Overheard at the playground from a mother with perfectly painted blue toenails to her young son:  I don’t want you swinging on those bars Shane.  Your arms aren’t strong enough; You’ll fall.  And stop running!  Listen to me!  Stop it!!

Poor Shane.  I hope he figures out that his arms are plenty strong enough for monkey bars — and that playgrounds are meant for running and falling.  (Shane, your mother is an unhappy and fretful nut.  Listen to her about foot care, but do your own thing on the playground.  Run!  Listen to me!  Do it!!)

I would have hung Ruby on the monkey bars right in front of pedicured mom, but I worried it was toenail envy and not righteousness that was really provoking me.  I only have seven toenails right now — and only five of those are good.   (This is quite the cross to bear in Texas mom circles in April.)  I stayed in earshot of her for a while hoping she’d give me some more blog fodder, but she kept herself busy scowling instead.

Anyway, it’s late again, so I’ll keep this short.  I did come across this wonderful quote by Shalene Flannagan today.

Regarding her Boston Marathon performance: “Despite a rough race, I’m truly grateful to have had the opportunity to race the best in the world on the most storied marathon course. Races that don’t go well always make me appreciate even more the ones that do.  Success is not linear. Time to keep pushing on.”

Success is not linear.  I like that a lot.  It’s going to be my motto for racing in 2015.