Run #35: 35 min. - LAST RUN

Christy Merry

has hereby completed 20 hours of running

in the summer of 2011.

Done. I am done! I thought today it would be fitting for me to do something special for the last run. I ended up settling for running through sprinklers. 3 in a park, and a bonus one on the way home. As I approached the third one, I saw a dragonfly, and another, and another. The sky was full of them, like they were celebrating the last day of my summer runs.

It was a fitting end. :) Thanks for your support!

* pic from The Compleat Wetlander

Run #34: 34 min.

Aberdeen. Aug. 27. I took today off too. A little research before this run revealed I only had 69 min. left on my goal. SO close! Nevertheless, it was hot. I wanted a short run, but had to add on some minutes to my shorter route so I wandered off and ended up at a rummage sale. There was nothing really great at this sale, except...a large framed copy of 'the SALESMAN SHIP' for free. I brought Tommy back later and we picked it up as a gift for our boss. I think he will love it. :) He's the 'motivational type'.

That's the excitement of that run! That, and that now I only have 35 min. left to go! Yay yay!! OhIamsogladthisisalmostdone. Strangely...the vegetarianism has not given me much of a withdrawal. I don't even think about it most of the time. Perhaps it might be worth continuing on for a little while when I get back? Or at least just lessening the meat intake? Thoughts to ponder.

Run # 33: 46 min.

Still Aberdeen. Aug. 26 (I took a day off on the 25th :) ). Hot, hot. 80s. I took my phone camera on this run. I spent a lot of time when I got out to my sunflower path, taking pics, and texting a friend I was praying for. The sun was high in the sky and I apparently kept heating up. I may not have had enough water before departing either. In any case, instead of an hour run (which I had planned due to my closeness to my goal!), I started feeling nauseous about halfway home and ended up stopping to rest in shadow behind a dugout in a park and calling Tommy to rescue me.

After one brush w/heat exhaustion this summer, I knew it wasn't wise to gamble on another. He came asap, armed with water for me and instructions: cool shower, fan, rest, etc. Heat exhaustion is nothing to mess with.

This little titch of it was worth it, tho'...for the beauty. :)

Run #32: 26 min.

Aberdeen. Hot. Aug. 24. Sorry it took me so long to post about it. I ran out of good pix I could 'borrow' from online so I wanted to take my own of this garden I love that I see on my runs.

Believe me, it's better than the things I found googling "mosquito bite on the back of my knee".

Run #30 & #31: 27 min. and 25 min.

Aberdeen. Today was really hot. Good thoughts. Quick quiet morning runs.

* photo by Christian Schmidt

Run #29: 1 hr 5 min.

Aberdeen. 78 degrees.

The benefit of running when you get up (with a little reading before: Father Fiction by Donald Miller and Proverbs) and cranking your ipod volume, is that you can get a fair distance without even realizing you are running. Your mind is hazy and full. It's nice.

Run #27 & 28: 27 min. & 30 min.

Aberdeen. Yesterday, it was about to rain. A few drops graced my shoulders, but I made it home in time. Today, I thought I could attempt another hour run in the evening after I got back from spending the afternoon w/Angie & Zion (& a few of Zion's friends) at the water park, as it seemed cooler than some of these other days. However, this run was preceded by a hastily eaten pbj. Not recommended. For the record, this results in abdominal discomfort and profuse sweating, I mean, "glowing". I glowed rather a lot.

Otherwise all was fine. I remarked to myself about the large # of pickup trucks in the vicinity (they & SUVs/minivans outnumber smaller cars 2 to 1 out here it seems, did my usual situps & had brief but thought-provoking chats w/God. I've started to read a chapter of Proverbs before running (there's 31 so I just read the one that corresponds w/the day of the month - my pastor Joel did that for about 3 years once), so that is good food for thought.

* photo of garden gnome is from gardengnomesetc.com

Run #23: 29 min.

Minneapolis. I can't remember anything about this run to save my life. 8:30 am-ish. Out and back in time to leave for SD...ummm...

Yeah. In other news, I saw my friend Taylor at the coffeehouse this morning and she's "in" for my Spirit & Flesh group for fall (see last post if you don't know what I'm talking about. She just started running herself, after thinking about how we are to care for the body of Christ (aka 'the church at large'). She said, "So I thought, if I don't take care of my own body, how can I take care of the body of Christ?" It seems like good timing, eh? That was kinda cool.

* photo taken from blog.tinyprints.com

Run #20: 27 min.

Minneapolis. 76 degrees. Full moon.

The moon was sweating too

I mean, sweating like a woman -

Uncle John says we 'glow'.

We glowed together.

When I got to the park, I walked.

I did situps. I prayed lackluster prayers

which nevertheless, I meant. I want to

glow like Moses, and I don't think that

was just sweat.

Bats were abundant

wheeling and turning on pins of sound

flying by faith and not by sight. There's

a man in Aberdeen who is blind, but

goes about with a video camera. He

makes movies. I don't understand.

I suppose I do understand wanting to

operate in a sense I don't possess.

Common sense, perhaps?

Enough of this poem. I just wanted

to make it possible somehow for all of you

to smell the flower-thick air with me

to hear the million crickets

and to see how the street lamp light

led me home.

* photo from www.sodahead.com

Runs #18 & #19: 42 min. & 24 min.

Aberdeen. Not much to say. Both days were hot but windy. Yesterday I found a great stretch of the longer run I did for Run #17, which is good for walking/praying out loud...which seems to be the best way for me. That way I can 'have it out' w/God or sing or whatnot without prying eyes/ears about. It's good. It was a 'breakthrough' day...one of those days when you feel like you said what you needed to say and you got at least a bit of some answers. I came back from yesterday's run (& walk/prayer) with a decision to be a vegetarian for my last 2 weeks here. Most of the house is vegetarian and it just seems more 'community' to throw in w/them and learn while I'm here, rather than doing what I'm used to. It's good to get outside your comfort zone once in a while. Anyway, that's what's up! Tomorrow we head on back to MN for the weekend, for the Pizza Luce Block Party (Farewell Continental is playing) and a wedding. So you might get some 'lake' commentary. :)

* photo of Banducci purple heather borrowed from www.cchutchison.com

Run #17: 47 min.

Lord, have mercy! 47 min. is a long time to run. Aberdeen. 82 degrees. Good breeze.

Found a new route that spilled out at a field with hay bales and barns, and followed it along out of curiosity. Can't believe I went so long on such a hot day! But the wind really made a difference. It's preparing to storm 'round here I think, but the pre-storm weather was perfect.

Think that Tommy & I will have to picnic out at said field one o' these days. ;)

* photo borrowed from Greg Morton Photography

Run #16: 27 min.

Today's picture is actually taken by me! My blatant plagiarism thus far is uncharacteristic, but you can't be your own photographer all the time...

Today: Aberdeen. 8:15 a.m. 70+ degrees? Shorter run than usual because, it's Sunday, church is at 9:45 a.m., and, well Sundays should be days of rest. Since not running today would mean a 52 min. run on another day to make it up, I thought it more restful just to get in a 'short run' today so I won't have to stress about hour-long runs!

From there, we (Tommy, Rosa & I) went to The Journey, a fun laid back little church where our roomie Jeremy plays guitar. Afterward we went by the grocery store and then came home. I think Tommy may have gone back to bed then. I decided to go sunning in the yard, and after a while Zion joined me. We played with the hose and the swingset and my camera and read books and such for a few hours. You can see her cuteness in the pic above. The book I was reading (I'd picked up at church this morning) was coincidentally called The Gates of Zion. (Even better, the one I bought last night at the Red Rooster for a quarter was called Journey Continued) Later we gave each other fake tattoos. In the evening, Rosa and Angie got inspired to do a huge vegetarian Thanksgiving meal in the back yard, and it was splendid. We went around and said what we were thankful for.

Not a bad Sunday sun-day. :) It wasn't hard to be thankful.

Run #15: 35 min.

Aberdeen. 5:15 pm. On the treadmill at the Y. With Angie & Roseanne. A number of events transpired earlier which pushed our departure until later in the day, so we had limited time before they closed. Still got in 35 min. tho'. And watched the gym tv with horribly written transcripts, detailing the joys of WalkFit inserts and the horror of the latest military casualties. All the same, despite our country now being a worse credit risk than say, the Isle of Man, it was a good run. :)



Have you ever had that crazy effect where everything seems to be moving in slo-mo when you get off the treadmill? Weird. And kind of awesome.

Guess what? According to my special little spreadsheet, I no longer need to run 29/30 min. day everyday. Now I can accomplish my goal w/just 27 min/day...

I now depart to get ready for a dinner date with my special Mr. Tommy Rehbein. Have yourselves a great night! :)

Run #14: 30 min.

8:15 a.m. Aberdeen. In the 70s. Ran w/Angie Cleberg this lovely morning. It was the first run I did not walk at all during! She chattered away and told me the ins-and-outs of the town, who was a creeper, what dogs scare you, her favorite house, the county fair, how the town was built on a railroad, and most importantly, where the overpass for the railroad is! (Tommy and I waited 20 min. last night for the Slowest Train in the Universe to pass by, and I couldn't figure out why no one else was lining up behind us.) I was so caught up in listening that we were done running before I knew it! Yay. Tomorrow we're going to run on the treadmills at the Y I think. Maybe that will be nice. It was actually really hot this morning even though we got out early. At some point I should probably ramp up and run for an hour one day or 45 min two days in a row so I can take a day off...I'm getting a little achey.

Run #13: 30 min.

Aberdeen, SD. 79 degrees. I need to get up earlier, and get running earlier to catch the cooler weather. I fell asleep last night in the middle of a deep spiritual discussion, so deeply asleep that Tommy had to carry me to my room. Not sure how long I was asleep, or if I snored, or spoke in my sleep (I've given a speech on the 'importance of the red square' before). It wouldn't have been the most embarrassing thing I'd done that day if I had. In the evening, there was an art/protest sort of thing where they projected this video they'd made of people swimming in clean water, onto the 'Mog' or mud-bog to show how disgusting that idea is. We drove over there in a big red pickup truck with a bunch of the 'clients'/folks Tommy is here to work with.

After we'd been out there for a while the mosquitoes became REALLY aggressive and were eating me alive. Tommy and Dan were leaning against a red pickup truck that I assumed was ours. When I could not take the bug-biting anymore I climbed into the front seat and closed the door. A girl turned and laughing said, "Oh no! don't drive it away!" which I thought was silly and we both laughed. About 20-30 min. later, Tommy knocked on the truck and said we needed to take off, so I waited for everyone to pile in, but instead they were all walking ACROSS THE STREET to where OUR RED PICKUP was parked! !!!!!!! Thankfully, all the 20-30 folks who were at the event sort of knew each other in one way or another, so the vehicle - which was probably that girl's - was at least in 'our group' sorta. But.......eeeeyag. How embarrassing.

Angie's going to run with me tomorrow! Yay! :)

Run #12: 31 min.

Aberdeen. Probably 70s again. This was yesterday. At the end of my run I sat down in a park to pray a bit, and this couple was in a fight. The guy was swearing and super-agressive with the woman. I couldn't hear her say anything, but when I was looking the other way I heard sounds that sounded like slaps, but I couldn't see anything when I looked back. I didn't want to be too obvious in looking because he looked scary. There were a bunch of kids there near them listening to him yell at her. Maybe their kids. Anyhow, she looked kind of passive/afraid to react too much, stood very still most of the time, although a few times she was reaching for something he had but wouldn't give to her. I didn't want to leave but since Tommy was a couple blocks away I thought the presence of a Big Tough guy might cause this guy to watch himself. When I got to the house, Tommy was in the shower, but I told Angie what was up and she grabbed her phone and bike and headed over immediately. I ran a bit behind. She rolled her bike right up to them, parked it and then walked around the playground for a while as she was talking w/the police and didn't want him to hear her. The police came and took care of stuff, so we went home. I realized later that the reason the woman hadn't left is because I think the guy had her car keys and wouldn't give them back to her. Mean guy. Anyway, when I talked to a friend of ours on the phone in Bahrain last night about how my 'quiet time w/God' was sort of interrupted, he considers that it wasn't...and that this falls into the category when God says 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice". So by helping out the person whose trouble 'coincidentally' became apparent to me in my time of prayer, it was doing something a lot more important than having some transcendent spiritual experience. He's got a point. Anyway, that Angie is a bold girl, I'll say that for her!

Run #11: 45 min.

Aberdeen, SD. 70 degrees, cloudy and a bit windy with some serious humidity.

You may have noticed an extraordinary lack of running activity for the last 3 weeks or so. This reflects, in addition to the weather & heat index being in the 100-110 degree region in Minneapolis, the sad fact that I got sick with a pretty brutal cold & cough. So I have been doing my best to recover and give myself adequate rest. Now, in Aberdeen for the month, I realize that in order to accomplish my summer goal of 20 hours of running (of which I have approx. 14-15 hours left if my math is correct), I have to run 30 min./day or an hour every other day or somesuch. The 45 min. was a compromise between the two.

It's always a bit easier to run in a new city where all your exploring adds to your knowledge of your surroundings. There also seems to be a good likelihood that Tommy, or Angie Cleberg (a director of the Fallout Creative Community w/her hubby Dan), or Rosanne (a volunteer who also lives in the community house) will join me for some of my runs.

My next post will give the update on how exactly I DID end up here in S. Dakota. Promise.

* borrowed photo.

Run #10: 34 min.

It was a struggling run today. 80 degrees or so again, intermittent light wind. Many thoughts. So I decided to go all the way around the lake this time, but spent a good deal of time walking and praying too.

The mansions - it's funny, maybe they look different when you're wearing your sunglasses or something, but they've been catching my eyes more often this week. Not that I'm lusting after living in them...I don't know what I'd do with so much space! (Well, actually, I do, I'd probably just invite everyone to live w/me! ;P)

They made me think of a discussion I had this week w/a guy at The Beat Coffee - he was suggesting that maybe the Bible didn't really have much to say about the afterlife to us and was more concerned about social justice. I think it's likely he was just swinging the pendulum in the neglected direction out of reaction to the imbalances he'd experienced in the churches he'd been in, which I know I'VE certainly done a time or two - it often needs doing before we find a balance... In fact we're probably never perfectly balanced and our pendulums nearly always off center, but I think they swing less wildly perhaps as we grow older and we self-correct ourselves much sooner after we've seen a few more rotations 'round the sun.

Anyway, THAT was not the point I meant to make here (and at the time I think I only said that part of the hope of eternity in scripture is that everything is seen and known and justice will eventually be given perfectly)... but it made me look at these wonderful houses and think of what Jesus said to his disciples in the book of John when he was foretelling his departure and they were kind of freaking out -

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

I think it's interesting that the King James Version (KJV) translated it as 'My father's house has many mansions'...and the New International Version (NIV) says 'rooms'. I can't see it mattering too much one way or another. If someone who knows everything about you and loves you enough to die for you creates - not a mix tape/cd but a guest room or guest house for you to be near them, then I can't see that it could fail to be exactly what you need and desire. And if we have any inkling of who he is, THAT is the real focus - more important than Bono or the president or whatever person of importance you would love to be near, as any creativity or intelligence they have all reside in him and come from him! Could you imagine Jesus singing in the evening while you are falling asleep next door? In Revelation 1:15, his voice is "like the voice of many waters". It's a good image to me (although perhaps it's terrifying in person). I'm a water girl. I pray best beside water. Part of this may be being Minnesotan.

Well, I'm totally rambling today when I'm supposed to just be talking about my run. The run was very intermittent and hard and I was thankful for my ipod and Hoi Polloi, Ingrid Michaelson, The Ivys, and Over the Rhine today (H-O). Oh I hope the summer cools off a bit!

* photo lifted from luxist.com

* not my favorite mansion - my favorite had it's work done by 'Cousins Brick & Stone' which I cannot find a website for! - and looks like a large Hansel & Gretel sort of cottage

Run #9: 31 min.

Today. 80+ degrees. Supposedly a light wind but nary a ripple on the lake, until just at the end. Seemed like a wasteland compared to the weekend. Very few folks out & about. Clouds overhead. Felt like running through hot jello.

Saw a short stone path next to the water I'd never seen before. And there was a girl sleeping under a weeping willow; she looked cozy. Tommy calls those 'emo trees'. :)

Bees in the flowers. Summer.

*Photo from connectingwithnature.org

Run #8: 40 min.

July 3. 77+ degrees w/a light wind. It was a BEAUTIFUL run. I don't know if it was just the way of the sun hitting everything, but the mansions around the lake were so much more lovely than usual. The streets were full of runners and bikers and walkers and the water full of couples canoeing and folks kayaking. It was all in motion. When I stopped to do my situps (40 this time), I saw a little ladybug on a stickler. A white middle-to-upper class man ran inexplicably barefoot around the lake on the hot pavement. The city breathed in...and out.

* Art by Robin Street-Morris