Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I added another loop to my route today.  A "loop" is another half mile down the canal.  But since the canal is at an angle to the roads and the roads are half a mile apart, each half mile loop I add is adding about 1.1 miles to my overall distance.  This has nothing to do with plate tectonics.

This morning I felt pretty tired, and I was just going to do my 2.5 mile loop.  I run on the east side of the Floodway until I hit Brown Road, then I run on the west side of the Floodway which is the east side of the RWCD canal.  As I got about half way between Brown and Adobe, I saw a guy in the trees.  He appeared to be dancing to the beat.  But there was no beat.  The closer I got it looked more like he was having a heated conversation with someone.  But there was no one.  It became obvious pretty quickly that the guy was either high on drugs or was not all there together mentally.  Either way it made me concerned for the many old ladies that walk along the canal every morning.  As I ran by he purposely kept his back to me.  I saw an old lady down the way with her dog.  I made up my mind to warn her about him.  I realized she was heading the same way I was, so I asked if she had seen him.  She said she did not see him at first, but that her dog had sniffed him out in the trees.  We both skirted around saying that we thought he was a nut job, but the more we talked, we finally felt at ease enough with one another to come out and say it.  We discussed whether or not to call the police.  For all we know he was perfectly harmless, but still, we agreed this was a great place for a murder.  I told her that I had planned on running down another half mile, so I would instead just run another loop and see what he was up to.  Then I would decide if I should call the police.  She told me about a guy years ago that used to expose himself "for the benefit of the ladies."  We bid adieu and I ran back around to the east side of the Floodway.  I kept an eye out for him because we could see that he had started walking down the canal.  By the time I got back to Brown Road he was there.  I stopped on the catwalk by the canal gate and watched him.  He was definitely crazy.  Poor guy.  Was he dangerous to others?  I don't know.  But I decided to call the police anyway at the very least for his sake.  He was kind of hovering around a power pole with his backpack leaned up against it.  Then he crossed the other catwalk by the radial gates and went into the orange orchard on the west side of the canal.  That was the last time I saw him.  But I told the dispatcher that he wouldn't go far because his backpack was still there.  I gave her the best description of him that I could, which was not very good.  I suck.  Green jacket, brown hair, possibly facial hair, can't remember what color his pants were, 5' 10", 150 lbs.  So, I figured I'd done my civic duty and I started to run back towards home.  I looked at his backpack as I ran past the power pole.  It wasn't a backpack.  It was indeed just part of the power pole.  A covering for some of the wires at the base, I suppose.  Yeah, I felt a little dumb.  I got about a quarter mile away and I saw the officer arrive.  I kept running, but then the guilt of the backpack made me turn around.  Just then Mesa PD called me back and asked me if the guy was on the south side or the north side of Brown Road.  I told her south and that I was jogging back that way and I saw the officer so I would speak with him.  The officer never asked me about the backpack so I didn't bring it up.  I told him he had gone into the orchard, so you may not find him.  He asked if there was another locked gate over at Adobe.  I said yes.  Then I told him I used to work here and I could make a phone call to see if someone was around that could unlock it.  As I was calling my former coworker another officer pulled up.  He told him to go look around Greenfield Road.  By the time I had explained to my friend what was going on, the other officer had found another way to get in through the orchard.  So, they both went around and the second officer who had entered the orchard first drove down the west side of the RWCD canal.  I jogged behind him on the east side.  He came up to a lady and stopped to talk to her.  It was the same lady that I had talked to.  So when I caught up I told him that he was in the orange grove somewhere.  Anyway, that's about it.  Nothing too exciting.  But maybe I'll see him again some day.

I dropped a lamp on my foot about 7 or 8 days ago.  It wasn't a particularly heavy lamp.  But it landed right on top of my foot with the complete weight of it behind it.  Running on it wasn't helping it.  So I took some days off.  Today it felt fine, but my legs felt rather heavy.  I didn't see the crazy guy.  He probably killed whoever he was going to kill and moved on to the next neighborhood.

Today was the first day in a long time my run actually felt like a workout rather than a slog fest.

Today as I turned the corner to head over to the floodway/RWCD canal, I saw a bunch of people over by the canal and a bunch of cars parked in the street.  I wondered what was going on.  I thought maybe it was an organized clean up day or something.  As I got closer I saw some orange coolers and realized it must be a drink station for a race course.  I went to do my normal loop, up the east side of the floodway to Brown Road, cross the floodway, run on the east side of the RWCD canal, and now I could see that it was a color run.  They were throwing colored dust on the runners.  I wondered if I'd be able to run by there.  I made up my mind that I was going to run through it, and if I happened to get dusted, that's their fault for not checking that I didn't have a bib on.  So I got to Brown Road and crossed over right about the same time 4 young girls, maybe 12 to 14 reached the turn around point.  I guess they were just running up and back as many times as they could in a certain amount of time.  So that would be just over a mile each time.  Anyway, I asked them what was going on.  They said it's a color run, but they're almost out of color so by the time we get back, we probably won't get any more thrown on us.  At this point I had a dose of reality of how slow I run lately as one of the girls who was short and stubby was running faster than me.  Oh well.  I'm ok with who I am.  We got about half way there and a man said they had 6 minutes left.  They were starting to slow down and I had caught back up to them by this point.  I told them they could walk and still make it in 6 minutes if they wanted.  They thought that was sage advice and decided to heed it.  Well, they were out of color by the time I got to the end.  I was hoping at least they would cheer for me, but all I got was a cute little three year old girl offering my a lollipop.

I was sore this morning.  I guess that's what 4 days in a row does to you.  Haven't done that for a while.  So, I was running down Adobe and I saw a lady with a stroller running towards me.  I crossed the road, and then she crossed the road.  I was wondering if she was going to follow me on the Floodway road.  I was running as slow as normal, and deep in my heart I didn't want a lady with a stroller passing me.  Well, after a while I decided to turn around to see if she was coming or if she had continued on Adobe Road.  She was behind me, but she had stopped at the entrance I guess to let me go on ahead.  Clearly she thought I was a rapist and now that I turned around to see if she was coming, that confirmed it for her.  Dang it!  That's what I get for wearing sweat pants today.  I didn't need them.  It was cool, but not cold.  I just have so many of them and I never wear them.  Anyway I kept going.  She had given me a head start and she almost caught up to me by the time I reached Brown Road.  At least she didn't pass me.  She followed me over to the west side of the Floodway and gave me another head start.  That was the last I saw of her.  But I really wanted to turn around and tell her I'm not a rapist.  Wouldn't that be the right thing to do?

I was running super slow today.  I had to go #2.  I threw in an extra loop today which had me going down to Main Street.  Between University and Main there are retirement communities on both sides of the Floodway/Canal.  As I was coming back I heard music coming from somewhere.  I turned my head and looked through a screened gate to see that it was a swimming pool with a bunch of old ladies doing water aerobics.  So now, not only am I a rapist, I'm a peeping Tom.  I just need to run with my eyes closed.

I'm closing in on 800 miles for my Wave Inspire 7's.  I think I've been saying that for 2 years now.  Today was nice.  It was cold, but still shorts and T-shirt.  I don't know if it was the brisk air or the 3 days off, but I finally cracked the 10 min/mi pace without trying.  I guess that's something.

Why didn't I run yesterday?  Oh yeah.  I had a meeting in north Scottsdale at 10am.  I guess I had enough time, but I wanted to get some things done first.  Today I have two volunteer shifts at the Adventure Run, so I took it nice and easy with a short run.  Average pace was 10:02.  Wow.  That's faster than all my runs lately except for Tuesday's.
 

The Adventure Run yesterday wiped me out.  So I just did 1.44 which is one loop around the Floodway/Canal.  Right before I got to University an old man was running towards me with a tall dog.  He looked to be about 60 years old, pretty good pace, long-sleeved yellow shirt.  As I made my way back up the Canal towards Adobe, I saw him again.  It looked like he had made quite a bit of ground on me, but that wasn't all too surprising.  Then as he got closer I noticed he was now 30 years old.  Faster pace, long-sleeved yellow shirt, tall dog.  How did he reverse his aging process?  I'd really like to know.
 

Today's run consisted of wrapping up a couple of RebBox movies, Paul Blart Mall Cop 2 and Avengers: Age of Ultron, in a WalMart baggy and running to WalMart to return them.  I kept a nice slow pace on the way there so as to not get too sweaty.  My legs were sore today.  It was about one and three quarter miles to get there.  I decided to go straight to the canal from WalMart because I've done that route before, and I knew it was right around 4 miles.  On the way back the sun was shining off the water in the Canal and blinding me.  (I always capitalize canal when referring to the RWCD Canal.  It's kinda like capitalizing god when you're talking about Heavenly Father.)  Speaking of God and the Canal, my thoughts were led to my son who checked himself into the hospital last night as he was having suicidal thoughts.  As strained as our relationship has been, I have had him working for me since June.  Guess he won't be coming in for a couple of days.  The most important thing is that he gets better.

Happy Thanksgiving!  First thing this morning I went with my daughter to the neighbor's house whom we were to care for their two dogs and one cat while they were gone on vacation.  Well, I went there yesterday so he could show me where all there food was and stuff.  One of the dogs did not look well.  He thought it must've eaten a mushroom or something.  This morning it was dead.  That's right.  DEAD.  We're the worst pet sitters ever.  I felt bad because I wanted to go check on it last night, but I ran out of time before I had to leave for the Suns game.  So, I called my neighbor and broke him the news.  He drove back and later I helped him load him so that he could take him back to where they were vacationing and bury him. 

After the dog discovery, I went running.  When I got to Brown Road, I saw my home teaching companion's mother.  I stopped to talk to her and we ended up walking a mile down the canal.  The nice thing was my GPS tracked my mileage, but I paused it while I was walking.  So it shows a 6 min/mi pace.

It was almost cold this morning.  49º.  And by morning I mean 11am.  I went to bed about 2am this morning and woke up at 8am.  I laid in bed with my wife and daughter for a while.  Then got up about 9am.  I finally installed Windows 10 on my computer last night, so we'll see how that goes.  I was messing around with it this morning making sure everything still works.  Then I played a few games.  Then I went out to run.  I was wearing shorts and T-shirt as usual.  I warmed up pretty fast, then it felt great.  From the other side of the Floodway I could see Sis. Sanders again.  She was talking to a lady.  I ran half a mile all the way around and waved to her.  She stopped me and we ended up walking together again for 3/4 of a mile.  She's a sweet old lady, but I might need to start avoiding her.  LOL.  That stands for little old lady.
 

My wife had to leave early for work this morning.  That meant I had to get Emily ready for school by myself.  She stayed home Wednesday because she was sick.  Truthfully I should have kept her home today, but I hate for her to miss too much school.  She's doing so good lately.  Her reading is awesome.  She's actually understanding basic addition and subtraction.  Anyway, I probably used a gallon of detangler on her hair this morning.  I couldn't find her boots.  I barely got her ready before the bus arrived.  Luckily it was a few minutes late.  I'm glad she went because had I kept her home, I probably wouldn't have run.  I had a breathing treatment before I woke her up.  That helped during the run.  I felt a little winded at first, but after about half a mile my lungs were opened up and felt fine.  It's my legs that are sore.  They feel like they're in twang mode.  I kept it nice and easy and I was running very consistent half mile splits for the first three miles.  Then I slowed down even more.  There were a lot of old folks out walking the paths this morning.  And I saw the young guy with the tall dog.  He must've ate his spinach this morning.