The heart remains willing, but the shins have had enough for the moment. Actually, it’s the muscles that run up the front of the shins that are causing problems so I’m taking a couple weeks off to let them heal. I’ll then start back slowly with some new exercises from my coach, Natalie, so that I don’t get sidelined by them again. In the meantime I’ve joined a gym so I will be able to burn a few calories and hopefully not go all to pot while I recuperate.

I usually wear glasses so when I run in high humidity including rain, like today, my glasses fog up and my view of the world goes wet and milky. I think the clouding of my vision turns my thoughts even more inward than usual. Runners zone out or get into a zone as the miles click by and the rain seems to accentuate that. Soon all that exists is the wooshing sound of my breath as the pavement flashes by (well, rolls by, I’m not that fast…yet). I don’t write while I’m running, not exactly, but I do find my thoughts wandering to a character, especially one that I’ve placed in a life or death situation. No doubt the rushing of blood, the increased heart rate, sweat, exertion and the simple act of motion contribute.

I belong to a private library here in New York and last night they put on an event for member writers. There had to be over 200 people there, but if you give writers a chance to emerge from isolation to be feted you’re going to get a big turnout. The array of books displayed was impressive, not to mention the wine and hors d’oeuvre they served throughout the evening. I met many interesting people, many with publishing backgrounds, and I think the evening went a long way to building a sense of community among the members.

Hats off to the folks at the New York Society Library for a wonderful event!

As it happens we trained on the significantly larger and longer set of hills at the north end of Central Park last night. It was a nice little psyche by Natalie and made the evening a fun if challenging one.

In other news John McCain wants a time-out to work on the economy. Someone needs to tell him it doesn’t work that way in the real world. Stuff happens, and keeps happening, and you don’t get time-outs just because you’re down in the polls. Did McCain ever play quarterback because he sure is tossing up a lot of Hail Mary’s these days.

…but is actually a rather clever marketing tag line if I do say so myself just happens to be the one S&S UK came up with for the book. “Ever seen an elf with a musket?” If I’d thought of that I might have used it for the title…well, maybe not, but it does catch the eyeballs. This runs along the top of a promo poster in stores in London and I am now desperate to get one.

In other news the cat returns, Cat Hill that is in Central Park. Training next week will have us huffing and puffing up and down Cat Hill (so named for the black cat statue perched halfway up on a rock) and something I am looking forward to. We did the stairs last week at Bethesda Fountain and by the end my legs were, naturally, rubber. It felt great though.