A Week of Low Stress…..

Because the week leading up to a Marathon should be free from distractions…..as the Marathoner focuses on their goal.   That is what all of the training books say.   And it makes sense!  Who wants to have their mind clouded with nonsensical , trivial things leading up to a culmination of months of hard training.
So,  Of Course,  This means that this is the week where everything will go wrong.  Ah,  so many things…..let me take a deep breath and recap for everyone…..the low stress things that are cropping up this last week leading up to the Marathon.   
I’ll start with the simple things first.   Stockings!   Last week was a fairly simple easy week of sewing stockings.  One or two every day…..trivial!   Easily done in just a few hours…..No weird questions.   No strange Orders or requests.   And then….
The Gallery…from two years ago puts in a rather large order ( 49 stockings!)  This may not sound like too much….but this many this early could mess up our current supply of materials.   Any other week, and Cheryl would be methodical and calculate exactly what we need,  how much,  what time, Etc.    But this week….Well,  Cheryl has he mind on other things…  Add in several custom orders for dogs and “whales” and various other zoo animals we have not done before and Cheryl’s mind begins to spin.   We have been chipping away at the Gallery’s order slowly as the week progresses….And will probably finish it  after the Marathon weekend is over.   But the lingering thought is still there in the back of your mind….A job unfinished……
Then there is the pressure of Qualifying for Boston.   News has  surfaced that the Qual time for Boston has been moved up…The times are still the same, but as more and more people qualify,   this means that the “First Come/ First Serve”  standard gets tighter.  People who qualified a full three minutes faster than their cut off still may not have been selected.  So…if Cheryl wants to actually GO to Boston…she will have to better her Qual time by a HUGE margin if she wants to make the grade. 
Before I forget,  Jury Duty!   That is right…I was selected a while ago and was supposed to start calling in for selection this week!   LUCKILY!   I was able to defer it back to the month of January…after stockings and before the scoring season begins.   hopefully I will not get selected…as I do not desire to stand in judgment over someone’s livelihood. 
Then today,   Subaru gave us a bit of a scare.    One of his Boots on the front Axle had cracked,  leaking grease all over.  The Twin Cities is a decent number of miles away and having an axle exposed to the elements that long concerned me.    I looked it up on the internet and You Tube and discovered it was kind of a serious problem!   Add in that I was unaware just how long that crack had been there and what has been going on under the car.   We have been going down some gravel roads lately, and the thought of sand and dust wearing away the U-Joint was troubling. 
Not wanting to add in any more stress to Cheryl’s already Fractured Zen,  I tried to keep things to myself and tried to figure out if I could fix it.   No way!   All the forums and videos pretty much told me to purchase a new axle…..and without the proper tools,  it would have to be a professional for this one.   
Luckily,  the shop that did the wheel alignment before Grandma’s Marathon took us right away and fixed it!   I was impressed!   They also replaced the other side as the boot on the drivers side was beginning to crack as well, just not as badly as the passengers side.  The entire episode took only 2 hours….Not bad for a random Walk-in/non-appointment day.  Aside from the financial hit, I think Subie feels a little better.   As well as myself, knowing that I’m no longer driving a ticking time bomb!  
And Lastly…..The Professional Protest group “Black Lives Matter”  are planning on disrupting the Marathon itself!   Just when we thought the problems were just on our side,  the Twin-Cities Marathon is having its own set of problems.   Apparently,  Black Lives Matter plans on forming a human chain around mile 25, preventing marathoners from crossing the finish line!  They are turning this normal communal  and family event into a political one.   You can imagine how this is unsettling Cheryl.
Now I’m all for peaceful protesting, but I’m not sure if the Leaders for BLM really have given this as much thought as they should have.  Don’t they KNOW that the top finishers are all BLACK?     The Africans always are the Elites here….why mess with them? 
Additionally,   I know FIRST HAND what happens to Marathoners after mile 22!   It gets UGLY!  Civilized filters humans keep up during social interactions are DESTROYED!  Leaving Pure Human Emotion….and that is not an entirely good thing.

We humans like our filters….Teenagers Say they want people to be honest and say  things to their face…and not behind their backs…but we adults know better.   You need people to be polite….even if they are being jerks.  Without filters…well,  everyone would cause a scene every time they waited in line at Panera.
And that is what will happen when the Human Tidal Wave of Exhausted Marathoners struggling to qualify for Boston meets the BLM Human daisy chain.   It could be bad….it could be nothing.   It DEFINATLY will cause stress this last week leading up to the Marathon. 
So,  There it is!   Marathon week has become so stressful,   that I’m exhausted just writing about it!  And we have not even begun to run ( Hey! That rhymes!) I’m hoping that the BLM thing gets resolved peacefully.  There will still be plenty of stress for me trying to navigate the city to take pictures.  I don’t need any one laying across the green line tracks to get me any further confused or lost. Heck,  I’ll probably get lost WITHOUT BLM’s help.  Add in the Bomb sniffing dogs, officials escorting me off the field, and high parking rates of the Twin Cities and our plate is already overflowing! 
So now the Joke will be:   What is the difference between a white and a black marathon?    The Black marathon is only 25 miles!  ( Hey!   It’s their Title, not mine…)   Why won’t the Black Marathon go the extra Mile?  Does it still qualify for Boston?   Do Kenyans Qualify as black people?  Will Subie enjoy his new boots on race day?    ( Ok, the jokes are getting lame now)  Hope everyone else's weeks is less worrisome than ours.