April 30, 2017 FLY LIKE AN EAGLE

There's REALLY nothing better than running 10 miles and STILL FEELING STRONG. Had a great run today and the weather was FINE. I could have run the half-marathon without a problem. Hopefully, I'll feel this way on the day of the race too.  Going to try to run a 9:30 pace--or about 2:05.  It's doable as long as the weather cooperates. Would like to run it in under 2 hours--a 9:00 pace--but not sure I will be able to sustain that for 13.1 miles. I like to set goals--but they are flexible--to a point. I would be lying if I said--all I want to do is finish the race. Of course I do, but with a LITTLE dignity. I  have a few comrades running the race--healthy competition. It's fun to kid each other about the race--but I do have my pride--and although we are comrades--I WILL work hard to beat them. It's bragging rights-- we all want to beat each other--it's the nature of the beast-- but it's ALL in good fun. Seriously, even though we compete against each other, they literally are the people who make me a better runner. Believe me,  I'd be LOLLYGAGGING my way to the finish line without them. So thanks for the memories. Helen Macdonald  had to deal with memories and depression after the sudden death of her father in the 2014 memoir H is for Hawk. 

After learning that her father, Alisdair Macdonald  had died of a sudden heart attack, Helen Macdonald was devastated and grief stricken. She was very close to her father, a photo journalist, who introduced his daughter to the beauty of nature and encouraged her to become a falconer at a young age. While in the throes of a numbing depression, Helen rashly decided to train a goshawk named Mabel. This is her story-- one season spent training a hawk while trying to shed the veil of depression brought on by her father's death. The prose is lovely as the reader is enveloped in the beauty that surrounds Helen as she trains Mabel. Training a hawk is not like training a pet. A hawk is not a pet and the only way to train one is to think like one. It's about the relationship she develops with the goshawk as she has to fully enter the world of this predator in order  to be successful. Also intertwined in this memoir, is Helen's obvious love of T. H. White--Arthurian novelist and fellow hawk enthusiast. She writes extensively about White's falconry over a century ago, they seem like kindred spirits, separated only by time. I enjoyed reading this book because it was well written and I also learned a lot about falconry and the world of the goshawk. It was fascinating. This memoir has won several awards and is well worth the read. It's about 280 pages or a 5 mile run that shows we all heal from tragedy in different ways.