. Then she claims to have forgiven herself for hurting people. That's she's healed and can truly forgive those who have hurt her. Her exact words in an email to Ryan, "I don't lie or hurt people." She wrote this to the person she purposely hurt by lying about him. And then admitted last week that she did hurt people. How did she? Unfortunately, she'll never be capable of admitting what she did. She can claim to be healed and happy and all the other bullshit and convince herself that her lies are the truth, but deep down she'll always know she lied and I hope it eats her alive. I know. It seems like I'm beating a dead horse. Even I feel that way sometimes, but you can't move on when nothing has been righted. I tried for months, though. We even had an incident in July with one of her friends bringing us a message from her. He did this in public in front of people, and I lost my shit on him in front of everyone. I actually wrote blog post about it but never published it because I'm just so sick of this shit, but then when a post of hers is shared with me about her forgiving herself for hurting others, I couldn't hold back this time. And especially after watching the man I love still dealing with the hurt she caused. She doesn't deserve forgiveness until she makes it right. But she never will. She'll never give up her fake public persona. What I will say is that I don't doubt she is happier than when she was married. They had an unhappy marriage. They were both unhappy. Ryan is also much happier now.

So anyway, that was a tangent worth going off on, but I digress back to MMD. Ryan left at the Carter Dome Trail intersection to run back to the car. I decided to keep going. I felt pretty good, but I got bored fast. Just past topping out on the climb out of Carter Notch, my headlamp didn't just die. It broke. I luckily had a back-up with a waist belt light, but that made it really difficult to maneuver ups and downs. My legs blocked the light. Haha. It was slow going since I couldn't see well. Finally, I could see some daylight when I got on Wildcat D. It was just before here that decided here that I would drop at Glen Ellis. I texted Ryan to pick me up there. I still had to use the awful waist belt light half way down the worst trail in the Whites. Haha. I was thankful to do the last half in daylight. I dropped at Glen Ellis. Ryan was in the car sleeping so I brought him a burrito from the aid station; the volunteers there were so nice. We cracked open beers to start a new day. I had no regrets on dropping. I was so bored, and I didn't want to waste the rest of the day finishing the course when we could do something else fun.

MMD group before the start. Yes, I'm immature, but not as immature as the few people farting and laughing/talking about it while Bob was trying to have a moment for a fellow ultrarunner firend who had passed away.

Carter Dome

Sunrise from Wildcat D

More sunrise almost down to Rt 16 at Glen Ellis

We went home, took a 3 hour nap and then took the dogs canoeing on Conway Lake. We did the same paddle as our second date just over a year earlier. I was really happy to be in the water with my man on this hot day rather than running solo to finish MMD.

So, Ryan was able to run a little bit more off and on after this, but every time he would think it's better, it would get worse. A few runs... back to the bike. Well, after dropping out of the Waterville Valley Mountain Race in the first half mile due to the pain, he was finally ready to figure this thing out. For the last month, he's been strength training all of the weak areas. He's been super consistent. His biggest triumph has been finally activating his glutes. While the hip injury started after a bad fall a year ago, it hasn't been able to heal properly because of weaknesses. I'm so guilty of this very thing. Watching him is motivating me to get back on the wagon of strength training starting tomorrow. I needed to recover from Boston first. On top of him figuring things out, he's also lost 12lbs since Waterville Valley. He feels so much better and has hope that he can finally put this hip issue behind him and get back to running in the next week or two. In the meantime, I've been just as happy spending time hiking with him instead of running. We can even bring Phoenix with us if we hike so she makes it even more enjoyable. Both of us are looking forward to skiing again soon! 

We were able to get in a longish day in the mountains just prior to Ryan's hip going bad again. We ran up Ammonoosic Ravine and did traverse across to Mt Isolation following the Davis Path back to Rt 16. I ended up feeling really, really awful early on. No idea why. Just a bad day, I guess, but we still had a good time together. The trail was so beautiful. 

A few other runs we were able to do before the hip got worse...

Thompson Falls 

Puzzle Mt on the only cool, dry day in August

Here are some photos from our hikes...

Spot right near our house

Whitehorse and Cathedral Ledge Hike after marking part of the Kismet Cliff Run course

Oak Hill after dropping John at his friend's house in Barnstead

Ryan helped me get through a difficult parenting moment the night before. I'm not sure I could have gotten through it easily without him. All is good now.

Mt Madison Hike with Phoenix

Mt Whiteface hike

I'm a dork.

I run solo during the week, and I've been trying to hit some spots I've never done or that I've only hiked. While Ryan was running with Adam one Saturday, I hit up Mt Tremont for a short run. Absolutely gorgeous day. The last time I had been up there was in 2007 when I carried John up in a backpack. Coy and Spot were with me. My memory was that the trail was really gorgeous. My memory was correct. It was definitely a lot harder carrying a kid up there than running up. I lucked out having the summit to myself...on a Saturday...with great weather! 

Pretending to wave over at Ryan and Adam

I have to say that my last run up Mt Chocorua the day after I wrote my last blog post was definitely the worst weather I ran in all summer. Don't get me wrong. There were MANY days in August and September that could rival it, but I was better about keeping it easy after this sufferfest. The sun was out with 100% humidity when I started my run up Hammond. The summit breeze was the only break from the disgusting air. Everything was wet and slippery. So gross. The photos show how humid it is. Ryan and I went paddleboarding on Chocorua Lake that evening to cool off. It was so nice.

Ran a portion of the Squam Ridge from the Cotton Mt trailhead. Underestimated how humid it was. Fell hard on my knee for the 4th time in 6 weeks. This one caused some of the torn cartilage to venture under my kneecap again. As I learned last time, running will actually "cure" this so I kept running and it worked.

Short run on the Royce's. 6 days before Boston. Woke up at work this morning with a bad sore throat. The run was great and beautiful. By the evening, I had a bad pressure headache, sore throat and congestion. I knew Boston would be extra doomed. 

Mt Pierce run after a Monday 24. The plan was the Royce's but when I drove up Hurricane Mt Rd to find it closed, I decided on Mt Pierce. I had a lot to do that day so I needed something short. Really wet trail but perfect weather. Worked out that I chose Pierce since I picked up a thru-hiker in Glen on the way who had been trying to hitch a ride for over an hour and was about to call a taxi. After all of the rides I received from my thru-hikes, I try to give back when I can. 

You probably notice that John doesn't appear in my blog much. That's because I get yelled at for taking his photo. In each of these photos, he's telling me to stop taking photos of him....

I did get him to join me for the 502 workout event at Crossfit in September. Although I quit crossfit, I got him to give it a try. He's had 3 personal training sessions so far and liked it, but I don't think it's going to stick. I thought he would like the 502 event so I signed us both up. Let me just say that I don't advise doing this workout when you haven't done push up for over 3 months. OUCH. 

The workout:

Run 400m, 50 push ups, 50 sit ups
Run 400m, 40 push ups, 40 sit ups
Run 400m, 30 push ups, 30 sit ups
Run 400m, 20 push ups, 20 sit ups
Run 400m, 10 push ups, 10 sit ups

John was mad that he had to get up "early" for this and said I made him do it against his will even though I asked him if he wanted to do it and he said he would. Haha. So he was super mad we were there. By the time the workout started, though, he was feeling ok about it. I ran the 400s slowly with him. He actually wanted me to stay with him for the whole workout which was awesome. It was so hard doing it out of shape. Last year I did it on my own at the track... over 20 minutes faster. Only 2 months into crossfit then and I was already a lot stronger. A huge part of me wants to go back, but I just can't make the class times work. 

John was worn out after but pretty happy to have done it. We took a ride into North Conway and got food at the smoothie food truck. It turned out to be a good morning together. But of course that doesn't last long. He spends most of his time in his room. But we have our moments. Played frisbie together for a half hour one day then he, Ryan and I played it again for over 30 minutes another day. We spend time together in the car a lot even though it's not always good since he's learning to drive and I'm just being stupid and yelling at him when he almost hits other cars. Hahaha. I'm apparently overreacting and don't know what I'm talking about. I know I've only been driving for 30 years vs his 1.5 months, but that means nothing. Haha. He'll get it. Luckily he's learning from the mistakes. And I've really enjoyed the extra time spent together. Our family vacation next month will be interesting spending so much time together for 5 days. I wish he had a friend who could come with us. He'd have more fun for sure. I'm a little bummed out that his dad hasn't been reaching out to him anymore. They had a good stretch where they were hanging out for a few hours every Sunday, but it's been well over a 2 months now other than a dinner with him and his grandparents not too long ago. It looks like he might have given up driving his van, but I really never know what he's doing. I never interact with him anymore. 

I mentioned briefly that I've done 3 races other than Boston since my last post. The first was the BHZ 5K down in Weymouth, MA. I've done every BHZ 5K, and Ryan had to work all weekend at the farm, so I decided to go down for it. It used to be a really fun after party at the Barrel House Z Brewery but this year, no one I knew well was there so I had my one free beer after the race then left. I hadn't run a road 5K in quite awhile so I knew I wasn't in shape for it. It was amazing how hard this was. I ran a really smart race. Very close to even splits. I didn't blow up... but I just couldn't go any faster than I did. I gave it my all to finish in 20 minutes flat. Wow. I don't want to get back to my fastest times, but I would love to get back to sub-20s. I need to do more 5Ks. This is the reason I signed up for the Great Glen Fall Series. 

I wanted to improve on my speed. It's basically a time trial and you're racing yourself. Ryan was able to run only one with me before the hip called it quits so it kind of sucked going up there by myself, but it was good training. I'd do a short, slower run in the morning after work just to loosen up and then head up to GGT around 3:30-4. I was shocked the first day to beat Margaret Graciano. She's almost always beat me at these races in the past. Like almost always. But she has a young kid and a baby so I thought maybe she is slower because she doesn't have time to train. I was still baffled to beat her by almost 1.5 minutes the next week. I knew my speed was severely lacking. Well, it turns out that I'm a fucking idiot. Haha. At the 5th week, Eli pulled me aside and told me that someone saw me miss a section of the course the week before. I was like, "What? Where?" He pointed it out and I couldn't believe it. How could I have missed that?! But I sure as hell did. He told me where I went wrong so that I wouldn't miss it. How could I miss obvious signs and follow the short course?! I really only missed it the first week and then just kept going that way without looking at the signs the following weeks. So I get to the spot and my first sight is two white signs with black arrows pointing left. The difference is that these signs were covered in some sort of plastic that had a glare. I can't see very well anymore and even looking at them at this moment. I couldn't read them. But they were pointed left for the "short" (or mini course, I really can't remember which). When I got up to them I could read them. Before I never got close enough to see them prior to this to even see words. And then I saw the dark green arrows behind them for the long course pointing straight. Before now, all I saw were the bright white signs with left arrows. How I continued to miss this 3 weeks in a row, I have no idea, but I did, and I felt like the biggest moron. I asked Eli to remove me from the results, but he said he wouldn't but that he would move me to 2nd place. He's too nice. I felt bad that even people I still would have beat were doing the full course and I was not. I missed a good .3 miles of a 4 mile course. I was actually really upset with myself, but at least I had an answer as to why I was beating Margaret. I wasn't! Haha. But seriously, though, what a dumb blonde! I plan to go back for the Spring series and will be extra careful about the signage this time. Ugh.

I mentioned the Waterville Valley Race earlier. Ryan and I were both entered so we drove over that morning. The weather was perfect. I was really hating on my shoe options for the race. My Peregrine 10s were already feeling worn and hurting my plantar fasciitis a lot. I was psyched to see the Saucony rep there so I grabbed a pair of Peregrine 11s to use for the race. Since I returned my previous pair of 11s for being too small in my regular size, I went a half a size up, and they were perfect. That really made a difference in how my foot felt for the entire race. 

The course had to be shortened due to construction at the summit. I was bummed about this up until the point where we crossed the slope to start the long descent as opposed to continuing up. Haha. In 2019, I was in great shape and had an awesome race. I would end up running much, much slower, but for where I am, I was really happy with my race. I felt good and I was able to pass quite a few people on the way up. I was right behind this young girl for a long time. I finally managed to pass her on a short downhill then pulled away for the rest of the climb. I had no one in sight for the long descent so I didn't go nearly as hard as I did in 2019. I didn't need to since I knew I had 3rd place in the bag. Definitely really happy with my race. I am where I am, and I'm happy with whatever I can do race-wise. Race Results

Ryan did my braid for me.

Ryan ended up spectating a bit until I finished then we had parking lot beers with Steve Brightman and Jim Boule. Afterward we drove to the Common Man in Ashland for lunch. He'd been wanting to take me there and today was a good day to do it. Ryan was bummed about his hip, but this was the day that he really decided to stick with strength training and better diet.

This past weekend was the Cranmore Mountain Race. Being 5 days after Boston and STILL congested I wasn't expecting much. I only signed up because it's a race I always do and it's local. It had rained all night so I knew the course would be super wet and muddy...which is an advantage for me. I saw the sign up list and predicted I could finish 4th if my legs would let me. I knew the climbs would be rough on tired legs even though I was really good about recovering this week. Ryan rode his bike from home to Cranmore while I drove over. He showed up only about 15 minutes after me. We warmed up together then headed down to the starting area where Joe Viger offered to take a photo of us. Only the 2nd photo of us together that isn't a selfie.

Ryan left to walk up the course a bit to spectate. He'd end up run/walking one loop of it while we raced. I lined up still unsure of how this would go. As soon as we hit the first climb I could feel heavy legs, so I tried to keep it on the slower side. About 4 women passed me, but I didn't let it bother me. Because I had taken it slow enough, I was able to continue running when it got steeper so all but one of the women who passed me initially were now behind me. Once it got steeper and I finally walked, one woman passed me back. We would be right with each other for the entire climb up.  As soon as we hit the summit, I kicked it into high gear for the descent. I quickly dropped everyone near me and then passed 4 guys who had been in front of me. I went as hard as I could because this is where I bank time on this course. The descent was slippery and leafy, but I've run it so many time that I almost know it by heart. Just as I got down to the base I saw the 3rd place woman coming down from a different slope to the base. I assumed she missed the sharp left turn. It turns out she did, and so did a lot of other people, even the top 2 men. She was much faster than me on the ascent so she passed me quickly. I was much slower on this ascent than the first. My legs were definitely tired. The men I had passed were slowly catching me, but I knew they would never catch me since I'd smoke them on the descent. I saw Ryan once more as I ran down which was awesome. I finished just over a minute back from 3rd to finish 4th as I predicted. Chris Dunn came over to ask me how I felt about the results knowing 3rd had gone off course. Considering the fact that she would have beat me anyway and the distance was almost exactly the same, I was cool with letting her stay 3rd. No biggie. I still get the master's prize money so I'm cool with that. I was also really happy with this race today. I felt better than I thought I would. Obviously still a little fatigued and congested, but overall I felt good. Race Results

I hung out briefly after the finish talking to Paul, Brandon and Bryce. Ryan changed back into bike shoes and rode home while I drove back. Passed him on my way and did a cat call. Haha. I'm definitely sore in the quads after this race, but today is a complete rest day at work. No other races on my calendar yet for the year so now it's just running for fun.

Top 4 women

Dog Photos....

Phoenix looks so cool in the pond grass...

And then there's Chill...😂😂

Phoenix and I went out for a paddle on Silver Lake on a really hot day and literally got trapped in a thunderstorm for almost 30 minutes. Had to hunker down in the woods of an island. Lightning struck really close and it down-poured. She was not pleased. Haha.

Our last kayak of the year

Chill likes to take walkabouts through the neighborhood. Caught on a neighbor's camera! He's half pure bred Great Pyrenees and half pure bred Border Collie. When not playing stick like a border collie, he likes to wander off to explore his territory like a Great Pyrenees.

After 8 years of staring at a mess of boxes in the basement, I FINALLY did something about it and cleaned the place out. This one of MANY full car loads of trash and recycles and dump store items that I took to the transfer station. Amazing how easy it is too accumulate junk you don't really need when you have an empty space for it.

Ryan and I actually did something out of our comfort zone and went to a huge party in Dover. It ended up being a really good time. So good that we were some of the last people to leave. And Phoenix was literally the life of the party. Everyone loved her. It wasn't until the next day looking at photos that I realized she made it out on the dance floor. Haha. She spent most of her time being pet by the food table.

Hanging out at one of our favorite spots, Saco River Brewing. Ryan had to cut out the beer for awhile, but he'll be drinking some again during his birthday weekend trip.

Ryan's mode of exercise lately. I wish I had a bike so I could join him.

My parents came for a short visit in August. The weather was rainy and humid the whole time, unfortunately. Ryan took them on a tour of Remick Farm. They loved it. They left on my dad's 81st birthday so we had dinner at High Roller Lobster to celebrate before dropping them off in Portland.

It was a sad day. I lost my ambulance partner, Jeff. No, no. He didn't die, although I should tell him he's dead to me. Haha. He's the new (for the 2nd time) fire chief of Twin Mountain. How anyone could leave private ambulance for that, I don't know. Haha. Jeff and I worked together for just shy of 10 years. He's been my permanent long-time partner for 4.5 years. He was with me through all the Bryan drama with John and everything else in between. I didn't expect to cry when he left our last shift together, but the tears just came. Although we didn't hang out outside of work, Jeff was still one of my closest friends. Like a brother. I miss him already, but I'm really happy for him to finally be in the place he belongs.

So I guess that's it for another LONG blog post. I figured since I actually raced, it would be a good time to update it. My next update will hopefully not include me having Covid, but we just swabbed 15 positive (almost all vaccinated) people on Friday. I bet they got even more than that today. I was shocked my sinus infection wasn't Covid related, but my test was negative. I wouldn't have dared go down to run Boston without getting tested first. The scary part is that a lot of the positive people are only presenting with allergy/minor cold symptoms. Luckily, though, so few are getting any worse than that.

The only race I had planned for the rest of the year got postponed until May so as of now, I have no races planned. I'm only interested in short distance road races now, but I don't want to travel too far for one. My race travel bug is gone now. I'm happy staying close to home. I'm happy spending my time with Ryan, John and the dogs. It's all I need.

Oh last thing! We had a few weeks of no ambulance transfers due to hospitals being full, so I finally decided to read Scott Jurek's book North about his Appalachian Trail FKT. I read the entire thing in one sitting! I was psyched to see Ryan made the photos at the end of the book. He still talks about that trek with Jurek. 

And by the way, Chill had diarrhea all over that backpack Ryan is wearing in the photo last week! 😂