Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I knew I wanted to do a nice long run today, but I didn't mean to go quite so far. 

I started out heading up the Floodway/RWCD Canal.  I saw three ladies walking my way right before McKellips.  One of them bent down and picked something up.  She took a few steps and bent down and picked something else up.  By that time I could tell that they were dollar bills.  She kindly asked me if I had run by this way before.  I had to be honest and say that I had not.  But I offered to take the money from her.  In hindsight I should have set up a makeshift kissing booth.  $1 a kiss.  Except I hadn't brushed my teeth yet.

I crossed McKellips and there is a fence gate that's usually opened at the 1-3/4 and the Main Canal.  It's dry up season, and they've been doing maintenance work on the Canal.  I could see that there were no workers within the next quarter mile stretch of canal, so I went through the pedestrian opening.  I saw my Strava friend Mike Norberg as he was just starting out his morning bike ride.  We told each other good morning.  Mike lives at 1-1/2 where the barricade is at.  It was still up, so I turned west and ran through his neighborhood.  It's a gated community, but there's an open pedestrian access way.  Right at the gate there was a construction worker flagging dozens of big belly dump trucks into the subdivision that they're working on.  As I approached Val Vista some of them were coming back after dropping their load.  There were signs that said, "Truck Traffic 20 mph."  I thought that if I could run 20 mph (a 3 minute mile), I could hold them off.  But I was running closer to an 11 minute mile, so it didn't happen.

I turned north at Val Vista and headed toward the RWCD Main Pumping Plant.  There's some downhill here right before the turn on to the the dirt road that runs along the SRP Canal.  I figured if I ran along the South Canal Service Road, under the 202 Freeway, and a little bit beyond, I would reach 5 miles and would turn around.  I stopped after running about a quarter mile beyond the freeway.  I was at 4.8 miles.  0.2 miles to go.  But then I had an idea.  Maybe I could keep going and find a bridge to cross and I could take Greenfield back.  I started doing the math and thought that I wouldn't quite make 10 miles, so what would be the point of getting so close to 10 miles and not getting 10 miles???  So I would just do the 0.2 miles and turn around.  I started running and had another idea.  What if I kept going and found a bridge to cross at Higley?  Surely that would get me my 10 miles.  So, that's what I did.  Turns out there wasn't any bridges to cross the canal at Greenfield anyway.  I was now in no man's land, meaning I'd never run this far on this route before.  I stopped a couple of times to take pictures of the canal and to look at the map to make sure my plan would work.  I came upon a bridge and briefly contemplated crossing over it, but I could see a road up ahead and decided to cross it there.  It was a road to a concrete/cement company.  A few trucks passed by me while I was running there and it started to head back uphill.  I finally made it to Higley where there was more uphill to go over the 202 Freeway.  I could see that it was uphill back to McDowell, and having rode my bike by here on numerous occasions, I knew it would be uphill for a half mile past McDowell.  I knew that at Thomas Road I was just over 4 miles away from home.  How far had I run?  7 miles??!!!  Oh crud!  Oh well, I guess I'm doing 11 miles today.

It was also about this time that my left nipple started to get a little irritated.  Dang.  I still have 4 miles to go.  Do I take my shirt off?  Nope.  I'm too fat from eating so much Christmas food and I'm running on a main road.  I guess I'll have to grin and bear it.  Maybe my orange shirt would camouflage the blood.  So I soldiered on.  I would run with my arms close to my body so people wouldn't notice.  Then my right nipple started to bother me, but not as much as my left.  With three miles to go an RWCD truck honked at me.  Not sure who it was.  My legs were feeling it, but other than tired legs and the razer blades in my shirt, I was feeling all right.  With two miles to go I realized that I was still actively sweating.  Does that mean I'm burning calories?  The last mile was a slog fest, but I made it.  I stood in front of the mirror in my bathroom and was surprised to see that my right nipple looked like it had exploded!  What was I thinking?  Well, I don't regret it.  It was worth it.  Especially after not running the first day of the year!

I was still sore from Thursday, so I was worried about how I'd do.  It was cold, but not too bad.  When we hopped in Mike's truck, the sensor on his rear view mirror said it was 44º.  It was me, Vickie, Maggie, Mike, and Glen today.  As we got about a mile from the sheriff's station, the temperature gage said 38º.  What the heck?  How did it drop 6º??  From that moment on I kept an eye on it and by the time we pulled into the parking lot it was 35º!!  I didn't bring any gloves like last week, so I would have to tough it out.

Vickie and Maggie left right away.  They had a quarter mile lead before I started.  Mike left next.  I would have gone with him, but I felt a pebble in my shoe.  I shook it out and decided to take a quick tinkle before I left.  Glen was the last to leave. 

Vickie is getting faster each week.  Maggie always stays with her, but if Maggie ever decided to train properly, she would probably be faster than me.  I was caught by Glen at 0.4 miles.  It took me until 1.5 miles before I caught Vickie and Maggie.  I didn't like that they run side by side and Vickie closest to traffic.  I always hug the edge of the road.  Oh, I forgot.  Right before Glen caught me, a big semi truck came rolling down the hill.  If it wasn't cold enough already, the wind that he caused chilled me to the bone.  I yelled, "Whooo!!!"  1 second later Glen yelled, "Whooo!!"

I kept it nice and slow because I didn't want to risk a stupid injury from having two long distance runs so close to each other.  I saw Mike coming back downhill and figured he must be a mile ahead of me.  I got to the top and could see Glen's headlamp coming back up from the other side of the hill.  He has been going down to the Usery Park entrance the last few weeks, so I figured if he did that again, then he's a mile and a half ahead of me!  Turns out, he only went 8 miles (turned around at the shooting range entrance).  So he was probaly 0.6 miles ahead of me.  He had run 5 miles yesterday evening, so he was playing it safe, too.

It wasn't long before I saw Vickie and Maggie.  As the sun was slowly coming up, I spent the rest of the time trying to spot wild horses.  I didn't see any!  It's been a while since we've seen them, but I know they're around because I see some of my friends post pictures of them on social media.  Oh well.  I finished up, and realized that I had sprung a couple of leaks on my nipples again.  Apparently they hadn't healed up from Thursday.  We waited for Vickie and Maggie to finish, and I hid my breasts from them until I got home, because I know how it makes Vickie cringe.

I woke up early.  Which is good, because school is back in session and I would need to get my kids ready.  It was dark out.  As I approached the Floodway I saw a man and his little dog leaving it.  As soon as I got in I could hear a coyote yipping not too far ahead.  I pulled my phone out and started to record some video.  I could hear that I was getting closer and closer, but it was too dark to see.  I knew it must be on the path or very close to it.  I barked and then yelled to try and scare it.  Then I finally saw it about 10 feet away from me.  It was too dark for the video to capture it, and I tried to turn my flashlight on, but for some reason it wouldn't.  Maybe it doesn't work while you have the camera going? (I ask myself.)  I stayed there for a bit, and then ran a little bit ahead.  I watched the video back.  At one point I could have swore I saw someone shine a light, maybe from the other side of the Floodway.  I turned and looked, but didn't see anyone.  So I started running again and after about 4 minutes I thought I saw another light.  I turned around and looked and caught the tail end of a shooting star.  That was cool, but I don't think it was the shooting star that flashed the light.  I guess that will remain a mystery.

I continued on my run and thought about how I never see Jeff anymore.  He had moved down the Floodway closer to University, but who knows where he is now.  As I was getting closer to where I used to see him all the time, I could see an older couple and a dog ahead.  It was still dark, but light enough to where I could see them.  I tried to holler good morning at them so they knew I was coming, but I don't think they heard me.  I said it again as I passed them, and their little dog started yapping at me.  By this time I could see a bunch of stuff where Jeff used to hang out, and wondered if he was there.   I felt bad if the dog's barking had woken him up.

I woke up before 5am, but I couldn't get out the door.  We've got a sickness going through our house, and I might have caught a bit of it.  I had to sit on the potty twice.  I finally got out right after 7am.  It was lighter outside than yesterday.  It said it was 49º, but it felt colder because of the breeze.  I mean, because of the wind chill.  My body feels like I should be running more.  All except for my knees.  They don't want to.  So I might take tomorrow off.  I saw someone coming towards me when I was half way between Adobe and University.  I knew it must be Vickie.  We stopped for our customary smooch and I kept going.  As I approached University, I saw two other ladies running north.  I ran to the other side of the Floodway and thought that if they have to wait for a bit for traffic, we could be entering the Floodway at the exact same time.  Sure enough, we did.  It was on now.  Who would make it to Adobe first?  Actually, I thought for sure they would.  For one, I'm slow.  For two, the Floodway path that I was on winds and turns and goes up and down.  But I noticed I was keeping up with them.  When I got to the half way point I noticed I was slightly ahead of them.  Kudos for me.  I can still outrun people!

Emily came and crawled into bed with us at 4am.  She had another "bad dream."  I think she just wakes up and uses that as an excuse.  I went to the bathroom and then couldn't get back to sleep, so I went running.  But I was in the bathroom for a longgggg time, so it was 5:41am when I started. 

It was dark, and there's not much to say about it.  The moon was bright and lit the way.  I looked at my pace when I was done and was surprised to see that it was about a minute per mile slower than what I have been running.  My first thought was maybe it was because of how dark it was.  But then I remembered that I've been sick the last two days.

Our team didn't run on Saturday.  Everyone was sick.  I decided to do a "longer" run today.  It felt like work, but I'm happy with my pace.
 

I woke up at 5am and got out the door at 7am.  It felt cold today, but it said it was 40º.  Sometimes you just got to trust that you'll warm up while you're running. 

My legs felt heavy today.  My pace was much slower than yesterday.  When I crossed University heading south, I spotted a coyote ahead of me on the Canal road.  I immediately grabbed my camera.  I zoomed it all the way out because I was afraid I would scare it away and wouldn't get a good picture.  I took a couple of pictures and it spotted me, but then it started coming towards me.  I thought, "How close is this guy gonna get?"  Then it finally went down in to the Floodway.  I got about 15 feet away from it and beckoned it to come to me so I could pet it.  There were two other runners coming towards me.  I recognized them as the two ladies I raced last week.  All of the sudden there went another coyote speeding down the middle of the Floodway.  As soon as it passed the first coyote, they both took off.  I yelled at the ladies, "You scared them away!"  They laughed and said they thought it was my dog until they saw me taking pictures of it.

It appears my Strava glitched slightly today, so, I'm entering in my distance from yesterday since I ran the same route.  It felt like work again today, but that's a good thing.  I was heading north along the Floodway path and I spotted a coyote in the bottom of the Floodway.  I stopped and took a picture and watched as it went to the other side of the Floodway where I would be shortly.  I ran to the other side and watched it some more and all of the sudden I saw another one running right by where I was just moments ago on the other side of the Floodway.  How did I miss it?  I  watched them both run south down the middle of the Floodway while I continued running myself.  Then I saw a third coyote.  I wasn't able to get a picture with all of them together.  I saw a guy walking his dog and asked him if he sawa the three coyotes.  He said he only saw two. 

Right before getting back to Adobe I noticed the Canal was filled with water.  I was so preoccupied with the coyotes that I failed to realize they were putting water back into the Canal after having it dry for about a month.  I continued south down the Canal road and I spotted my forth coyote sitting on top of the bank on the other side of the Floodway.  So that's the four I usually see.  I guess.  I wonder how far up and down the Canal they go.  Like, I wonder if that day that I saw 5 of them, if any of the 5 were the same ones I saw today.  Or is there just a bunch of coyotes haning around the Canal.

I should go check on my chickens now and make sure they're all right.

It was 49º this morning.  But it was also completely overcast and dark.  It made for a beautiful run even though I couldn't see anything.  My legs are sore still, so I took it nice and slow.  I have done the same route for the last three days; three loops on the RWCD/Floodway roads.  When I was heading north and crossed University, I saw that the vehicular gate was open.  I looked ahead and could see the tail lights of a truck.  As I kept running, the truck turned around.  Now its headlights were shining at me.  When I got real close it was hard to see due to the glare.  I came about 20 feet from running into this couple.  I had to swerve around them.  I got home and my wife had just finished her run, too.

Just two loops today.  I want to feel fresh for tomorrow.

Two more weeks until Ragnar.  It was me, Vickie, Maggie, Alyssa, and Mike this morning.  I hope Glen is all right.  This is two weeks in a row that he's missed.  He came and paid me for the race last week and told me he might have tweaked his knee.

It was cold again, but I was just wearing shorts and a T-shirt.  I was having to adjust my new reflective straps the entire run as they kept falling off my shoulders.  Luckily I only have one night run during Ragnar.  Or unluckily, depending on how you look at it.  But from a strap adjusting viewpoint, it's luckily. 

We all kind of left pretty close to the same time with Alyssa being the last to leave.  I'm always worried about her because she is diabetic.  But she's pushing through.  My legs have been sore all week.  I haven't given them a rest.  So my pace was a bit on the slow side, but not as bad as last week.  I warmed up and wasn't that cold until I turned around and discovered a nice breeze in my face.  But it warmed up again the further downhill I went.  Mike had gone 8 miles, which meant he had passed my going downhill right before I got to the top.  I tried to keep him in sight on the way down, but he's too fast, and he finished just over a half mile ahead of me.  No horses again today.  But I did hear coyotes yipping when we first got there.

Everyone pretty much went to the top and back.  Alyssa was the last to finish.  She wasn't too far behind Vickie and Maggie, which is good.  Then we all chatted for about 10 minutes before we decided we were too cold and went home.

MLK Day.  No school.  My wife and I went to Hilltop and just did one climb.  On the way down I was following this Native American lady and there was this old man on the trail in front of us.  When he saw us coming he moved over and said to the lady, "I'm watching out for.  There's Indians around.  I've spotted a few."

Just two nice and easy loops today.  It had been raining, but it was mostly done by 7am when I went running.

This might be long, depending on how many details I decide to share.

So yesterday we bought a house.  It's the house we've currently been renting for the last 6 years.  The recession hit us hard and we lost our last house, so we've been renting ever since.  To celebrate we went to Buca di Beppo.  But before we did that I had to take Herbie on his daily walk.  It had been lightly raining for most of the day.  Sometimes Herbie likes to pull real hard on his leash.  Well, a lot of the time.  I always have to be real careful when he walk down into the Floodway because it's steep and he tries to go so fast.  But because of the rain, it was slick and he pulled hard which caused me to slip.  I scratched up my arm some, but I was more mad than anything.  He kept wanting to pull hard, and I just wanted to kick him, buy you know, animal cruelty and stuff.

After a little bit he started to pull real hard.  Now I know he only does this when he sees a coyote, so I started looking for one, but it was dark out.  Then I saw it near the bottom of the west bank of the Floodway.  It trotted over toward the middle and stopped on the trail in the middle.  We got pretty close to it before it ran off.  We chased it a little bit.  I figured I was going to have to change my shirt anyway since I slipped in the mud.  If I start to sweat a little, what's the harm?  We chased it to the east side of the Floodway where it ran up the bank, went about 10 feet north and then came back down.  We followed it a little more and then we saw another coyote.  So we chased that one, too.  They weren't running away to try and get away.  They were just running enough so we couldn't catch them.  But then I noticed that once we stopped chasing one, I would turn around and the other one would be right behind us.  Not only that, but now there was a third one. 

They say coyotes aren't pack animals, but they certainly do hang out together.  But what I noticed is that they separate from each other instead of hanging together to fight together.  So we'd chase one and then we'd turn around and see the other two surrounding us.  It was like they were velociraptoring us.  I finally convinced Herbie to just walk away, but they were following us.  So we'd chase them off, but they still stayed close by.  I think the closest we got to one was about 8 feet away.  I tried to take some video, but it was too dark.

Fast forward to this morning.  I had gotten dressed to go on my run.  Vickie had already left for hers.  She texted me to say that it was foggy out and it was kind of eerie.  I immediately took Herbie out back for his morning pee, but it wasn't foggy out.  I figured it was probably only real foggy out near the Floodway where the fog likes to settle in the channel.  So I rushed Herbie back inside and fed him.  I didn't want to miss the fog before it lifted.  I didn't even stretch today, which I always do before I run.  I got to the Floodway and sure enough, there was fog.  I snapped a picture.

Up ahead on the path you can see a couple and their dog.  As I got nearer to them, I saw a coyote run out in front of them on the path.  I asked them if they saw it when I passed them and they did not.  I ran to where I had seen it and it was still there on the top of the bank.  Plus, there was another coyote with it.

I pointed them out to the couple and then I saw another one on the opposite side of the Floodway.  I titled my run on Strava - Coyotes in the Mist.  I ran up to Brown, crossed the Floodway, and headed back south.  I had seen the coyotes at the half way point between Adobe and Brown, so I kept my eyes open to see them again.  They had all moved down about an eight of a mile south towards Adobe.  Now they were all on the west bank together.  I took some more pictures.

You can see all three of them in this picture.

There are two of them in this picture.

I couldn't stay much longer because my glasses started to fog up and I couldn't see anymore.  I'm guessing they were the same three from last night, but who knows?

I crossed Adobe and saw a group of old men walking towards me.  I told them about the coyotes.  Then I saw Vickie running towards me.  We stopped and kissed and I showed her my pictures.

The End.

It was a nice morning out.  A tiny bit of fog.  No coyotes.  There were a bunch of people out today.  I saw the two old ladies that I've been seeing a lot lately.  They run together and I'm slightly faster than they are.  Then I saw another lady running towards me.  I don't think I've seen her before.  Then I could see someone sitting on the Floodway path from the other side.  I thought it was Jeff.  I haven't seen him very much.  The last time I saw him was Saturday when I drove by there.  I ran further and saw Jeff near University.  Yesterday there was a huge accident right here as a car hit a city bus.  The police had it taped off.  But it was open this morning.  So the person sitting on the path was not Jeff.  Turned out it was some guy with a skateboard and a hoodie playing a game on his phone.  After that there was a gaggle of old people on their walk.  I saw them yesterday, too.  Anyway, it was a nice day to be outside.
 

I've just been doing two loops all week because I want to be able to run a 10 miler tomorrow.  But my legs felt like lead today.  Is it weather?  Old age?
 

Next Friday is the last Del Sol Ragnar Relay.  I wanted to have a confidence booster so I asked Mike to drop me off at the top of Usery so I could run home.  Glen finally rejoined us to test out his knee.  He and Mike ran 8 miles together at a slower pace than normal.  I'm worried I might have to switch legs with him for Ragnar.  We'll see.  But that's why I wanted to make sure I could do a 10+ run without a problem.

They dropped me off and I briefly stretched out.  I took a quick tinkle and headed down.  I started to think about whether or not they would drive by me when they were done.  But I realized that I would probably be a mile in to it by the time they even started.  And if my wife runs the 7.4 miles, which she did, I would probably be over 9 miles by that point.  It would take them another 20 or 25 minutes to drive back, so I should easily be able to get home before they did.

I started thinking about coyotes, but for some reason my mind switched to javelinas.  I was running on the west side of the road which was with traffic.  I knew it would be about 2.5 miles before the road split and I could run on a sidewalk.  Since there's so much less traffic that comes this way (everyone is either heading to the lake or out of town) I hoped I might even be able to get there before someone drove past me.  I got about a quarter of a mile away before a car finally did.  And as evidence by the fact that I'm writing this entry, I did not die. 

Now I was starting to get into a more rural area, so I was starting to see more people out.  That was nice.  Also, there were street lights and I could have taken off my headlamp, but I kept it on for a while.  I got to Brown Rd. and knew I was at the 4 mile mark and was pretty confident none of the other runners had reached the top yet.  I contemplated texting them to let them know, but I didn't.  I ran by Hilltop and remembered that out of the 4 times I've attempted this run (this being the 4th) I've only completed it once.  One time I had to call my wife right here because my knee started to bother me.  To be honest, my legs weren't feeling great, but I was confident that if I kept running nice and easy, I could get home without a problem. 

Now came basically the only extended amount of uphill climb.  It doesn't even show up on Strava as uphill because it's artificial uphill in that it's a bridge over the 202 Freeway.  I reminded myself that if I felt tired, it was because I was running uphill.  But it wasn't bad at all.  I also knew that this was the half way point.  Now is where things got exciting.

There's a steep downhill after the freeway.  I was cruising down and I looked in the median of the road and spotted a javelina.  I immediately recognized it as one because they were already on my brain.  Now, javelinas are not like coyotes in that they can be aggressive.  Coyotes will pretty much leave you alone unless they're rabid.  But javelinas will charge you although they have poor eyesight.  So I stopped to take a picture, but was cautious and kept my distance.  I figured if it started chasing me I would run out in the street and hope a car came by so I could flag it down or something.  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and it was soaking wet with sweat.  All the sweat on the screen was making it hard to turn the camera mode on.  I finally found a dry spot to wipe it off and was able to snap a picture.

My glasses started fogging up a little, too.  I noticed that when I would move a little, the javelina would get nervous and start to go away in the opposite direction.  It seemed to be eating something.  It was just starting to get light out and I couldn't make out what it was.  Was it a bush?  Was it another javelina?  I didn't want to scare it out into traffic so I waited until it was clear.  Then I stepped toward it and it scampered off across the street.  Now I could go out into the median to see what the lump was.  It was in fact another javelina.  Dead.  Most likely hit by a vehicle and it's buddy had no choice but to eat him.

I sent the rest of the team the pictures.  My wife texted me back to show me that this was her fastest run going uphill.  She had probably just gotten to the top at that point.  I started running again and reached my daughter's high school.  The track team was out doing an early morning run.  They were all very friendly as they ran by.  Power Road is 3.1 miles from my house.  Just a 5k to go.  I was feeling good.  I had taken off my headlamp at this point so I had my phone in my left pocket and my water bottle and headlamp in my right pocket. 

It looks like Mike and Glen finished when I got half way between Power and Recker.  So I still had 2.6, maybe 2.7 miles to go.  I got to Higley and took a picture of the intersection.  I texted it to the team and tried to say "1 mile to go", but again my screen was so wet that I couldn't get the 1 to work.  It kept recognizing 2.  So I just texted the picture so they could figure it out for themselves.  According to Strava, Vickie finished when I had 0.6 miles to go.  I took my gloves off and stuffed them in my right pocket.  I took another swig of water and had just a little bit left, so I crumpled up the water bottle as much as I could, put the lid back on and stuffed it in my right pocket, too.   It must've fallen out shortly thereafter.  I turned on 48th and ran the last 0.6 miles and texted Vickie to see where she was at.  She responded saying that they were waiting for Alyssa still.  Alyssa ran 8 miles real slow.  So I ended up beating them home by 30+ minutes.  I went inside to find Emily watching Peppa Pig, eating an ice cream sandwich for her breakfast.

So Monday afternoon I was taking Herbie on a walk.  We came across three coyotes.  I think we woke them up because they all got startled and scampered up the bank.  And they looked tired.  Naturally Herbie wanted to play with them.  We chased them for a little bit.  I took some cool pictures and video.  Then I was ready to leave.  I started to walk Herbie further down the Floodway, but I stepped in a hole.  Right as I did it, Herbie yanked on the chain.  My ankle just buckled right underneath me.  I somehow managed to hold on to the leash, but I was writhing in agony.  Man it hurt so bad!  When I was able to gather myself, I called my wife and told her to come get me.  So, here I am surrounded by coyotes with a dog that wants to run off, and my wife so worried she's about to cry, and I can do nothing but lay there and hold the leash.

She finally got there and took Herbie from me.  I hobbled a quarter of a mile to the van and we drove the 0.15 miles home.  I've been babying it for the last couple of days.  I really really really still want to run Ragnar, but I don't know if I'll be able to.  It's looking like I won't.  Today's the first day I'm able to put pressure on it and walk on it.  It sucks.