starting to pay off

In more ways than one, the running club has been paying off. First of all, I've mentioned already that it's been fun. I've met awesome people who, though they take their running very seriously, are not so obsessed they take themselves too seriously. I was worried about women who eat a carrot stick and a pumpkin seed and claim they are full. Nope, we eat waffles with whipped cream for brunch after 16 hard miles on a Sunday.

Aside from being fun, I've made huge improvements in just the first six weeks. Though I'm not sure my first 3 mile time trial was as fast as possible at the time, I ran last week's time trial a full 1:51 faster. That's over 35 seconds per mile dropped. I ran 3 miles in 20:52. 6:55/mile pace. Nutzo. The coach insists that if I continue doing the training as I'm doing, there's no reason I won't hit my goal at Grandma's. Cautious optimism.

I'm still sore a lot, and tired too. But it's a great sore and a great tired. I was thirsty and found just the right kool-aid.

open up a book and have a look

My YLIG (Youth Literature Interest Group) book club is meeting tonight - my children's lit book club with work people. Sometimes we read children's books, but mostly we read research about children's literature. Yup, nerdy nerdy two-by-four.

For this meeting we read the 2012 Caldecott & Newbery winners. The Caldecott went to a charming wordless picture book called A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka, and the Newbery was awarded to Jack Gantos' Dead End in Norvelt. As per usual for ALA awards, these will not likely be a hit with kids but are beautiful books. The Gantos book is funny and poignant and clever. I really liked it. But I don't think middle grade readers will be drawn to it.

Normally we meet in the afternoon on a Friday for snacks and tea but due to difficult schedules, we're meeting for a potluck dinner on Saturday night. Pretty wild and crazy for YLIG.