Running and Business

I took Friday off work so that I could install a new set of glass doors on my new tub.
I have been wanting to do this since soon after I moved into my house.
(Not take off work - install the doors)
But my church is getting ready to install new carpet.
Before the new carpet can be put in, we need/want to remodel the stage to give a little more room on it.
The pastor and a couple of the brothers in the congregation began the stage remodeling project on Thursday.
I had considered helping but assumed that the stage fix would not take very much time and thus did not plan to help until Thursday evening.

Well..... the remodeling job was more complicated than first assumed (imagine that!)
Pastor John called me Thursday evening and said that he was quitting for the evening so I need not come that evening.
That got me to thinking.
I have been waiting for over three years to remodel my bathroom.
It is mostly done, and I can wait a couple more days to install the new doors on my tub.

Soooo.....
I decided to spend my day off Friday helping work on the church stage project.
And that is what I did.
But there was a scheduled meeting that we had to attend on Friday evening so we stopped work about 2 PM to get ready for the meeting.
On the way home from church, I stopped by Lowe's and purchased my new tub doors.
Two hunnerd bucks worth. (and not the most expensive I could have gotten.)
I spent a few minutes that afternoon, reading over the installation instructions for the doors.
I have never done this before so I needed all the information I could get.

Friday evening I attended the meeting at church as planned.
After the meeting, I looked over the tub door instructions again.
I started playing with the frame pieces to see what exactly was involved.

The next thing I realize is that I am not just playing with the parts, I am actually performing the installation.
I started at about 8:30 PM.
I finished at 11:10 PM.
I go to bed conflicted.

This is Friday night.
Saturday morning is my running time.
I usually try to go to bed early on Friday evening so that I am “rested” on Saturday morning for my run.
Knowing that I did not “take care of myself” for my running effort, I had a major mental battle Saturday morning.

Part of me was saying “you are not going to do very well today because you are tired”.
Another part of me was answering, “shut up, just do the best you can.”
The temperature was “only” 43 – at the airport, according to the Weather Channel.
Not bad.
I started out feeling a bit tired (duh).
But past experience has shown me that sometimes (note: sometimes) I have performed better than expected even though I have had less rest than desired.
Today was not one of those times.
Coming up hill two, I started my accelerated breathing.
I have not done that in months.
At that point I knew that I was in for a tough time.

At the end of mile two (near where the policeman stopped me) my left hammy began to complain.
This was prolly the result of my efforts building the stage or the tub doors, or both.
The complaint was duly noted by Running Central, but the race continued.
Then, about a half mile from the finish, I started accelerated breathing again.
Again, this had not happened for many months.
I felt tired, but it was too close to the end.
I was not quitting.

As I crossed the road into the parking lot of the office center where I park, I forced myself to take the “long way” instead of a couple of small shortcuts (cutting corners, going around planters, etc.) that my tired body/mind suggested.
Such suggestions are almost always ignored.
But a strange thing happened during the last 100 yards or so.
I started daydreaming about some details of my tub door project (now finished) and the next thing I knew, I was at my finish line.
Forty-two minutes.
Amazing.

As tired as I was, my time was not degraded.
And I was done with the hard stuff for the day.
Since the stage project was STILL not complete, I planned to go back to the church and help finish the project.
Since my tub doors were installed, Saturday was basically a free day.

And, yes, I know that last week I proclaimed that I was done with the bathroom project, but that was a qualified announcement.
All of the major stuff was in.
And I did an accounting of the entire project and the total cost came to $1060.70, not counting tax.
That includes BOTH bathtubs I had to buy because of the first one went airborne at 40 miles per hour on Sparkman Drive.

Pictures coming soon....