After more than a week of no running I'm disappointed that my hamstring doesn't feel any better. It's not any worse either, but pooey! It was beautiful out though. It was 49° when I started and 58° when I got home. At the bus stop one lady said, "It's a beautiful day for it." It's a beautiful day for what, lady? Huh?
I miss not being able to read everyone's blogs anymore. I just can't find the time :(
I barely have time to run which I guess isn't that bad since I can barely run. I slept in until 11am. Of course I went to bed at 6am, so maybe it wasn't really sleeping in. I got out the door at noon, and it was 70° out. In your face America! I needed to get out because this week I got a Facebook message from my friend Mike Somar. He invited me to run the Mad Mud Run with him again this year. This year's theme will be Pac Man. We'll see if he can keep his streak of best costumes going.
I woke up this morning and put on a pair of panty hose. And I kinda liked it.
It was part of my costume for this year's Mad Mud Run. I don't know why our team captain Mike required us wear hose, but who am I to question authority? The theme Mike picked this year was Pac Man. So Wednesday night we gathered at my house to have a costume construction party. We were going to go with Pac Man, Mrs. Pac Man and three ghosts, but we ran out of time to finish in one night. So to make a long story short, we went with Pac Man, Inky Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde. I got to be Clyde, not to be confused with Clyde, by virtue of my old orange running shoes.
We donned our costumes in the parking lot. Right away we knew we would be a hit because people were stopping us to get pictures. Mike has won the costume contest three years in a row. Now we were hoping for four.
Part of the strategy is to work the crowd. We had a plan to hand out Dots candies, but somehow that fell through. We did have MP3 players with speakers to play the Pac Man music. They had music playing, too, so I danced a lot. The Kool Aid girl gang danced with us. One girl even peeked at my ghostly undercarriage.
The competition this year wasn't that great for the costume contest. I did like the redneck wedding theme. For the fourth year in a row, we won. Now it was time to run the course.
They always have kids with supersoakers spraying us down at the start. Wouldn't you know I had people hiding behind me? I was a pretty big target. Running in a cardboard box is such a delight. It's nice and warm. Like a sauna. Your elbows and shoulders chafe. The constant pounding of a box on your head was sure to bring on a Tylenol moment. Not to mention the bald spot it forms. The small slits cut in the side were sufficient to see, but I was definitely running into people at the beginning. No peripheral whatsoever. And our plentiful surface area sure provided much sail for a few strong gusts of wind. It's a good thing we are good sports.
The first obstacle was the balance beam/tires/balance beam/tires. I could see my feet this year, so it wasn't too bad. The next obstacle was the over under hurdles. I'm glad I didn't lose an eye (or two) at this part. Next was the first cargo net wall. People asked how we would get over it. Duh! We're ghosts! We'll go right through. But since everyone else was going over, we did, too.
Next was the weave, low crawl, weave. We actually did the weave twice because it was so awesome. Can't wait to see it on Youtube. Then came the second cargo net wall. I managed to climb this one without my box falling off to reveal my true identity. Then was the hay bale steps. Our team had kind of slowed down. I guess the cardboard was taking its toll on us. But we knew the hay bales were close to the end, and we could hear the music playing. So we picked it up for the last bit. Then we got to the 3 foot diameter, 10 foot long pipes. We didn't fit! So we tossed our ghosts over the pipes, went through with just our bodies, and got back into the ghosts. It was kind of like dying and being resurrected. Just a few more steps to the mud pit. It went a little like this.
Once again, it was a pretty fun time. Actually the whole day turned out pretty good. I needed it. Here's a few more pictures.
Team Got Dots.
Do you think we can salvage them for Halloween next year?
Today I had the pleasure of running with an awesome blogger/dude/friend/runner. Steve Piccolo was in town and dropped by to see me. I was kind of nervous because he's a fantastic runner, and me, not so much. Especially lately. But he was nice enough to run at my slow 9 min/mile pace. That made it more enjoyable anyway, because we were able to talk. And rest assured we talked about ALL of you loony bloggers.
We ran along the canal for three miles and turned back. We saw the magic water fountain, no bums, some ducks, cows, horses, and people walking their dogs. It was dark when we started. Look at Steve in his short sleeve shirt and shorts! He was loving it.
I'm beginning to think my hamstring will never get better. Hardly any running, and it's still the same. I guess I have no choice but to run through it. Maybe I could be an ultra marathoner. A very slow ultra marathoner.
I stretched very little before starting my run today. As a result, and consequently, I wasn't able to run as far as I wanted. From now on I'm going to stretch out more, even if it's bad for my hammy.
I slapped a high five to the Little Caesar's sign holder. He's taken the place of Lady Liberty.
I stretched out more today. As a result, and consequently, I was able to run as far as I wanted. Which was 5.45 miles. There were these two crazy looking guys sitting on the tailgate of a pick-up on Pueblo. They saw me coming. One of them stood up, hobbled over to the sidewalk like he was pretty crippled, spun his arm around, pointed his fingers at me, cocked them back, then proceeded to mime that he was shooting me with what I can only assume was a harpoon, and reeling me in. The other crazy guy just laughed and laughed. Do I really like a blubbery whale? Yes. So, five miles later, they were still out there. This time I spun my arm around, pointed my fingers at him, cocked them back, and proceeded to mime that I was harpooning him and reeling him in. Who's crazy now? Huh? Huh? That's what I thought!
