Raining (or shall I say snowing) On My Parade and Onto Brighter Things

I have a confession to make.  I made a huge error, and I am the first to admit when I am wrong.  I did run 101.3 miles at the Crooked Road 24 Hour Ultra Race, but I did not double check the Virginia state record book prior to the race.  The last time I had checked it the record for 50-54 year old women was 80.something miles. Well......there was this little race called The Virginia Cancer 24 Hour Race and a 50 year old woman named Paula Garrigan went 107 miles.  I am mortified  I neglected to look at the website before I announced I had broken a state record.   Should I be confessing to fake news?  Absolutely.  As my mother always said, "You only have your reputation, so act accordingly".  I am humbly apologizing on record so I can move onward and upward.

Speaking of upward, my thoughts these days have been filled with the "What's Next" question.  I am wrapping up my 93 day notice in the next couple of weeks and I am still hemming and hawing when people ask what I am going to be doing.  Well...my retirement is going to start out with a bang.  I am helping my son, Nick Westfall, behind the scenes of his movie, 8 Slices, which he wrote and is directing down in Holden Beach for 2 weeks in January.  Like his first movie, I will be doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that.  It will be a wild ride that will be exhaustingly fun.  He has endless amounts of energy (I wonder where he inherited this) and I enjoy seeing him follow his passion.

I just started running consistently and adding a few miles of speed.  I am looking forward to devoting more time and energy to my running.  I may be almost 52, but I feel like I can thwart off the big slowdown that often occurs in women in their 50's (especially those who have been running as long as I have).  I may be delusional, but I want to see where consistency and the devotion of time can lead me.

I am a little stressed about the impending holidays because I am currently juggling so much on my plate.  I am learning to give myself permission to be less than perfect.  Christmas seems to happen each year and somehow I have always gotten it all done.  I may be acting too nonchalant, but hey there is still 11 days.  Miles is 8 months old now and a great road/trail companion to me.  He does not care if the presents are all wrapped (because he's too busy yanking ornaments off the tree when we are not looking)




I just bought a new microphone to use in a podcast I am developing so I played around with it by creating a short 5 minute meditation.  This is an easy way to refocus during this hectic holiday season.  I would love your feedback (bad, constructive and good) and whether or not you would like to see more.  If you cannot retrieve it below, it will be on my Facebook page:  Cindy Kearns Barbour.  Please find and enjoy it there.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mQuTrxObayKqJY719ebq8MXL_cqmg1am/view?usp=sharing

From the bottom of my heart, I feel badly about misrepresenting the record and I wish you all a peaceful, joyous holiday season.

xoxo
Cindy