1:02:20 (31:42/30:37). I felt so good on the last 3 miles today. The start was tough, but once I got warmed up I felt really good. This despite the fact that I seemed to have done "something" to my upper back -- it hurts like no ones business to take a deep breath. It must have been some stretch that I did yesterday after doing my new Egoscue exercises. Bummer since I was planning on riding my bike into work today ... now I don't think I should because I really don't want to inflame the area anymore than it is and hunching over on the bike for an hour probably wouldn't help matters.
So, I just have to say I love this town. Last night I waited as long as I possibly could do to my PM run. It was about 105F yesterday and I just couldn't get excited about running until it go below 100. So about 7PM I left work and drove to part of the trail that is on my way home. I figured it would leave me with just enough time to get home before it got too dark to see. It was still warm (about 96F) but the sun was starting to go down so it didn't feel too bad. First thing that happened was I saw the BIGGEST snake I have ever seen -- king snake I think -- he was about 95% inside a gopher hole and still had about 12 inches of tail sticking out. He pulled his body out and I couldn't believe how long (and chubby in the middle) he was. WOW. This nice woman warned me about him, otherwise I might have stepped right on top of him. Then ... I saw all of these people (probably 50 or so), some with nice cameras on tripods, hanging around near a street underpass. I stopped and asked one of them what was going on and the guy said, "oh, its a nice night, I guess we are here for the bats".
I don't know if I have ever told you guys about the bats. There are two underpasses where you can hear them (particularly in the late afternoon) -- well, I can hear them, when I ran there with Dean he couldn't hear them (because the frequency was too high for him). But I digress, I hurried up and ran to my turn around spot and sure enough AS SOON as the sun went behind the mountains thousands -- looked like about 10 swarms of way over a hundred each -- poured from under the underpass ... it was SOOOOO cool. I have seen them swarm around street lights before (looking for bugs) but I have never seen them at exactly this time and in such vast numbers. There were still hundreds milling about under the overpass and I actually had to run up and over the busy street because I literally couldn't run through them. VERY COOL. Here is a very cool youtube video of exactly the place I was talking about -- it shows you why I couldn't run under the bridge!!
It got me thinking -- I have loved things about everywhere I have ever lived (and I have lived a bunch of places), but I really like living in places were people overcome extremes. Like my brother who lives in upstate Minnesota - despite some of the worst temperatures on the lower 48 (routinely below zero in the wind chill for 4-5 months out of the year) - they manage to enjoy the winter -- hockey on the frozen ponds, ice fishing, etc. Same thing here ... from about 2 - 5PM Tucson is a ghost town, most construction shuts down by 2 or so, and it is too hot to really be out much ... but as soon as the sun goes down people are out in full force ... walking, running, biking, and bat-watching apparently ;-).
I did hear from two of my friends yesterday (I knew they were out of town, but I did not know if they had heard anything about anyone else at NCHS) ... what a relief. They are safe and sound, and so far all of "our" immediate group is safe and sound. From a statistical perspective though, it had to have affected them (NCHS) in some way since about 90% of the people at NCHS who ride the metro would have been on that particular train in one direction or the other. Tragic.
Be safe, stay cool!
(128.8)
| 