from mile to marathon

The journey of a thousand leagues begins from beneath your feet.
Lao-Tzu

Thursday, June 04, 2009

spring, unpredictable

I moved last October. I am living alone now.

I started running a couple of weeks ago, trying to do it all right from the start, stretching and core exercises and healthy food. My back hurts like hell and 3.5 miles last Sunday completely knocked me off, but the run this morning was smooth.

A doctor in oriental medicine just diagnosed me with lead toxicity and consequent deficiency of iron, magnesium, and phosphorus. That's a lot of minerals. I did some internet research just to learn of a variety of heavy duty symptoms, as if all systems were failing and I were dying of a wasting disease, but the truth is that I plan to run the New Mexico Marathon Plus on September 6th, three months from now. The only sign of illness I have are lesions on my legs. They look as if I have been hit by the plague. The other day I took pictures of them, complete with make-up, music, perfume, and accessories, and the images are quite sexy, in a morbid sort of way.

I bought a pair of knee-length running pants to cover up the worst and deal with the warm weather as well.

Even before this I quit smoking, not actually quitting in the way we understand the term, with its implied trail of temptation and torment, but simply forgetting, overnight, to smoke another cigarette. The opened pack lay around for a few days before I decided to put it away somewhere. I had just bought a whole carton, since quitting was not high on my priority list.

I play music loud in my car. I cut my hair very short. I am thinking of a cute pair of shoes I saw.

Oh, and I am in love.