Friday Picture Wrap-Up

Friday Picture Wrap-Up, you are a sight for sore eyes! I am ready for the weekend. A lot of things this week had me feeling anxious and insecure. I found comfort in finishing Nelson Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, in preparation for my upcoming trip. Soon I'll be able to visit the very unfortunately named Robben Island and place Mandela's 27 years of political imprisonment on Robben Island into the context of the struggle of the African people to free themselves from white oppression. It's a heavy book, literally, because it's 638 pages. But I find Mandela's storytelling so uplifting and empowering. Just what I need right now. On an interesting side note to the history of African liberation, not many people think of Nelson Mandela as a runner. In his book he talks of his love of running as a youth, and much later when he was in prison one of the ways he kept his body and spirit in shape was by running in place in his cell for 45 minutes Monday through Thursday.

I've already run 37 miles this week and I'm going to go on a long training run tomorrow. On Sunday I will head up to Westchester to run in the Rockies with Shamala of Live Boulder Run Bolder! 

I bought a new camera for my trip. It's a simple point and shoot (Nikon S9100) with super zooming power (18x optical zoom). I wanted something easy to carry, perhaps even during my ultra, but with some zoom for safari shots so that I don't have to get too close to the lion's teeth. Maybe my photos in Friday Picture Wrap-Up will improve in quality.

This Friday Picture Wrap-Up is all about recognizing thought patterns: