When Burt McCumber makes a promise, Burt McCumber keeps a promise. If I tell myself that enough, I might just believe it. But I did get my "long" run in tonight. I left at 9pm. It was still 80° out. It was dark, but I wish it was darker. I felt like such a fat slob the whole time. In fact, I motivated myself by telling myself that all the way. It helped. Helped give me even more low self esteem, that is. How am I ever gonna get Tracy to be on one of my Ragnar teams if I'm this fat???
This morning when I ran, it felt so much better than Saturday night. I think the problem Saturday was that I just finished eating like 15 chicken nuggets and a burger. Nonetheless, I still decided to run on the canal to limit human contact. Within the last year they put a nice 10 foot wide sidewalk alongside the canal that also connects to the magic water fountain. They also put some pedestrian lights. 31 in between Southern and Lindsay, to be exact. And they put in a pedestrian cross walk at Southern. Lindsay, too, come to think of it. Anyway, I got to Southern and I pushed the button to cross. Actually, it was more of a sensor than button. I seriously only had to wait about three seconds before it stopped traffic and let me go. I felt kinda bad because I was running, and the cars would have to wait there until the light turned green. Which was a while, I'm sure. Then I ran almost to the freeway and I realized I was at the park where my son just broke both his tibia and fibula. He now has a 15-inch rod in his leg that will be there for the rest of his life. I ran over to the concrete spillway where he fell off his skateboard. It's pretty big. I said, "Yep. That'll do it." Then I ran back home.
I had some time to kill because I needed to register as a volunteer for the Third Thursday Adventure Run at 10am. If you try earlier, they won't accept you. By they, I mean the same they that built the sidewalk, lamps, and crosswalks. So, since I've just finished watching 24 on Netflix, I watched the pilot episode of Prison Break. I think I'm going to enjoy it.
After signing up to volunteer I got on my bike to ride out to one of my new projects. My client wants me to design a right turn lane on Higley Road. So I got the brilliant idea to video that portion of the road where the right turn lane will be while riding my bike. Below is the result of a morning's worth of work. At least I got a good 17.25 miles in.
I ran the same route as yesterday. 4 seconds slower today. I took a picture of the spillway where my son broke his leg. Enjoy looking at it and imagining the pain he is suffering right now.
I got up this morning at 5:30am to help set up flags with the Boy Scouts. As I was driving down the street I saw that the flags were already up. I got to the other leader's street and saw him jogging back to his house. He told me that one of the parent's already set them all out. Nice. So I fiddled around on Facebook for a little bit and went for a bike ride.
I could tell my back tire was a little low. When you can feel every little rock and bump, it's a good indicator that your tire's lost some air. And when your tire is low, you don't ride as efficiently as you could. And it's not as comfortable. Nevertheless, I pressed on. I rode my Usery Pass loop. It's 35 miles long and has 1100 feet of elevation gain. It was a beautiful morning.
I was trudging up McDowell Road when all of the sudden a gas bubble came up, and I didn't hold back. Burrrrp! Of course right then, some dude passed me. I apologized. When I got to the bottom of the big hill at around mile 17 I stopped to eat some Shot Blocks and to listen to a phone message. It was my boss. I had asked him to call me when he got into work. I called him back and we talked about business. Then I told him I had a big hill to climb, so I better let him go. I started up the hill. It seemed like I felt stronger than I had before whenever I've rode up Usery. At least I was able to go into higher gears than I usually ride in, which I thought was strange with my low bike tire. Within the first half mile a coyote trotted out in front of me about 20 yards up. He wouldn't stop for me to take a picture, though.
Half way up I started singing a made up song that would be great for Dora the Explorer. It was something like this:
Don't stop, Don't stop, Not gonna stop, 'til I make it to the top. Come on, Burt, You can do it, You can do it if you put your mind to it.
Of course, just then another dude went blowing by me. I apologized to him for singing, but I don't think he heard the apology. I'm sure he heard the singing. When I was almost to the very top I started singing again. This time I looked back to make sure nobody was behind me. Good. It was safe. When I stopped, it wasn't long before some dude came out of no where and passed me again. He said, "Good morning." I'm not gonna lie. He spooked me. He spooked me good. I just looked back, for crying out loud! I told him as he zoomed by, "You scared the poop out of me!" He said, "Sorry!" And he was gone.
Now was the downhill. My favorite part. I was really picking up some speed. When I got back into town I got stopped by a few annoying stop lights, but I was still flying along pretty well. I was approaching Val Vista where I'd have to turn south. Then it would be another 4.25 miles home. I made up another song:
Gotta turn right, Gotta turn right, At the light I gotta turn right.
But I never made it to the light. My bike tire finally gave up. I called my wife to come get me. But I still got 30.75 miles in, and it was a pretty good ride.
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