HOT!!

 Okay, okay, I know I haven't posted anything about Hawaii . . .in fact I just found a post I started pre-Hawaii, but I will.  I promise, it will involve tons of pictures, but I don't want to put in the effort right now.  Interestingly, I find picture heavy posts take a lot of time for me.  I tend to write off the top of my head, so it doesn't take much effort (unless I have a lot of typos, which I'm finding to be true tonight).

Anyway, I was reading a totally random post from Runs for Cookies, and she mentioned her previous marathon training, she is not marathon training, just mentioned it. Anyway, it made me nostalgic.  I did not love marathon training in the moment, but I loved the feeling after the long runs.  I really loved that feeling.  It got me thinking, maybe I should start.  Although, I go back and forth about the long runs.  I love the after feeling, but always dread it beforehand, which has stopped me lately from doing longer runs.  I think my longest run in a year or longer is 7 miles, which does not translate to marathon training.  

Maybe in all my spare time (hahahahaha) I'll look at where I should be in marathon training for an October (or September) marathon.  

Speaking of spare time, while I was in Hawaii I got an email from my school saying that I am eligible for inperson graduation on October 13th.  That makes me very excited.  Not to do the inperson graduation (I don't plan to) but that I am close enough to get an email about it.  Two more practicum (internship) classes and I am done!  My last practicum class that ended last week, I had a grade of 100%, 1,000 points out of 1,000 points.  I was pretty excited about that!  However, practicum classes are very easy, just a couple of posts a week, and a weekly journal along with practicum hours.  

Did you hear about the heat wave the west coast had?  The last three days we had 100+ temperatures.  Western Washington was not built for those temperatures.  Only about 30% of homes have air conditioning (I do not).  It was so hot freeway asphalt buckled.  It is kind of crazy when people are excited to see 90 degree weather (today).  Usually 90* is considered hot, but after the last three days it felt cool and nice. I love that we have a (small) pool.

The worst part about it (I love the sun and the heat) was that it didn't cool down at night and there was no way to cool down the house.  We have fans, and we do have a small window air conditioner, but those things were definitely not adequate for the temperatures we faced this week.  We broke tons of records.  Western WA has never had more than 1 day of 100 degree weather, we had 3 days.  Not only did we have all time record breaking highs, but we also had record breaking high lows, yesterday I woke up to 75 degrees outside (not that bad, you say?  Remember we are not used to that!).  I have run every day (so far) this week before 6am to beat the heat.  My Saturday, Sunday, and Monday runs were all at temperatures I'm used to running later in the day (70+), at 6am.  The news has been "excited" to report that the rest of the week will be in the 80's.  Normally they would be complaining about the high temperatures that are lasting a whole week.  (Not me, I would normally be loving it and am very happy we are still going to be warm.)

When I was pregnant with Damian 23 years ago, I lived in eastern WA where temperatures are regularly 90 and above in the summer.  I didn't run back then, but I remember driving past a bank reader board that had the temperature on it at midnight, it said 101 degrees.  That was hot, I was used to it, I had air conditioning.  Western WA? it is not the same.

I am happily sitting outside tonight in 70 degree weather right now at almost 9pm, thankful for the "cool" temperature, hoping my house gets below 80 tonight.