After a late night of splurging on Hulu, I woke up to find Kenya finishing
French toast for breakfast made from Mary’s cinnamon bread with blueberries on
top, mmm… After hanging my laundry and responding to emails for the day, I was
off to lounge at the beach for the afternoon. On my way to town, I did a little hill workout
on my bike, doing 5 repeats of this one hill off of Point RD. Wearing sandals, jean shorts, and a backpack
didn’t make things easier. I grabbed a
lunch of fruit from Day’s store – banana, kiwi, orange, cucumber included
(vegetable, whatever) – and poured through my book, Born to Run. I’m trying to
take this book with a grain of salt in all of the far-fetched claims it makes
and people it introduces, but I can’t help but feel inspired by the
determination, pure love of the sport, and straight-up craziness of some
people. If you’re going to do something,
give it your best, and don’t make excuses for yourself. Not bad rules to live by, if one goes about
it reasonably. My friend Alison, a dear
friend and fellow Eph runner, and I talked on the phone. Alison has already read Born to Run, and has worked at a running shoe store, and so was
trained on both sides of the barefoot running debate. She was full of answers to my questions,
although we agreed that it’d be hard to test out barefoot running ourselves
suddenly while in a demanding college training program.
I took a dip in the clear, rocky lake and napped in the
shade along the rocks. What a day. I headed back earlier than usual because Gil
and I were going to do some shopping. He’s
going to camp tomorrow for a week at Koroka in New
Hampshire , the same program that’s running Kenya ’s
semester abroad expedition next year. I
drove Gil to Augusta
to get new sandals (he’s been wearing broken ones all summer) and a swimsuit
(he lost his, so he just swims in his cargos), and I was able to pick up some
necessities at Shaw’s and Target on the way. We ate dinner outside(grilled summer squash,
zucchini, and kohlrabi; cucumber, kale, arugula, and spinach salad with
homemade dressing; black beans; and iced tea) and I was introduced to our
newest addition to the family, Claire.
Claire is a 20-year-old from Connecticut who goes to The New School in
NYC. She took a gap-year after high
school to teach at a secondary school in Kenya and as a former rower
herself, she coaches high school crew. Claire
seems strong, witty, and warm – I’m glad she’s going to be around. She’s a champ and will be staying outside in
the family’s tent for the 4 weeks that she’ll be WWOOFing (World-Wide
Organization for Organic Farming) here.
Sage and Mary at the Waterville Farmer's Market (the one I was at on Thursday). This is a dated picture, as Sage is now 6-years-old. Mary has honey, breads, pies, yarn, pickled goods, and a vegetarian cookbook on display here.
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