Birthday week, post marathon blah non running week

School has been incredible this first month!  I am a lucky first grade teacher.  The kiddos that make up my class are fun, energetic, child like in a way they enjoy my childishness, and they work hard.  It has been a whirlwind of a first month with everything that goes into getting ready for back to school.  My room set up is the bomb; I am not going to lie.  I moved my desk to the corner nearest my central teaching area instead of in the Siberian corner it was in last year.  I still don't sit at it hardly ever, but I can set things there and they are closer than they would have been last year.  Teaching first grade still feels like quite the adventure, almost like the whitewater rafting of education. I am always surprised by how much I enjoy it.  Five/six years ago I could hardly picture myself in any classroom younger than fourth graders.  Now I can help pull out teeth and tie shoes and comfort weepy children like a boss.  Yesterday, one of my fellas spilt a bottle of water on my desk.  It completely soaked my desk calendar and part of my math manual.  25 year old Amanda would have melted down along with the child.  30 year old Mrs. Greene goes with the flow and tells the boy all is fine and that she is probably the clumsiest person she knows.  I told my husband it is probably all of the maturity.  However, I am not too old to play with six year olds and stuffed frogs and puppets.  It is a crazy awesome development I did not know would occur five/six years ago.

I am so thankful for the passing of time.  I turned 30 on Monday and thank goodness for the end of my twenties.  Do any other early 30-ers feel this way?  Relieved to be out of this period where you are a grown up but you are not really; people say you are an adult but don't treat you like one.  The shifting and changing and evolving of my twenties turned out great, but I am a creature of comfort and prefer stability and predictability.  

I finished out my 20s with a marathon in Erie.  It was a rough race.  My hip or IT band has been all out of sorts since the race in Harrisvile back in August.  I can push up to 2 hours and it gets all kinds of ouchy that I don't really know what to do with it.  The answer is probably to just lay off and let things heal.  I am taking down my milage, but I still have races coming up (tomorrow for instance!) and would like to have decent times.  I find it hard to turn off the competitiveness going into a race and do not need to get hurt.  In my mind, crossing the finish line on Sunday marked the end of my marathoning days.  This is probably not true.  Marathons truly demand not all but most of what a person has to give.  They take time, energy both mental and physical.  I am thankful I work in a profession where I had the summer to prepare for this race.  The two a days reminded me of my strength and capabilities.  I felt fast and fierce most of the summer.  I am excited to do some speed work and get into these last few months' races for 2014.  I will easily average one a month with only missing February because I couldn't find a nearby race to get to.  After 2014 what should I do?  Do I try to step it up somehow (how)?  Do I incorporate more tris (yes)?  When can I get back into the pool?  So many things to think about.  

I am writing this post from my new iPad my husband got me for the birthday celebrations.  It feels too fancy, yet, I am enjoying its niftiness.  I got a keyboard to do the typing thing because touch screen keyboard typing is banana pants!  Yes, banana pants!