"I like your shoes; they sparkle!"

...said the elderly woman who was walking up the path I was running down today. And you know what, it's been just a sparkly kind of day all the way around.

Early sparkle: When we went out to get the paper this morning there was a box waiting at our door - filled with 32 21-ounce packages of powdered Gatorade! How did this come to be, you might ask. Well, when we went to son Paul's first college cross country meet on Sept 1, I was cheering for Knox women's team runners as they passed by - as was another nearby woman. We got to talking and discovered we both had freshmen boys running for Knox. We walked and talked; she spotted my Boston shirt and asked if I had run it. I said yes and she replied that her husband really wanted to run a marathon but work or injuries always seemed to interrupt his training; however, since he was the president of Gatorade, they got to go see Ironman Hawaii and weren't they tremendous athletes. "Indeed they are," I replied. "You say your husband is the president of Gatorade?"

We talk a bit more, our respective husbands joined us, and introductions were made all around. Then the little voice in my head says "It's now or never Paula" so I pipe up with "You're the president of Gatorade?" Chuck nods affirmatively and I come back with "I was going to write to you." Chuck asks if it was for a good thing or a bad thing and I answer that it's for an adventure I'm planning for the summer of 2007 and proceed to describe my run to him. He jumps in with "You're going to need a lot of hydration!" and starts asking questions about my support crew (my family), distances, etc. then says "We'll take care of you." And lo and behold, two weeks later I've got enough Gatorade at my doorstep for a gallon a day every day I'm running next summer!

More sparkle: I got up enough gumption to send a piece I wrote about running partners and a request to publish the chronicles of my run (or any other aspect of it they're interested in) to one of the running magazines. Got my fingers crossed on that one.

Even more sparkle: I did my weekly 3 mile hill run today - another run up the NCAR road but this time I came down via a new (to me) trail. Two new trails in one week!

Additional sparkle: Kendall had mentioned that his library (he's an elementary school librarian) was falling behind on shelving - so I actually worked a bit today shelving books. A couple hours of work, and the retirement luster is still shining.

End-of-day sparkle: Today is the last day of this session of BCOR. We did our cardio fit test yesterday (2 x 1-mile repeats composed of 1/4 mile up/down/up/down). Both of my times last night beat my fastest time from the first week. On both occasions, my second repeat was slower than my first, but last night's was only 4 seconds slower (vs. 22 seconds the first week). Also, this time the fit test was the day after a 3-hour run. Could it be I'm getting fitter? In any case, after tonight's session, we're going out for a bit of partying then get a week off before the next session starts up. My quads, glutes, and hammies are all thrilled with the idea of a rest week!