mid-march injuries and artwork

Today I got some good and bad news from running friends. My friend Kate, who has all but stopped running because of knee/hip pain for over 6 months, e-mailed me that she went to a sports Dr. and no torn cartilage -just pain and imflammation from ITB syndrome...this is a tough one, but her knee cartilage is healthy. Tendons take forever to heal, as no blood supply gets to them. She deserves to be out running as she works hard during the week and road races are her passion! She completed the Lake Waramug 50K last year in fine shape. While not racing, she has been taking photos at races.... Then, my friend Tim e-mailed that he has knee and ankle pain -he is going to try to get through this Sat.'s Bel Monte 50K, or as much as he can do without aggrevating it . Tim is a talented and strong runner and will be at H.A.T. run and Umstead.
The lastly, Frank is sick with bad cough and congestion --hope that the cold and chill of St patrick's day (it's my fault for staying to socialize in the chill) didn't make him sick. Well, we should be tapering anyway. But it is not fun to be sick when you are as productive as he is!

Today I went to my Botanical Illustration watercolor class -the ladies in this class are so talented and every week I learn as much from them as from the teacher --one older woman (older than me! that's why I like this class), Nancy, used to be a professional artist and sold paintings for $5,000 each...she is an expressionist and pencils in big shapes of flowers and splashes of color. My teacher joked today that we are going to lock her in a room until she produces enough paintings to pay for our kids' college tuitions (my teacher's son is going to Dartmouth).
I forgot my camera today but will take pictures of her 'sketches'. I have posted some of the vegetables that we have done. I also take a drawing class where I use Prismacolor..painting is a good foil for running as it occupies the mind and is completely different. One can also think about painting ideas while running or swimming -but finding the time to paint is another story! My running friend Rob, who is a softwear engineer, says he makes appointments with himself every day to block out work time. Frank gets up at 5!!!. I need a system that works to be more productive...my teacher works from 7-noon without interruption and fits whatever she has to do around it, but she's a Pro. Well, maybe tomm a.m. ill finish what I started today!