Interesting Side Effect

So, I've been training for a marathon.

Yes.  A marathon.  26.2 miles of pavement pounding.

Luckily, it's a marathon that the first 20 miles and the last 6 miles are downhill. 

(Note to nonrunners:  Downhill is brutal.)

Not the point of this post though.

So, I've been training.  And I've been doing considerably better than I did three years ago when I trained for the same marathon.  Which is encouraging.  But I have noticed an interesting side effect.

You'd think I would be sore and crabby.  And surprisingly, I haven't been.

That much. 

What the interesting part is that on Sundays, in primary where I teach six year olds--annoying six year olds--about Jesus and being nice and all good things associated with church, I want to rip their heads off. 

Weird.

And, like the cat that immediately hones in on the one person sitting on your couch who DETESTS cats, these kids have smelled my disdain and latched on to me. 

Literally.

One girl snuggles up close and climbs into my lap with her bony little butt that pierces the muscles that carried me 20 miles the day before.  She rubs my arms incessantly (petting?) and plays with my hair.  Another little boy will try to tickle me by jabbing his fingers into my ribs (weird?).  And I'm not much of a touchy-feely kind of gal nor much of a lover of other people's children on a good day, but the day after running 20 miles, I'm a little sensitive as well.

So on these particular days when I'm beat up before I've even stepped through the door of the meetinghouse, I will sometimes stand in the back of the primary room.  Besides, sometimes my legs don't ache as much when I'm standing.

If only I would have had a camera today to catch the face of the Primary President when she asked why I was standing in the corner and I replied:

"Because I ran 20 miles yesterday and I don't really appreciate some six year old telling me my arms are fat."