Hot holy hand humid! (I just wanted every word of that sentence to start with 'h." I really meant, 'holy hot AND humid!") It was time to retire my other pair of Mizunos this morning. If it wasn't for that and the fact that I have a NEVER QUIT attitude, I would have quit.
As I was running down Broadway, I looked down one of the side roads. A lady waved at me. It wasn't a 'hi, I'm being friendly" wave. It was a 'hey, I know you" kind of wave. You know, hand about shoulder height, palm facing me, fingers wagging back and forth at a brisk rate. I didn't recognize her, but I'm sure it's someone I go to church with.
When I got home Emily wanted to help me with taking my shoes off. She's so cute. I let her. She tried so hard to untie them. I had to finally do it for her, but I let her pull them off my feet. Then I realized I was dripping sweat on her. Poor thing.
Speaking of Emily, there's still time to add a $5 donation (or however much you want) to the Sharing Down Syndrome Arizona foundation. You all have been so generous so far. Thank you so much!
At 6:30AM this morning it was already 90°. Ay yi yi. Well, I plan on running tomorrow with my buddy Brad. He hates running. But he's getting too old for basketball. We used to go play early morning basketball three days a week. That's what got me into running. Too many churchball injuries. Anyway, we're gonna go at 5:00AM. Hopefully it will be a little cooler.
This was also the second time I've noticed that it actually cooled down after I was done running. It was 88°. I have two theories on that. First, and probably not correct, once the sun breaks the horizon and the actual rays start hitting the 'cooler" air that's been sitting there, the warm air starts to move the cool air thus creating a bit of a breeze. That's my theory anyway. I'll do more scientific testing on it later. Second, and more likely, I have my thermometer sitting underneath my front porch. When the sun breaks the horizon, the direct rays shine right on it. Once the sun rises, the thermometer is covered by the shade.
Has anyone noticed that I've been using a single apostrophe to start my quotes and a double apostrophe to end them? It's in honor of Leandra who's missing at least one finger, maybe more. That's how she does her air quotes.
I set the alarm to go off at 4am and hit the 5-min. snooze until 4:20am. Then I got up and got ready to go. After a little bit I noticed that my body was rebelling against my apparent need to be up so early. I hit the toilet and tried to be as efficient as possible because I didn't want to be late getting to Brad's house. Brad lives half a mile away, and by the time I got out the door it was 4:57am. So I was only a couple of minutes late, but he was waiting for me at the corner.
We started out maybe a little too fast for him. He had to walk a couple of times, but he told me that I inspired him to run farther than he would have on his own. We had a fun talk, but we always do. Oh, except that time we came home from camping and I had car sickness. I wasn't much for conversation then.
We ran from his corner up to Broadway, over to the canal, down the canal where I introduced him to the drinking fountain, down to Southern, up Los Alamos, across Pueblo, and back up 32nd to his corner. It was probably just over 3.2 miles, but I stopped my Garmin both times we walked. Then I ran back home and got just over 4 miles in all together.
Brad is one of my dearest friends and has been since we met in college. Brad was adopted and is not really sure about his heritage, but he may very well be black. He has a 7 year old boy with Down Syndrome. We've already decided that our children are getting married. We used to play the Movie Quotes game on our lunch break when we worked together. The only chance I'd have a beating him was when I teamed up with Alexis and we used our combine scores. But even then he'd usually win. One of our favorite movies we like to quote is O Brother Where Art Thou. When all else fails and we run out of stuff to talk about, we just start quoting that movie.
Yesterday I woke up and my left heel was hurting. Then it hurt all day whenever I would walk on it. I need new work shoes. The outsides of my heels are so worn down and it could be affecting my legs. Negatively.
It wasn't as warm as it has been lately. Perhaps that's why I ran faster than I have been lately. My foot felt fine. I'm really digging the water fountain. I like how the cover magically raises up.
Time - 25:47 (avg. pace 8:35)
Splits - 8:46.33, 8:22.67, 8:36.03, 0:02.48
Those hundredths of a second are so important. :)
Update on the fundraiser. We've raised over $600 for SDSA with almost half of the donors being Fast Running Bloggers. I love you guys!
This morning I ran with no Garmin. It was weird reaching down towards my wrist and not having a button to push. Does ice cream make you sweat? Video of magic fountain coming soon.
Today I ran with JulieC. Not the blogger JulieC. The one on my Ragnar team. She's the only one that came to run this morning. I tried out my compression sleeves for the first time. They worked all right. My calves didn't fall off, so that was good. The run was nice and slow at about 11:30 pace. The sun stayed behind the clouds the whole time, too.
Last night I kept waking up to see my wife awake late. She couldn't sleep and was watching TV. I remember at 2:30am waking up and she was still up. (Don't read this next sentence if you still have any respect for me.) I ripped one off real loud, and she jumped. I giggled and went back to sleep. At 3am she woke me up and told me someone was in the backyard with a flashlight. I hopped out of bed and ran to the window. I couldn't see anything. I pulled the blinds back, opened the window, and yelled, "HEY!" My dogs were just sitting there in the grass. I looked out the bathroom window. Nothing. Then I started making my way through the house to check on everyone. The back door was unlocked, but I don't remember locking it before I went to bed. I went out back and didn't see anyone or anything. The gate was closed which if someone was back there, and I scared them away, I would not expect them to take the time to latch the gate back up. Also, there's no way Cinammon (not a cat) would not have been jumping all over them. I went out to the front of the house. One thing that was weird was that my neighbor's garage was open and the light on. The guy practically lives in it anyway, but I didn't think much of it at first. I kind of feel safe having him in around because he's like the neighborhood watch dog. Anyway, I did another sweep of the house and then went out the front door. Now the garage was closed. Hmmm.
Well, I went back to bed and now I couldn't sleep. Then the motion detecting floodlights from the neighbor behind me came on. I poked my head out the window again, but didn't see anyone. I'm guessing it was their dogs. But I'm almost convinced that this is what my wife saw although she says she saw the light moving. But remember, she was a little jumpy already. A little while later right when I dozed off a light came on in the house. It was just Abby going potty.
To make a long story short, I was in no mood to get up early to go running this morning. Maybe I'll go this afternoon.
Yeah, I was too lazy to get out last night. But I did eat a lot. We have a really good friend that's moving her family to Poland today. Last night was a little farewell party for them. They should be back in a year and a half, but she was crying as if it was her funeral. I told her nobody cries at their own funeral.
3 rushed miles this morning. Must get up earlier. So my son managed to get himself up this morning. He was out the door to catch the bus while I was doing my warmup stretching. I'm sorry to say that it made me really suspicious. He had a skinny jeans incident last year. Anyway, nevermind that. So I ran up behind him when he was halfway down the road and grabbed his backpack and started feeling it for any paraphernalia that's not acceptable to bring to school. He had his headphones in and didn't realize what was going on. You should have seen him jump when he realized someone had a hold of his backpack. Backpack, backpack. Backpack, backpack. Anything that you may need I got inside for you...
I planned on getting up really early this morning to run with JulieC before she moves to Tucson today. But I didn't go to bed 'til after 1:30am. And I had a feeling she wouldn't get up early either. I found out later she didn't. So I ran after I dropped my two girls off at school. It was around 8AM and 90°F. I wanted to run 4.5, but it was so hot, and I was slogging along. I just went my normal 3 mile loop and got a drink from the magic fountain.
Don't forget. Tonight's the The Third Thursday Adventure Run at Tempe Road Runner Sports. That means free shoes for me...! Actually, I'm going to give my voucher to my wife. Aren't I romantic?
We had Ward Conference yesterday at church and the Stake President spoke on the importance of being physically fit. Finally, religious advice I can take to heart!
This morning I tried to push it, but I'm not in very good shape anymore. I saw two Volkswagen beetles driving right by each other. One was red. One was green. I thought it was Christmas.
This morning I stopped at the magic water fountain and instead of heading home, continued around the city block. When I got to the corner of Val Vista and Broadway I stopped at the gas station to grab another drink. There I saw Brad who is my BFFL that went running with me a few weeks ago. We had a nice conversation about explosive diarrhea and ear wax.
I took Ginger and Cinnamon on a little run this morning. Cinnamon is nuts. Anyway, I'm thinking she's half boxer half pitbull, which means the people who gave her to us lied. THEY LIED! Anyone want her?
I've been wanting to get some hill work in for a while because I have an enormous hill I have to run up at the Vegas Ragnar. There's only one hill in the Phoenix area that is steep enough, long enough, and smooth enough to get a good workout in, Usery Pass. It happens to be my favorite run, too. But today it was miserable.
The neighbor that lives directly behind me, Mike, has been training for the Napa Valley Ragnar. I told him I wanted to run Usery Pass this Saturday, and he said he was going to, also. So he picked me up along with the Bishop's son, Tyler, who I used to work with. We stayed together for most of the way up. As we were about a mile in a group of bikers were flying down the hill. It was still dark out and none of us had headlamps or reflective gear. The bikers were PO'd when they saw us because they couldn't see us until the last second. But guess what. We could see them. The were all yelling at us. You know what bikers? Do a real sport where you're not sitting on your butt!
With a mile to go before we reached the top Mike and I started to put some distance between Tyler. We turned around at the top, crossed the road, and saw a smooshed scorpion. Then Tyler rejoined us. This is where it got miserable. I wanted to fly down the hill, but all my efforts were focused on not having a blow out. Dang it! I tried to go as much as I could before I left! These early morning runs really give me the runs! I ran with Tyler all the way down. With about a quarter mile to go I saw a wash cloth on the side of the road. Had I seen it earlier I would have stopped and used it. Anyway, I survived.
This morning I was awakened by one of the lovely neighborhood dogs barking at 3:20am. I couldn't get back to sleep. I tried. Oh boy did I try. But to no avail. Who lets their dog bark for an hour? Probably a dead person.
I got ready to go and had plenty of time to loosen up. Yesterday morning as I was going to lift up the cats' dogs' water bottle, my back tightened up real bad. I didn't even lift it yet. It was like an electric shock went right in my lower back. Maybe Merri was behind me with a tazer. But it still hurts. I stretched out real good but wasn't sure if I should run on it or not. I didn't want to miss my run with Brad, though. We always have such great conversations.
So I ran down to his house and took it nice and easy. Brad doesn't run fast anyway so that's good. We took the normal route. When we ran by the magic water fountain the guy that sleeps on the bench was there checking his text messages. We didn't stop. When we got to my street I bid Brad farewell. I was starting to get the "urge" again.
I'm hurtin' for certain or my name isn't Burton. You know, just once I would like to get an injury that keeps me from running that is actually running related! I immediately regret saying that.
