CEREMONIAL HAIRCUT, SNIP SNIP

3/3 Snip Snip! After doing a two mile easy trot, I headed to one of the best salons around, otherwise known as A-Frame. This is not your typical hair parlor filled with overpriced soaps and shampoos or an endless array of hair dyes. You won't find a single hair dryer on site or even the caustic smell of artificial chemical stabilizers. No, this is the home of my friend Emily and her very furry dog named Jinx. She is a budding hair stylist and believe it or not, she is a virgin! I am to be her first victim, eh hem, customer, eh hem...... guinea pig.

The ceremonial haircut is a very important step in the training process. Some athletes have superstitions such as not shaving their legs or eating only certain types of food. My equally ridiculous ritual is letting my hair grow for the duration of training and then to have a good friend cut my locks the week of the race. It the ceremonial haircut that frees me from any weight or baggage that I have collected throughout the last 18 weeks of training. Not only do I feel lighter is spirit, but I indeed am lighter as precious ounces of my curly locks settled on her kitchen floor. As most of you ladies can attest to, as one sits in the beauty chair, it magically happens that the gift of gab is given. I talked my dear friend's ear off. Poor Emily, her novice haircutting voyage, which was nerve racking enough, had only an occasionally "oops" to say in return.

The actual haircut and evenness didn't matter to me. It was that my friend cut my hair, wished me well on my marathon journey, and gave me endearing marathon advice, "Weinacker, my coach said that if you didn't piss on yourself during the race, you didn't run hard enough." Well, thank you Emily for that candid information. Thankfully, the weather forecast is predicted at a 70% chance of rain.