Bad Manners

Unless you want to incur the wrath of the Running Gods (not to mention the bad voodoo karma of a slightly irritated welsh boy), there is one cardinal running rule you should never ever break.

Ever.

Do not, I repeat, do not request I meet you for an early morning run and then not bother to show up.  Last night I got a phone call from a buddy who asked if I could run the Bull Creek road hills with him this morning.  We agreed to meet at 6am, but while I got my butt out of bed on a cold, dark and rainy morning he never showed.

No phone call, no explanation, nothing.  Just a no-show.

So I just ran it myself, very slightly angry.  And it didn't help that I felt like I was struggling in the first few hilly miles, until I realized that "angry me" was pushing sub-7s.  Once I slowed down a bit I felt much better.

But on the bright side, at least it got me out of the house and running again, as this was the first run I've done since Tuesday.  It has not been a good week.  First I learned that the school district is planning to close my son's exemplary school, then we got word that a series of massive layoffs are imminent at work, then Dylan got sick.

Yeah, 2011 kind of sucks so far.  Sucky sucky sucks!!!

So instead of running I've been working on fiery speeches, attending community feedback meetings, doing copious amounts of research, data crunching, and writing protest letters.  The parents have organized and mobilized amazingly quickly, but there are a lot of things to do if we're going to beat this.

Yesterday should have been my last 30 miler before Rocky, but I nixed it in favor of research and putting together a really kick ass response to the district task force.

As a result, I've been invited to be part of the strategy team for our school.  Much as I usually hate being attached to committees, I really welcome the chance to get in there and fight for something so important to me.

Needless to say, Rocky and running has dropped to low man on the totem pole.  That's ok though - I know myself well enough to trust that my body, mind and spirit will be ready when I need them to be.

And I want to thank those of you who took the time to sign the petition to keep our school open.  If you would like to add your John Hancock, we have a brand new website up and running. The petition can be found from the "You can help" menu.

We have over 1000 signatures so far, and every one helps.