Day 4,375—Casual Shopping before my Son’s Birthday—

         Felix is three tomorrow! It seems so recently when I was going to the hospital. When I was worried I wouldn’t be able to run the St. Louis Marathon because there was a chance Felix might be arriving that weekend. I didn’t get a lot at the grocery store, but my daughter was so upset this morning because we were out of the round vegan sausages, so I bought some of those and some candy. I looked in general for some stuff I might want to give Felix, but I mainly wanted to see if the store had any Duplo sets. I wanted to get Felix some Duplo sets, but the prices went up by 300 percent, and everything on the Lego website was sold out. No surprise there was nothing at the store.

        This morning, I was awakened by one of my cats, who was probably sitting on my face. I was so tired and didn’t want to get up, but I figured I would feed the cats and maybe spend a little of the morning by myself before everyone gets up. By the time I had made coffee, both of my kids got up.

        Even though I had so much water all day yesterday, my throat was still sore. I had more water. Then I realized it was probably the only time I had to mow the lawn. I spent a lot of time methodically mowing the lawn and emptying the trash, all before I went for a run and picked up a few things at the grocery store. I was feeling worse than I did yesterday and had a lot more to do. I still wasn’t ready to think about work stuff. Sarah thought it was crazy that people recognized me at the race and told me she was worried about security. I just want to say thanks to everyone who said hi to me at the race! I really needed the support!

        I am looking at the results of the marathon now, and maybe I am just used to looking at ultra run results, but 1.455 started and 1.411 finished! That’s an insane finishing rate! For the half-marathon it was even higher; it was only a 22-person difference from start to finish. I wonder if it is usually that high? My place in the race wasn’t that great this year, but I did my best considering the circumstances and didn’t have an experience like I did in 2024, which was still my worst St. Louis Marathon experience to date. I was 23rd in my age group, so that’s something, right? Hopefully, next year I will be healthy, and I won’t get lost. And it's only been since 2023 that I haven’t had a more normal showing, with a time of 3:18, so I can get back there soon. That was the year Felix was born. I did that race only a couple weeks before he was born.