Last Thursday, Mark and Chloe and myself all got up early, laced our tennies, ate a bagel, and headed to downtown Austin for the Turkey Trot, a 5 mile walk/run on pavement through the hills of downtown and across the Mopac service roads. Did I follow my usual "training" of walking my neighborhood several times weekly? No. Did I get myself some new tennies since the old ones are at least two years old and about done? No. Um...did I prepare for it at all? Also no. But I made it through the course in a little less than 1 hour 41 minutes, without stopping to pee or rest. And I even beat my peeps back!
But walking 5 miles after you spent the previous day on your feet probably won't help you feel your best on Thanksgiving Day. Then standing on your feet some more to make side dishes and get the dinner ready won't, either. It's not like I'm a spring chick anymore. {58} And when I went to bed I thought "Man. I'm really bushed!"
But I had no idea just how tired I was.
The next day, as I looked down at my feet during the hay bale ride out at the Christmas tree farm, I thought "I really don't want to walk. Or stand. Or do this. At all."
And the exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks. It wasn't just the walking, though that certainly couldn't have helped. My energy level was so low. I really felt like I was fatigued from the bones out. Mark said he had no idea what that meant.
Of course he didn't. Of course not.
But I knew it meant I had used up all of my giveadamn and I had no more to give. And the rest of the weekend was like swimming with my boots on. And I don't swim.
Getting the tree up and decorated sucked. Loading and unloading the dishwasher about 6 times also sucked. Wrangling the leftovers. Doing laundry because we were out of clean towels. Putting a pork roast in the crockpot because we couldn't eat turkey for the third day in a row. Helping Mark harvest some oak up at Highlands. Sweeping a pound of pine needles off my floors. Decorating the kid tree. Buying groceries. Getting myself ready to go to work on Monday. All of it was just. too. much.
I really need to learn some limits with myself. It seems so much harder nowadays to get it all done, even when I get volunteers at home.
Or maybe I just got off on the wrong foot with the damn Turkey Trot.
One thing is certain - I am NOT doing that next year.
