Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I was going to skip today because of my long run yesterday, but I wanted to start the year off right.  Around noon I decided to throw on some running clothes when my wife tells me that our girls want to go get sushi for lunch.  I was like, "Have fun with that."  But she wanted to make it "family" event, so I had to come along, also.  I had thrown on a tight fitting shirt, and decided it was too tight for wearing in a public restaurant, so I found  one of my new shirts I got for my birthday.  But it didn't have sleeves, so I pulled out an old BodyArmour® shirt that I haven't worn in forever and put it on underneath.  I figured that would be good since it was cold out.  So my shirt was black on the bottom half and neon yellow on the top half.  My shorts were like this camouflage red and black.  My wife says, "Burt, you don't match."  No matter how many times I told her it didn't matter because they were running clothes, she just wouldn't listen.  She made me change.  I put on my new neon yellow running shorts, and she said it was okay.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to run all the way home from the restaurant.  It would be 5.8 miles, and my ankles are still tender from yesterday.  Plus, how would it be running on a tummy full of sushi?  I'd have to make the call after I ate.  I don't think I over-ate, but I had my fair share.  Plus I had a glass of Sprite®.  I went to the van and briefly stretched out.  I told my wife to drop me off at Higley and the freeway.  I figured that would be around 3.15 miles.  It was 3.17 miles.  Nailed it.  Kind of.  I kept it nice and slow.  I could taste the sushi come up a couple of times, but if I can run a mile and a half after consuming 6 donuts, I should be able to handle this.  It was a decent run, but I definitely need to start my diet again.  Happy New Year, everyone!

I'm 1 for 3 on this run.  I texted Glen and Mike to see when they wanted to run today.  Mike said it was his wife's birthday, so he wouldn't be joining us.  We haven't run together since before Thanksgiving!  Glen and I decided to run Usery at 8am.  My alarm still goes off at 3:30am on Saturaday mornings.  I should change that.  I woke up and decided to tinkle, but then I couldn't go back to sleep.  I ate too much at Red Lobster last night.  I was hoping to pass some of it, but nothing happened.  Around 7am I got a text from Glen that something had come up, so he couldn't come either.  I decided I would attempt the run again where my wife drops me off at the top of Usery Pass, and I run home.  Of course she had to stop at another property she's been looking at beforehand.  We saw a couple of coyotes.  We walked around the property.  I wasn't too impressed.  Then we drove to Usery Pass.  It was 9am when I started to run.  Immediately my right shin was hurting.  After two miles I stopped to try and stretch it out.  It didn't help much.  I kept going and hoped that it would stop after I was warmed up.  I got to Brown Road which is 4.1 miles.  I texted my wife to let her know.  She texted back asking if I was good, but I didn't respond because it's hard to text and run.  But I felt fine.  Less than half a mile later my knee started to hurt.  I thought I could run through it, but it didn't take long until I knew I had to stop.  I tried stretching again, and tried to run, but a few steps later I texted my wife to come pick me up.  She must think I'm such a loser.  I walked about a half mile by the time she got me.  And she had donuts with her, so that made me feel better.

I ran 2 loops today.  My knee seemed to behave.  So that's good.  Day 1 of starting my diet again.  Gained almost everything back over the holidays that I lost last year.  So that's bad.

I was running down the street when my neighbor pulled up behind me and yelled out the window, and this is a direct quote, "Looking good, Burt!  You got those calf implants going."  I was wearing my saggy shorts, so I was pulling them up the entire time.  I made one loop and had to stop for traffic.  Once I started running again my knee started to hurt, so I stopped.  I walked the rest of the way home.

I finally ran again with Mike.  And Glen.  Mike said he would pick me up at 6:15am, but he got here at 6:00am, and I was still on the toilet.  I got ready and was out the door by 6:12am.  We picked up Glen and headed out to Usery.  On the way there we had to stop as at least 9 horses were crossing the road, including some young'uns.  We stretched out and Glen and I started running with Mike following us shortly thereafter.  Glen and I ran together for about the first quarter mile.  Then he started to pull ahead.  Mike was right behind me so I was a an Oreo.  But since I'm fat, I was a Double Stuff Oreo®.  Speaking of behing fat, I did start my diet again this week on Tuesday, and I've already lost 8 lbs.  Weird.  Anyway, I was worried about my knee, although it felt fine, so I kept it nice and slow.  A runner passed me at the 2.2 mile point.  The his buddy passed me at the 3.1 mile point.  I had told myself that I was going to play it safe and turn around at the 3.1 mile point, but after being passed by another runner, I decided to run a little further.  I texted Mike to let him know, took a quick tinkle, and headed back down.  Glen caught me with just under two miles to go.  That means he ran a mile more than I did, and beat  me by 5 minutes.  I finished before Mike by about a minute.  Well, I just looked at Strava and it was precisely 31 seconds.  My knee was good, but there was one moment right around 1.2 miles to go, where I thought it might start to hurt.  But it behaved.  It was a nice run.  Not too cold either.

It was a beautiful morning out.  A tiny bit cold, but perfect for running.  When I started to stretch out, I realized how sore I was.  But I felt good when I was running.  I saw a tent in the bushes.

I started my run at 6:25am.  It was still dark out, and it remained dark the entire time.  I didn't bring a light with me, and there are no lights along the Floodway and Canal paths.  There was just enough light for me to see where I was going.  I was wearing real dark clothes, too, so I must've seemed like a creeper.  But the nice thing was, there weren't very many people out on the path.  I felt real good, and the weather was awesome.
 

I got up kinda early this morning.  Well, early for me.  I was sitting on the toilet when I heard a cat meowing.  It sounded like it was in distress.  I went out the back door and started following the sound.  It was dark out.  I wondered if it was a bobcat.  Or maybe a cat being eaten by a coyote.  Anyway, I got pretty close and it must've heard me because it stopped.  I don't know why I told that story.  But I was up and my lungs were congested.  I tried to hack up as much as I could before my run.  I went outside and stretched.  I felt pretty flexible.  But when I started to run my legs felt sore.  I just took it nice and slow.  It was cold out, but still shorts and T-shirt weather for me.  I saw a lot of walkers on the trail today all bundled up.  There was a cool looking fog settled in the bottom of the Floodway.

SlowJoe texted me last month to let me know that he'd be in town this weekend because his new bride's parents are renting a place in Apache Junction for the winter.  I was sick for the last half of last week, and wasn't able to run.  Joe sent me a text apologizing that he wasn't able to touch base with me earlier while they were there, but I told him it was ok because I was sick anyway.  So we planned on doing a run/hike this morning in the Superstition Mountains.  Then I realized I had a client coming over at 10am.  We planned on meeting at 7:30am.  It was a 30 minute drive.  So to be home and ready for my client at 10am, I would have to turn around somewhere near 8:15am. 

I decided to get there early, and left shortly after 6:30am.  I texted Joe to let him know, hoping maybe he'd come early, too, so that I could have a little extra time out on the trail.  But he texted back saying he was still on target for 7:30am.  He had sent me a link for directions to get there, but they ended up being directions to a gated community.  So, he ended up getting to the trailhead before I did after sending me a pin of his location.  I was only about 5 minutes away.

They were kind enough to wait while I took a few minutes to stretch.  I'm not much of a hiker, but I was feeling much better and was anxious to join them.  We started out hiking for most of the way.  We passed this sweet old lady which was Julie's (Joe's new bride) mother.  We kept hiking and we could see Julie's father up the trail, but we couldn't catch him.  It wasn't until we started running the flats and the downhills that we caught him.  He's in pretty good shape.

We made our way up to the ancient hieroglyphics.  1950's we're guessing.

There's a small pond there with a trickle of a waterfall.  I always wonder where the water comes from any time I see a stream.  Especially in a dry desert.  It was at this poin that we kept going up and got off the trail.  We bushwacked it for a little while until Joe got us back on the trail.

We probably went another half to three quarters of a mile and it was getting a little late, so I told them I'd need to turn back around.  We snapped a selfie and some more pictures and hugged goodbye.  Even though I was a sweaty mess.

I'm still kinda sore from Monday, but I need to get the miles in.  I ran 2.5 nice and easy.  It's cold out, so I wore a long sleeve T.

I still have a residual soreness from Monday, but it's my hiking muscles, not my running muscles.  I felt good when I started.  I then started to hack up 500 lbs of mucus.  I almost contemplated turning around.  But I finally got it all cleared out and was able to focus on running.  It was real cold, but there were a lot of people out.

I just wanted to do a short run this morning so that I'd be fresh for a long run tomorrow.  Much less mucus this morning.

Another early morning run at Usery Pass with Mike and Glen.  I decided to wear two running shirts, shorts, and sweat pants.  I also thought that it would be light by the time we got there, so I didn't bring my reflective vest or headlamp.  That was a mistake.  Luckily Mike had extras.  I got a little headstart.  I had to stop and wait at the intersection for three cars.  Glen passed me shortly after that, and he was moving!  I did hear him say how clear it was.  Indeed it was.  The remaining stars were bright and beautiful.  Mike caught me shortly thereafter.  I had gotten my pace down to 10 min/mile even before Thanksgiving on this course, but now I'm back to over 11.  My legs felt heavy.  Not sore.  Just heavy.  I attribute it to the hike I did with SlowJoe Monday.  My runs during the week were on a flat surface, so I didn't feel it.  But heading up the hill today, I did feel it.  Anyway, other than that, I felt decent.  Mike was about a quarter of a mile ahead of me when he got to the top and turned back around.  He said that he think Glen went down to the Park entrance.  He actually only went to the shooting range entrance.  I saw him coming back when I got to the top and we both crested the hill from opposite sides at the same time.  I told him, "Good timing!"  He immediately left me in the dust again.  There were probably a dozen or so cyclists out this morning.  We saw a couple of runners when we were going to the sheriff's station.  Mike remarked how one of them was wearing A LOT of clothes.  I saw them coming up while I was coming down.  I high fived one of them.  Right at the very bottom by the intersection I could see some people walking around with vests on and signs.  I figured they were out to bring awareness to the public of the wild horses.  That's exactly what they were doing, and we saw about 15 of them.  I took some pictures, but I'm too lazy to post them here.  Go to my Strava if you want to see them.  I also blew out a nipple.  A picture of that may or may not also be on my Strava.

I just wanted to do a nice and easy one today even though I felt nice.  It was slightly chilly, but not bad at all.  I saw this guy walking what I believe is a labradoodle.  I see him all the time, so today I worked up the nerve to ask him what the dog's name was.  Gordon.  The dog's name is Gordon.

I had sore legs today.  Don't know why they were so sore.  So I ran slow.  There was an old lady that turned on to the Floodway path about 30 yards ahead of me.  We were running the exact same pace.

Another slow run.  The exact same pace as yesterday.

I think I'm getting sick again.  I have definitely had diarrhea the last couple of days if that's any indicator.  It might explain why my legs have felt so sore since Tuesday.  So I just did one loop today.  I saw this guy cruising along the Canal as we ran in opposite directions towards each other.  According to Strava, he ran a 20 mile progression run around a 7:30 average.  Dang.
 

We're having a Ragnar team meeting today.  Yesterday I texted the group to say - see you all tomorrow!  Then we started texting about our group run this morning.  It seemed that we would have myself, Mike, Glen, and Bryan to run Usery.  But I got a text from Glen this morning saying he wouldn't be able to come.  On the way to Usery, just north of Power and McDowell, we saw 6 javelina crossing the street.  This is just on the outskirts of town, but it's still in town. 

It was darker out this week than last week due to overcast skies.  I tried to get a headstart, but Bryan started right behind me and passed me right after the stop sign.  Mike finally caught me at near the 1 mile mark.  I felt like I was running faster than last week, but I was actually running slower.  It was about 0.6 miles before the top that I saw Bryan coming back down.  That means he had already put 1.2 miles between us!  I saw Mike coming back down at about 0.2 miles. 

There were quite a few cyclists out this morning in the dark, but no runners.  With about 1.2 miles to go I saw Bryan coming back up.  So now he was 2.4 miles ahead of me!!!  He turned around behind me and caught back up to me.  He said there were some horses down at the bottom.  My legs were feeling sore, but not too bad.  I finally got to the bottom and snapped a picture of the four horses.  But to see them, you'll have to visit my Strava account.  Have a great day everyone!
 

Today is Emily's birthday.  She loves birthdays.  Especially her own.  I woke up with a bit of a sore throat.  Yesterday was fast Sunday, which is a tradition (not sure if that's the word I'm searching for) that our church has each first Sunday of the month.  We fast (go without food or water for two meals - 24 hours) as I way to humble ourselves and pray in faith for whatever we feel needs the Lord's blessing.  As a congregation we decided to join in unison to fast for a little girl that will be undergoing heart surgery today.  As I was at church I got a text message from my son that the sewer manhole out in the street was overflowing and spewing sewage out on to the road.  This isn't the first time we've had sewer problems, as there are roots that grow into our pipe.  But I got to thinking that if the manhole is plugged, that means it is downstream of  our house and may not be our fault.  We got home and it wasn't the manhole I thought it was in our cul-de-sac.  It was the next manhole downstream.  So basically our entire neighborhood was having their sewers back up and many of the houses were getting their lower levels flooded with raw sewage.  And the superbowl hadn't even started yet!  Well, we got a tiny bit back up into our laundry room, so we decided to go to our friend's house for dinner while the house aired out.  I've been doing the ketogenic diet again for almost a month now, but I kind of had a cheat day.  We had pazole.  I also had some lemonade that tasted a little too sweet, so I had my wife check to see if it was keto, and it was not.  So I decided since I had already eaten non-keto stuff, I might as well have a bite of a chocolate chunk cookie.  It was good.
Fast forward to this morning.  After getting Emily on the bus I stretched out and started my run.  I was feeling good at first.  But then I started to slow down and I wondered if it was because I didn't stick to my diet yesterday.  Anyway, it was nice out.  We got some light rain yesterday and last night.  I saw the same lady that I saw last week wearing a flourescent pink jacket and walking her dog.  She does a run/walk thing and about 20 yards before I caught up to her she started to run, and we ran the same pace all the way until she turned on Adobe.  I decided to just do two loops today.  Now it's time to get to work and get ready to bring Emily some Taco Bell for lunch.

I went to bed early and got up early this morning.  My wife was already gone on her walk.  I was excited that I had time to go for a run before I had to get kids up.  It was dark out and I didn't bring any lights with me.  The only light was from random lights throughout the neighborhood and a few stars shining through the scattered clouds.  I felt better than yesterday even though I had Chinese food for dinner.  It's what Emily wanted for her birthday dinner.  I stepped in a puddle that I don't think was there yesterday.  At one point I saw some shadowy figures in the Canal that I thought were rocks, but I quickly realized they were ducks.  Just north of Main Street I looked into the Floodway and could make out a tent and a shopping cart.  I'm pretty sure I also saw a tarp with someone sleeping on it.  They had a dog and the dog barked at me.

It was cold out this morning.  There was frost on top of the cars!!  I wondered if running in shorts and a T shirt was a mistake.  But I survived.  It was dark out again.  I dodged the puddle this time.  I think it was Venus that I saw shining in the southeast sky.  There were no clouds.  I was thinking that there wasn't much to blog about.  But that all changed quickly.  As I was about to exit the Floodway back on to Adobe, I saw this figure running down Adobe.  I could tell it was a woman and she seemed to be going a bit slow, but not without some good effort.  I wondered if I would catch her.  As I turned and got behind her I suddenly realized I knew this figure.  She was my wife!  I really really wanted to scare her.  She scares so easily.  She beat me to the stop sign and I was worried that she would see me when she turned.  But she didn't.  She had her head phones in and was singing.  She doesn't realize how loud she is sometimes.  Right before I reached her I heard her say, "Halelujah!", and she stopped running.  Right then I swatted her on the rump and yelled, "Gotcha!"   Oh man!  It was so funny!!  She screamed, "Holy sh.....!!!"  She didn't say the whole thing.  Probably about 3.5 letters of it, though.  I just kept running home while she yelled, "Jerk!" at me several times.

Today was the Phoenix Marathon/Half Marathon.  Mike was running the half marathon, so Glen and I were on our own.  Last week at our team meeting Glen asked if I wanted to run Usery Pass.  Knowing that the backside of Usery Pass is the start of the marathon, I told him we better avoid it.  Glen texted me yesterday to say that he would be over at 6am.  But then later he texted me to say 6:30am would be better.  I got ready and went outside to stretch while I waited for him.  Right at 6:30am I heard the cannons going off to indicate the start of the race.  Mind you, we're about 3 miles from the start of the half marathon and 10 miles from the start of the full marathon.  But I heard them both. 

It was still a little dark out so we both wore our headlamps.  Glen gave me a headstart and quickly caught up to me.  He sped ahead, but then he slowed down so I could catch up.  I asked him if we could use his van for Ragnar.  He said we could even though the other van will be using it and we'll be using Maggie's.  I asked if he was good being runner #1.  He said it was no problem, he only wished his second and third legs were a little longer.  I was runner #1 last year.  It's kind of nice to finish that first leg and actually be over half way done with all your miles.

After that he sped up again.  He was running pretty good.  I got to McDowell and looked to the right and could see the start line for the half marathon.  Of course by this time all of the runners were long gone.  But then I started thinking that it would be fun to watch the marathoners.  So I continued running to the top of the Canal.  Well, I saw Glen coming back before I got there.  I told him I was going to hang out for a while, so he shouldn't wait for me.  Then I got to the top of the Canal, turned around, and ran back to McDowell.  It was about 7:20am by this point, and I figure the top runners should be coming through in less than 20 minutes. 

I sat down and waited, leaving my Strava running, but it was on autopause.  A guy came by and asked me if I was freezing.  I made my 'go to' joke about having an extra layer of insulation, so I was good.  But after that I did notice my hands getting cold.  Stupid man.  If he didn't say anything, I would have been fine.  He asked when I thought the runners would be coming by.  I said probably within the next 5 to 6 minutes.  Sure enough, a pack of three runners came by with their police escort right around 7:38.  That's pretty fast.  I cheered the runners on as they came by.  The first woman had pink hair, and she looked like a superhero.  I didn't recognize a whole lot of people.  The first person I recognized was this girl I follow on Strava.  But she's a twin, so I'm not sure which one she was.  Then I saw Andre.  I asked him if I could run with him for a while.  He was happy to let me.  But I only ran with him for about a quarter mile.  I wished him luck and turned back around.  On the way back I saw Chrissie.  Or rather, she saw me.  She is a Ragnar Ambassador.  I stayed and watched for another 5 minutes before I decided to head home.  I was probably there for just over an hour.  It was fun.
 

I ran three loops today.  I tried to pick up the pace to see how I could do before Ragnar this weekend.  But mostly because it's freezing.  I wore sweat pants and two T-shirts.  And a beanie.  It was dark, so I pocketed my headlamp, but I never used it. 

Probably my last run before Ragnar.  Nice and easy.

Ragnar #29.

This year's Del Sol team consisted of 5 returning runners from last year, Mike, Megan, Bryan, Tracy, and me.  I asked my old friend Glen if he wanted to jump back on the Ragnar bus and he agreed.  I didn't really think Tracy would join us again this year, but she's just too awesome.  Mike was going to have his wife run with us, but she never trained, so he kicked her off the team a couple of weeks before the race.  The Glen from our team last year was going to run again with his son, but something came up and they couldn't do it.  I had befriended one of my Words with Friends opponents  who is a runner and talked her into joining the team.  She lives in Wisconsin and has a friend that lives close to me.  So they were going to join, but she had something come up.  At first I wasn't that worried that we wouldn't be able to find runners.  But the closer we got to the race, I did start to get worried.  So I put a post out on Facebook saying I was looking for runners.  Glen recruited Eddie who ran with us in 2010 and 2011.  I got a couple of bites on my post.  One was from Maggie who goes to church with me in my ward.  At the time we only needed three runners.  (This was before Mike kicked his wife off the team.)  Another person that responded was our Primary President, Marie.  One of the Ragnar ambassadors, Kendra, also responded and said that she and her friend are looking for a team.  I figured if Maggie and Marie joined, that would leave room for only one more runner.  So I didn't respond to Kendra right away.  Well, Marie ended up not joining, Maggie recruited her sister-in-law and we were still down two runners.  So I asked Kendra if she was still looking.  She said that she had joined another team, but they were very disorganized.  I said it sounds like you need to quit them and join us.  She agreed.  And so she did along with her friend George.

With a full team we started making final preparations.  Maggie has a super cool van, and Glen also has a new van.  I thought this might be the year my old van gets a rest.  I really wanted Tracy, Maggie, and Glen in my van which would mean that Jani (Maggie's SIL) and Eddie would also be in the van.  So all of the people that owned vans were in the same van.  Glen said it would be all right if the other van used his.  It was only a couple of weeks before the race that I learned that Maggie's husband had asked for a divorce and had sent her the paperwork.  I had no idea, and I felt like a real jerk for pushing her along.  My wife said that she hopes I have a back up for her because she is going through a lot.  I did ask her if everything was going to be all right and if it was ok that we used her van.  She said that she really needed a win in her life right now and this was keeping her from laying in bed and eating chocolates all day.

The forecast called for rain on Thursday and Sunday.  It held true.  Maggie came over Thursday right before the rain started so that we could decorate the van.

My wife was awesome enough to cut vinyl again this year.  Glen came and dropped off his van a little bit later while it was raining.  He had to go to the adoption agency for some stuff.  I pulled his van in front of my house and decided to wait for the rain to die down a bit.  After a couple of hours it was still raining, but not as bad.  So I started decorating.  It was a little harder to get the vinyl to peel off and stick.  Glen had returned before we were done and helped out.  Then we jumped in his van so I could take him home and drive his van to Mike's house.  It didn't start right away, so Glen said that once it's been sitting a while you have to crank it, let it go, crank it, let it go, and on that third crank, it should start right up.  It did and I dropped him off and took it to Mike's and told him the trick.  Then I went to Verizon to get a new phone because I crushed mine while helping Maggie take one of the seats out in her van earlier.

I was all packed and ready to go, so I jumped in bed around 10pm and probably fell asleep around 11pm.  My alarm was set for 2:45 am.  I asked Maggie if she could meet me at 3:15am at my house because we had to pick up Glen, who lives 3 miles away, then go back and pick up Tracy who lives about 5 miles from Glen, and then pick up Jani from her parent's house another two miles away, then Eddie who would meet us at Rio Salado College.  We made the rounds and the ride up to Wickenburg was fine with hardly any traffic.  We saw a group of runners heading out about a mile and a half from the start line.  We pulled up to the start with plenty of time to do our safety training and get checked in.

Glen was our first runner.  He ran the set of legs that I ran last year.  Glen has such a smooth running form and he cruised right up the mountain.  He was the third person to finish from our group that started at 6:30am.  He handed off to Maggie.  I told Maggie to just take it nice and easy.  It was a downhill run, so it would feel like she wanted to go fast, but she would need to rein it in.  After fumbling with the wrist band during the exchange, she took off.  I was like, "Slow down!"  Haha.  She did real well.  She ran some and walked some, but she still averaged a 10:30 pace.  Then she handed off to Jani.

Jani, as we learned, wasn't a big runner, but she was in pretty good shape.  She did great, too.  She handed off to Eddie.  Steady Eddie.  Eddie has been spending a lot of his time at the gym.  He looked great and was able to run all of his legs at a nice even pace.

It was some time while Eddie was running that we got a call from Mike.  He wasn't able to get Glen's van started.  He said he was working on it for 30 minutes.  I asked him if he tried the trick.  He said he did.  So I was worried that the other van would be able to get there on time if at all.  I offered to let him use my van.  I called Vickie and asked if it was a possibility.  She said it would be fine.  But there were no decorations.  She cleaned it out real fast and gassed it up.  Some how they got to the first major exchange in time.

  Eddie handed off to me.  By this time it was 11:13am.  I had eaten, but I'm not sure it was enough.  This leg was supposed to be all downhill, but it sure felt like a lot of it was uphill.  I don't know why I thought I would be able to run it at a 9 min pace.  Maybe if I didn't lose so much conditioning during the holidays.  Anyway, my first mile was in the low 9's, but then I started to crash.  It could have been not enough to eat, not enough sleep, more uphill than what the map showed, started out too fast, was worried about my van and Glen's van.  I don't know.  I just didn't feel great and my pace was 10:10 for 6.7 miles.  That's not terrible for me nowadays, but I thought I would do better.  And I felt terrible and sore afterward.  I handed off to Tracy, and she did great as she was loving this Arizona weather.

We then handed off to Van #2, and drove up near our motel.  We stopped at Pita Jungle first to eat lunch.  Then we drove to the motel to shower and take a quick nap.  Our next set of legs were during the night time hours again.  Paul, Megan's boyfriend, was runner #12, which means he runs the "Ragnar" leg.  It was 11.3 miles and he did not look happy when he came in.  I was really worried that he would not be able to run his remaining legs, but he's a young kid, and he toughed it out.  Everyone did real well again.  My second run started right at 11pm.  It was 4 miles, pretty flat.  I felt 203% better.  I just decided to run at a nice comfortable pace and that pace ended up being 10:23.  It was little cold, but I wore shorts and a T for all of my runs.  I tried to text Tracy when I got one mile away, and I ended up pausing my Strava for a quarter mile.  Oops.  We went back to the motel again to shower and take another nap.  It's a good thing Eddie woke me up because I was sawing some logs. 

My last leg was my hardest.  But I ran it smarter than my first leg, so it felt better.  It was 7 miles and a good portion of those were uphill.  This was a mental challenge.  I knew I had to keep my head right.  But it was also very much physical.  And luckily all the Saturday morning runs up Usery Pass paid off, because I felt like I could do it.  I just kept pushing myself at the pace that felt good.  I had a guy come up and pass me and tell me good morning.  It was 10:54 am when I started.  He got a little ahead of me then he stopped to walk.  So I was able to pass him around the 2 mile mark.  I saw a girl that was walking, too.  I passed her up.  She looked like she was high school age.  Shortly thereafter, they both passed me up again.  They were doing the run/walk thing.  I just kept going at my pace.  The girl wouldn't pass me again, but there were a couple of more times I saw her get right behind me before she had to stop and walk.  The other guy, we'll call him Randy, (thank you, Strava) passed me a total of four time (thank you, Strava) before I finally was able to hold him off for good.  Of course, then I realized he was an Ultra runner and still had to run another leg.  I didn't want to look at Strava to see how far I had gone, because what would be the point?  But I finally decided to look thinking I was about 3 miles in.  I was at 3.9!  It was such a moral boost because I was well over half way done and I only had about 3 miles to go!  Anyway, there were a couple of other runners that I was able to catch, also.  So it made me feel good that I played it smart, and kept some gas in the tank for the final leg.

Tracy finished up her last leg, which were the same legs she ran last year, and she felt like she had redeemed herself.  The cooler weather made a world of difference.  We then drove everybody home and waited for van #2 to finish up.  We met back up at the finish line at 3pm.  Glen was there with his van which started up without a problem for him.  Paul came in around 3:40pm on Saturday afternoon and we ran in together for another Ragnar in the history books.

First run after Ragnar.  I felt a little sore.  I stopped once to stretch.

Second run since Ragnar.  I felt a little sore.  I stopped once to stretch.

I've been eating too much sweets lately.

So Maggie from my Ragnar team has a son that who had a brain tumor.  She found out shortly after Ragnar.  So he had surgery this week and they determined it was benign and the operation was successful.  I've been sending out text messages to the team to keep them informed.  Anyway, Glen texted me yesterday shortly after I sent the good news.  He asked if I wanted to go running today, and I told him that I could be persuaded.  I didn't see anymore texts from him, although he did text me back to say what time and where.  I just never saw it until this morning.  Luckily I had woken up at 4:30am to go potty.  I went back to sleep and my wife woke me up at 6:02 to say that Glen was here.  So I got dressed and went outside to meet him.  I wasn't sure how the run would go because my back was aching.  I stretched out.  Also, it was freezing.  But you know me.  Shorts and T-shirt.  We headed north up the Floodway path and Glen ran with me for most of the way north.  I saw a zanjero at Adobe and then later saw him driving along Greenfield.  Then I could see him parked at McKellips.  As I passed by, I looked in the window.  It was still a little dark out, but I could tell that it was Mosiah.  I said, "Mosiah!  Is that you?"  So he rolled his window down and we talked for about a minute.  Glen had already crossed the street and was running in circles waiting for me.  So I bid Mosiah farewell and rejoined Glen.  When we got to McDowell Glen started to put a little distance between us.  Right before the turn around I stopped to tinkle.  I also had to re-tie my shorts for the second time as they kept sliding down.  I started running again and realized that they still were loose.  So for a third time I re-tied them.  That's hard to do with frozen fingers.  We ran back and I started to feel blah.  Too many cupcakes and soda yesterday.  Glen probably got a half a mile ahead of me.  But I was glad to have gone the distance.

It was a beautiful day out today.  Last week we got some snow in the high parts of the Valley, and it was cold.  But it's warming back up now.  I ran along the Floodway to Greenfield, turned around and down to Main, and turned back around again to home.  Lots of people out walking and a few running.

Two laps around the RWCD/Floodway paths.  I set my phone on battery saver last night which apparently disables the GPS, so my Strava only recorded 0.1 miles.  But at least it said my pace was sub 7.

You all remember Maggie from my Ragnar team?  Of course you don't.  Nobody reads this.  Anyway, she moved out of the house she's in now.  Her soon to be ex-husband will be keeping it.  We helped move the heavy stuff this morning.  I wore my running clothes so I could get a bit of a run in, but I didn't know how much I wanted to do after carrying heavy stuff.  Anyway, we loaded all the stuff on to a trailer, and I jumped in the back of the trailer and rode down to her new house, which is probably less than a mile away.  Or very close to a mile.  After unloading her stuff I took the long way back to her house where I had left my car.  It ended up being only 1.61 miles, but I felt a little stiff, so it was good enough.

Emily didn't want to get on the bus today.  She was still hungry after eating the eggs and potatoes mommy mader her.  I had to use the bathroom real quick right before her bus came and by the time I got out I could see her trying to sneak some pancakes out of the fridge.  I told her there was no time because her bus would be there in two minutes.  That's when she decided she didn't want to go.  I had to prod her out the door.  She didn't fight me, but she started crying.  I had offered to heat up half a pancake and let her eat it while she waited, which I did, but she wouldn't eat it.  So I ate it.  Anyway, she got on the bus and I started my run with half a pancake in my belly.  I usually run on an empty stomach, but it didn't seem to bother me.  This was the first time in forever that I ran with headphones on.  I was listening to the Ben Shapiro Sunday Special from yesterday where he interviewed Dan Krenshaw.  He's the congressman that SNL made fun of for having a pirate patch.  I had my phone in my pocket, but after about three quarters of a mile I took it out because I heard an alert.  Then I saw I was on a different screen, so I was afraid that if I left it in my pocket, I would mess up my settings, so I just carried it in my hand the rest of the way.
 

I felt blah today.  My back was sore and I had to go potty.

My back was real sore this morning when I got up.  I made sure to stretch out real good and roll it.  I felt decent as I ran.  My back didn't bother me, and I noticed my pace was about 13 seconds faster per mile than two days ago on this route.  There were a lot of runners out this morning and they all had one thing in common.  THEY WERE OLD!!  I could see some clouds building up to the west of me.  The more I ran the closer they got.  When I turned back north again I could see a partial rainbow.  If finally started to sprinkle with about 0.15 miles to go.  Good day to be running.
 

My legs felt heavy this morning.  It was nice out and slightly overcast.  Yesterday when I crossed University I saw this group of 5 women all walking side by side.  So they basically were taking up the entire path.  And the path has got to be 15 feet wide at least.  Today I saw the women again.  Only there were just four of them.  I asked them if they were missing one today and they giggled and said, "Yep."

There was another move this morning.  It was in Maggie's new neighborhood, but a few streets down.  We're supposed to be going out of town for vacation today, so my wife was a little upset that I was going to help.  Well, there was a bunch of stuff to move and not a lot of people showed up.  One guy told me that he's never been at a move for longer than an hour and a half, which is what we were going on.  I told him my wife was going to be mad at me, so he kicked me off the job.  I ran home and I saw Maggie's van parked in her driveway.  Right before I got to my street Maggie drove by me.  I waved and then I texted her to say that the only thing that offends me in this life is when someone I know sees me running while they're driving and they don't honk at me!  :)

It's Spring Break for the kids this week.  Like last year, we decided to take a mini-vacation up to Pinetop, AZ.  Well, last year we went to Heber, AZ, but you get what I mean.  I looked at the map on Google and decided on a way to go.  I had to turn left at the first road to the south, run to the end, then turn east and run as far as my heart desired.  The elevation in Pinetop where we stayed is around 7,300.  When I turned on that road it immediately starts going uphill.  Between the slight uphill, the cold, and the altitude, I thought I might die.  Luckily I didn't.  I got to the end of the road where I was supposed to turn east and I saw that it was gated.  I had no choice but to go west.  This would take me through the neighborhood.  We were renting a cabin at a country club on the south side of town.  After turning west, I started to feel a little better.  The elevation leveled out and even started going downhill a bit.  It had rained during the night and there were places on the road where I was running that it literally sounded like I was wearing spikes.  I worried that I might wake up the neighbors.  As I rounded a curve I passed this gentlemen out walking his dog.  He was all bundled up.  As he saw me coming he started to yell encouraging things at me in what I'm guessing was a German accent.  I can't remember everything he said but he said something about my muscles.  Then he told me I was very brave for wearing shorts.  I was very brave.  Very brave indeed.

I continued going and I had to look at my map on Strava to see what would be a good route.  I could see that if I made a loop around the neighborhood that it would be right around 4 miles, and that seemed perfect.  Once the loop turned back east again, I was heading uphill.  There was a garbage truck that had passed me.  It was trying to grab a garbage can that seemed just out of its range.  He tried several times to get a good grip on it, but he finally had to get out and move it.  I was able to pass him when he did and I saw another garbage can up the street that was tipped over.  I decided to be a good Samaritan and pick it up for him.  I lifted it and it felt quite empty.  I took a quick look inside and it was completely empty.  Then I realized it was a recycle bin.  So no good deed goes unpunished, I guess. 

I finished the loop and actually felt pretty good about it.  I wasn't overly frozen either.
 

I woke up kinda early before sunrise and my phone said it was 43º out.  That's warmer than it was yesterday.  However, the longer I waited before I ran, the colder it was getting.  I've noticed that happen over the years as the sun rays start pushing the air around it cools down.  I figured I'd wait a while and it should warm up again.  But then I noticed something from behind the slits in the blinds.  Something strange.  There were hundreds, thousands of small particles floating gently towards the ground.  Were we under nuclear attack?  I drew the chord on the blinds so that I could face head on my impending doom.  I was struck with wonder and amazement.  Was this the end?  No.  Memories came back to me of pictures that I had seen from friends that live to the north of me.  It was snow.  Actual snow right outside my window!

Of course I've been in snow many times.  But I have never run in it.  I decided to wait and see if it would die down some.  Emily has been getting real sick, as she does.  So when the rest of the family wanted to antiquing, I stayed home with her.  It didn't seem like the snow was going to let up.  And if it did, it was still being blown down from the rooftops and the trees.  Perhaps I wouldn't go running today afterall.  I needed advice.  I reached out to people with experience, but they were of no use.  So when my family got back, I decided to just go for it. 

I just wore my shorts and T-shirt, as always.  It was cold, but  not terrible.  I would just do a small loop.  I'd follow the same start as yesterday, but instead of going all the way around the neighborhood, I would just go around the block.  It was about 1.7 miles.  I was worried that I might slip and fall, but I seemed pretty stable the whole way.  That first little climb felt like death was knocking again.  But I knew I survived it yesterday, so I would survive it again today.  I would look back and see my footprints in the road every now and then.  They were leaving marks for everyone else to see what kind of fool goes out in this weather.   About a quarter mile before I finished my phone rang.  It was my bishop.  He wanted to make sure Emily had a helper now that she's in Young Women's.  I told her that it was covered and made sure I explained what I was doing at the moment so that he wouldn't wonder why my breathing was so labored.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat.  I wonder why.  Actually, I woke up yesterday with one, too.  We're back home now.  I got dressed for my run.  I wanted to do 4 miles, but after about one mile, I decided I wasn't feeling great, and one loop would be sufficient.

I still don't think I'm over the flu.  But I was hoping I was good enough.  I took Herbie with me.  As usual, he just wants to pee all over everything.  But that was ok, because I was able to stop long enough to hack up a lung.  Finally after about the half way point I felt a little better and wouldn't let him stop anymore.
 

I am feeling better each day.

I got up at 6am, but waited until we got Emily on the bus before I went running.  Emily has been sick, too, and today was the first day back at school in forever.  I started running, and I didn't feel great.  I saw a ton of people out today.  Lots of runners, too.  Most of them looked older than me, but faster than me.  Except that one guy that took his shirt off.  I passed him.  I saw one lady that was wearing last year's Ragnar McDowell Mountain Trail relay shirt.  I told her I have that same shirt.  She had to look down at it to remember what she was wearing.  Anyway, my pace was 7 seconds faster than my average pace on this loop.  Go figure.

So every day I take my dog, Herby, on a walk.  We can't keep him outside anymore because he always finds a way to get out of the gate.  Even putting him on a chain doesn't work because he will rip out of his harness or leash or whatever is restraining him.  One time he chewed through the trampoline.  I've never seen a dog so determined.  So I have to walk him so he can poop.  Yesterday we were walking and all of the sudden he stopped.  A coyote walked out of the bushes in the bottom of the Floodway where we were.  It stopped and stared at us for a while.  We then decided it would be a good idea to chase it.  So we spent the next half hour chasing it back and forth in the Floodway.  There was one chase where Herby and I ran down the bank of the Floodway and I couldn't keep up, and I wiped out.  I still managed to hang on to the leash, thank goodness.  I also recorded another chase and posted it on Facebook if you're interested in having a good laugh.

Long story short, I was sore this morning.  I started running and all of my joints felt stiff and sore.  After a while, I felt better, but I ran considerably slower than yesterday.  While I was running on the RWCD path, I could see a woman running on the Floodway path.  She was faster than me and she passed me.  We both turned on University and I thought about giving her a high five, but I'm not as brave as I used to be.

I thought I was running faster than what I did.  It kind of felt like I was pushing it.  But I guess I wasn't.  Maybe because I felt real sore this morning.  But it was the kind of sore that you can push through.
 

I ate Filiberto's for dinner last night, and I did not sleep well.  But I've missed too many consecutive days of running, so I had to get out.  I ran nice and easy.  It seemed like it took forever.

I've been running the same route over and over.  At least today I saw my friend Rich Porter and he did his patented swing around and ran with me for the last one mile plus. 

I started running and I got to Adobe, and all of the sudden my knee started to hurt.  I thought I might have to stop.  But there was a car behind me and I didn't want them to see me stop.  So I kept going.  Then I got to the Floodway and I was about to stop.  But there were two old men about to cross the street and I didn't want them to see me stop.  So I kept going.  After a while my knee stopped hurting.  The coolest part of the run was when to ducks flew over my head.

I wanted a longer run today, but I've stuck just doing my 2.5 miles for the last couple of weeks.  My heart told me I could do it, but would my body?  I was doing my stretch routine when I saw three people running down the street.  It was my neighbors and members of my ward, the Ray's and their 10 year old daughter.  I finished stretching shortly after they were gone and I was able to see that they had turned south down the RWCD path.  I went north up the Floodway path, which merges into the RWCD path right before the 1 mile mark.  I saw some of the regulars that I see when I venture this far north.  I saw this lady that always wears this bright neon yellow tank top.  It reminds me of the 80's.  And I love it.  I saw the guy that runs with his arms down.  I bet he had a stroke.  From now on I'll call him Stroker's Ace.  That's probably offensive.  I also saw the Well's Fargo stagecoach guy.  But I don't think it was him.  Maybe a brother or a son?  The run was nice.  The weather was beautiful.  I felt decent, but I'm glad I turned around when I got to McDowell.  5.7 was just about right.

It's starting to warm up.  The high today is supposed to be 93º.  It was nice out when I ran, but you can definitely feel the difference.  I felt slow and sluggish this morning.  A little sore from Saturday and I probably ate too much this weekend.
 

I started running and I only felt like doing one loop.  Lots of friendly people out today.

I'm still sore, but I felt better today.  It was kind of windy today, and in the shade where I was stretching out, it was kind of cold.  I ran two loops today.  My breathing was a bit labored, but I felt good.  Like I could push through it.  I saw some runners, too.

I've noticed a lot more birds out lately.  I guess because it's Spring.  Or maybe they're always out and I don't notice.  Anyway, I got out earlier than usual this morning.  There was not a single soul out on the paths.  I had them all to myself.  And the birds.  And the giant bird that swooped about 15 feet from my head.  It probably thought I was a cute little prairie dog.

Today is the Boston Marathon, in case you didn't know.  I ran in honor of those crazy runners.  I went further than my usual because I didn't run Saturday.  Thursday night, Herbie and I chased that coyote again.  My legs were sore.

I got Emily on the bus and was just about ready to run when I got a work call.  I usually don't answer, but I did.  Then it was at least another hour before I was ready to go again.  Now it was warm, and I'm really sore from yesterday's run.  And probably the two sodas I drank.  Blah.  Anyway, I only felt like doing one loop, so that's all I did.

I had to drive my high schooler to school today, so I decided to get a little crazy and run Usery.  Of course, I had no intention of running the entire thing, but I figured I could go at least two miles up and two miles down. It was a bit of a struggle going up.  It's warming up, and I was wheezing the first half mile.  There were a lot of flies, butterflies, and grasshoppers out.  There were a lot of cars, too, and cyclists.  Everyone was so friendly today.  I actually ran a mile in under a 10 minute pace today on the way down.  Ha!

So it's Good Friday.  The kids don't have school.  I should've gotten out earlier, but I was just taking it easy this morning.  I got dressed and stretched out in my room.  I went outside and scrolled through my Strava feed for a while.  I saw this truck parked over by the mailbox.  It was running.  I stretched out a little more and started my run.  I ran past the truck and this old guy was sitting in it.  I wanted to do my RWCD/Floodway 3 loops.  I ran up to Brown Road and then turned back south on the RWCD path.  My legs were feeling heavy due to yesterday's incline.  Shortly after passing Adobe, I saw someone running towards me.  I quickly recognized him as Rich.  He always turns around and runs with me, which is cool.  I asked how far he was going.  He said he was just going to do 3 miles.  I told him I was going to do 3.7 miles and that I would run down to Main Street and turn back north on the Floodway path.  We talked while we ran.  Sometimes we didn't talk.  Then with about a mile to go, my phone rang.  It was the 2nd time it rang while I was running, but I didn't answer the first call.  I decided to answer this one.  It was one of my clients who had dropped off plans for me to revise a couple of days ago and now wanted to come pick them back up.  I told him I was out jogging, but that I only had about a mile to go.  A half a mile later my phone rang again.  It was another client.  I suddenly realized I had set an appointment with him for today at 9am and it was 9:05am.  I apologized and told him that I had forgot and that I was out jogging and that I had about a half mile to go and I would be there in 5 minutes.  (Run off sentence much?)  I then cut through the green belt.  Rich followed me until I got to the other side and bid him adieu.  I ran home, but it was warm so I just stayed at my pace.  Then I saw that truck again and realized that the old man in the truck was my client and he was there the whole time!  I felt so embarrassed.

So last Tuesday was the Pine Wood Derby.  I had to help set up the track just like last year.  This year I decided it would be a good idea to bring some knee pads.  Well, after  a few hours of being on my knees even though I had knee pads, my right knee started to hurt.  I was kind of limping the next day.  So I took some time off.  Today was my first run back and the knee behaved. 
 

Two loops on the RWCD/Floodway paths this morning.  I saw a lot of runners today.  Well, I saw 3.  But that's a lot, right?  I also saw Greg and Gene from RWCD.  Greg is the construction inspector.  We've been friends for years.  He bought me breakfast once while I was out running.  Gene was one of my trainers when I worked there.  We talked for about 10 minutes.
 

Today was the Father and Son's Outing (or whatever we call it now.  I can't keep up with all the changes anymore.)  I haven't gone to one of these for years, but I decided my grandson was old enough, so I went with my son, grandson, and son-in-law.  I woke up around 5:30am after a restless uncomfortable night's sleep.  I thought that I had forgottem my gallon size Ziploc bag to put my sweaty clothes in, so I almost decided not to run.  (I had forgotten it, but I had an extra in my bag from my previous Ragnar.)  Anyway, I got changed and headed out.  We were near the rear of the camp and I headed that way.  Not 100 yards later the road ended.  I didn't want to run back through camp, so I headed out into the wilderness to blaze my own trail.  I was going down a hill, so I mostly walked this part.  With one of my steps I came down on a protruding branch that scratched the heck out of my ankle.  I thought, "Wow.  That burns."  Then I looked down and saw blood dripping.  It wasn't terrible, so I kept going.  I finally made my way out to the main forest road and started to jog.  I figured I would go at least a mile and a half, then turn around.  There were a lot of ups and downs on the road.  They were pretty steep, too.  It was a good work out.  I saw a trailhead that had a monument to the Dude Fire.  I took a picture of it and turned around to run back.  I got back and stopped my Strava near the front of the campsite where they were cooking breakfast.  After breakfast we packed up and went to look for a cave that one of my son's friends wanted to go explore.  We drove over to the rugged jeep trail and decided to hike it.  My grandson is 4, so there was a lot of carrying him.  We walked about 2 miles before the road ended and never found the cave.  Then we walked back.  I probably did a mile and a half with my grandson on my shoulders.

I was pretty sore yesterday from camping, so I didn't run.  I got out this morning and was surprised to see rain drops falling from the sky.  It was just a light rain that soon turned into a light drizzle.  It felt good to run in, and there was a small rainbow.  My legs were like lead, but I know that a nice run will loosen them up.

I've been running sore all week.  But I'm running.  Well, jogging.  Today was nice and overcast again.  There was a light drizzle, but hardly noticeable with the amount of sweat pouring out of my body.
 

I know there's a reason why I haven't been running lately.  I don't think it has anything to do with getting attacked by a bird.  But that did happen while I was walking Herbie.  After 4 days of close swoops, I finally let my guard down when I saw a young bird that had fallen out of the tree.  I was dumb enough to let Herbie sniff it when all of the sudden, blam!  A bird dive bombed me in the back of the head!  I ran off as what seemed like a dozen birds were starting to swarm around me.  Anyway, I think I've just been too busy at work.  So today's run felt blah.

I was feeling a little better than yesterday.  I decided to do two loops.  I saw a lady on the other side of the street entering the Floodway.  The thought crossed my mind that she would probably think I'm a weirdo because I was on the other side of the street but would be following her in.  But I did it anyway.  She had stopped to do something on her phone so I passed her and said good morning.  I ran north for a while and she followed me.  I saw this old lady and told her good morning.  Then I spotted my wife way up on Brown Road.  She turned on the Floodway path and was coming towards me.  I stole a quick kiss and now I know the lady must've thought I was a weirdo.  I did my normal two loops where I run north up to Brown, turn south to University, then turn north back to Adobe and home.  When I had turned north again I saw the old lady again.  I told her to have a good day and she told me in her stern grandmotherly voice, "Good job.  You're doing great."

So according to my Strava, of the 41 runs on this route, this was my slowest.  I'm very much out of shape.  Not horrible, but definitely not good.  I was running south along the Canal path and I saw a lady that looked like my wife.  But I thought it couldn't be here because it's so far away from where I had seen her on my last run.  Plus it was getting late, and she'd need to be closer to home to wake kids up for school.  So I convinced myself it wasn't her.  But the closer she got, I realized it was her.  I was able to steal another kiss.  Or maybe 5 kisses.

Long run Saturday.  Well, short run for everyone else.  Long run for me.  It was a beautiful morning.  There were a lot of people out.  I saw one lady about a quarter mile ahead of me.  I almost caught her right before I turned around because she started walking, but she started running again and she continued across McDowell, while I turned back home.  I had to go pee pee and contemplated hopping over into the orange groves.  But then I thought, "you know, it's only a quarter a mile to the park where there is a nice public restroom."  So I added some more running to the route and was able to get over 6 miles because of it.  When I got home I went straight to the backyard and hopped in the pool for a bit.

I felt suprisingly well this morning.  That's a good sign.  It was another beautiful morning.  I saw a guy out walking his dog that I said good morning to, and when I made my loop and saw him again, I told him to have a good day.  He said, "Good timing."  I don't know what that meant, but I told him thank you.  I did not see my wife today, but she was my sole Flyby on Strava.

I fell asleep on the couch watching wrestling last night.  $100 to whoever can guess my all time favorite professional wrestler.  So I woke up and went to bed, but didn't fall asleep again for a while and got up at 7:06am; 6 minutes later than we usually get Emily up.  I decided to just do one loop today.  When I got home I cleaned the pool because the Wolves are going to work on the Spirit of the Water Adventure today.  I put the wrong head on the vacuum; the one with the broken wheels.  Four of the eight wheels were missing and another broke off while I was vacuuming, so instead of rolling along, it sucks to the bottom.  It was very hard to push it, and my arms are going to be sore for a few days.

I got about half a mile in to my run and decided my knee was hurting too much to continue.  So I turned around and started walking back.  I saw some girls running on Adobe, and I didn't want them to see me walking, so I started running again.

No running today, but as of 1am this morning, I am a two time grandpa.

I wish I had documented which knee was hurting last run, because I'm 90% sure it was the other knee today that made me quit and turn around :(

I ran as slow as I could today.  The knee, for the most part, behaved.

I was in Kingman for my sister's wedding.  My wife wanted to hike up in the Hualapai Mountains.  Every year scout camp was up at the top of the Hualapais at Camp Levi Levi.  It was National Trail Day, but we still had to pay $10 to hike.  We hiked the trail that I used to hike every year to get there.  There's a gate about two miles from the camp.  We would hop on the trail while our leaders drove the dirt road up to camp.  We would race them and usually beat them.  I remember one year after camp was over we were running to the gate and as boys will be boys, we were racing not only the leaders, but the other boys on the trail.  My brother and I had made some distance on everyone so the other boys started to cut the trail in an attempt to catch up.  Then we heard them calling us from up the mountain that there was a mine entrance.  We told them they were lying and they were just saying it to catch up with us.  But sure enough, there was a mine entrance.  It was too dark to explore, so I never did.  I think the other boys did throughout the years.  I remember thinking that if there was ever a nuclear war, that would be the place I would go to hide.  Anyway, I tried to remember where it was while we hiked, but I didn't find it.  Some day I'll go back again and find it.  We ended up hiking about twice as far as my wife wanted to, but it was good.  I saw one of my friends and she was surpised to see me.  I actually don't think she recognized me right away.  I texted her later.  We got back to my sister's after noon and by then my children were starving because they assumed we would bring them some breakfast.  Haha!

I waited until after 8am to go running.  It's warm.  Yesterday I walked my dog at 7:30pm.  I saw a homeless man laying down near the side of the Floodway path.  My dog wanted to go check him out.  He heard us and roused.  He said something about being smelly.  This morning he was still there, so that's like 13 hours later.  I thought maybe he was dead because who just lays in the same spot for 13 hours?  But he was not dead.

I ran the same route as yesterday.  Pretty much every day.  It was about the same time, too.  A little bit faster.  Just as warm.  I saw the hobo again.  I guess he lives there now.  Maybe I'll post a picture of him soon.
 

I ran the regular route again today.  But I ended up walking a little bit because my knee started to hurt.  After a while I ran again, and it was fine.  The homeless guy is still there.  Today he asked me what time it was.  It was 8:50am.  He really likes laying down.

I didn't run yesterday because I took the cub scouts geocaching.  I feel like I'm getting slower every day.

I got out about a half hour earlier than normal.  It wasn't terrible because there was light cloud cover.  The homeless guy has moved over to the other side of the path.  It took me like an hour to stop sweating.

Today is my 23rd wedding anniversary.  I woke up at 6am, went potty, and went back to sleep for an hour.  I finally got out the door by a few minutes past 8am.  It was hot, so I brought a water bottle.  I was surprised that there were so many people out.  About the half mile mark I was approaching this lady that was walking.  I could feel my shorts sliding down some due to the weight of my water bottle. I knew I needed to retie my drawstring, but I couldn't do it while I was that close to her, lest she thinks I'm a creeper.  So I waited another quarter mile 'til I was out of her view and fixed the problem.  I decided to do another mile than my normal runs lately because Monday is the Ragnar Chase the Moon event, and I have to run 6.7 miles under the moon.  I hope I can do it.  I should be able to, but just like last year it's gonna be hot.  I turned around at McKellips Road and headed back.  When I crossed Greenfield I read the Walgreen's sign that says the time and temperature.  It was 8:35am and 95º.  Shortly after crossing Brown Road I was passed by this lady.  I have no idea how long she'd been following me.  She ran ahead and started walking for about 20 seconds.  It wasn't enough for me to catch her.  It's now almost 10am and I finally stopped sweating.

2019 Ragnar Chase the Moon (Ragnar #30)

This really isn't a race.  But it's a Ragnar event and I want to keep track of all the Ragnar events I do which include road relays, trail relays, and other special events such as this one.  The only thing you had to do was run 6.7 miles under the stars and the moon.  Mission accomplished.  I had my doubts since I'm not in great shape and haven't run that far in a while.  Still, it's not really that far.  Right?  Anyway, let's get on with the report.

I ate dinner around 7pm.  I've been trying to eat good today.  I had a hamburger with mayo, ketchup, mustard, avocado, cheese, tomato, and onion.  Lot of onion.  I love onions.  Then I sat on the couch because I wanted to wait 'til 9pm before I left.  My daughter started a movie.  It wa M. Night Shamlamadingdong's The Visit.  Just the type of scary movie you want to watch before going on a run in the dark.  The movie finished right after 9pm and I started my running at 9:27pm.  I brought my headlamp with me, but the full moon provided adequate lighting.  I kept it nice and slow because I had all night to finish.

As I approached Brown Road I could hear this funny noise coming from the Floodway.  I stopped when I got right by it.  I have no idea what it was.  My best guess is it was ducks snoring.  I took a video of it so I could post it on Facebook in case anyone knows what it is.  I'll report back. I continued running without incident.  When I got half a mile from McKellips I could see a bright light up ahead on the RWCD road.  Couldn't be a zanjero.  It was just one light.  Doubtful it's a runner.  Light was too bright.  Must be a cyclist.  Well the closer I got to McKellips, the further away the light went.  It seemed to have gone away all together, but then I would see it again.  I thought it strange, but then Detective McCumber put the pieces together and realized they must've turned around at McKellips and headed back north.  I could see the light shining on various parts of the Canal like a flashlight.  So now I was following it.  Right before I got to half a mile from McDowell, the light got bright again, meaning it was now headed back towards me.  I kept running towards it when finally it got close enough that I could see a pair of legs also running towards me.  But then the light got real bright and it was headed right at me.  I thought, "Surely you can see me.  Why don't you move over?"  They finally moved over and Detective McCumber once again was able to deduce that it was a man on a bicycle riding with his wife who was running, and their family dog.  The dog was not leashed and the man was riding straight towards me in an effort to keep the dog from approaching me.  They told me good evening, and I continued on.  I got to McDowell which is about 2.8 miles, and I took my first drink from my water bottle.  I decided to run up to 3.3 miles and turn around.   I would make up the extra one tenth of a mile by swinging around to the Walgreen's sign and taking a picture of the time and temperature.

I watched my phone as I was getting close to the turn around point.  I was not quite to Junior (the RWCD pump at the 1/2 lateral.)  I turned around and took another swig, texted my wife to let her know I was heading back.  She texted me back to be careful.  Pfft!  Yeah right!  I jogged back, and it was pretty uneventful.  I saw a couple of owls sitting on top of electric poles.  I was just counting down the half miles which is easy to do with the canal gates.  Now I was running towards the moon.  It was nice even though I was tired and it was hot.  As I got to Greenfield I could see a pair of headlights coming down the west RWCD road.  A zanjero?  Who else would it be?  A tresspasser?  I went down and took my picture of the sign.  It was 87º, but it was 91º  when I passed it the first time.  I could tell that it was a zanjero, and I did a 180 and went back to the Canal road.  I looked in the truck, and I'm pretty sure it was Rick.  I waved at him, but I didn't stop to talk, because I wasn't 100% sure it was him and I didn't want to freak him out.  Now I was a mile away from home and I knew that I should be right on with my predicted miles.  I ran passed the snoring ducks again.  I got to the stop sign which I know is a tenth of a mile from my house and Strava showed 6.6 miles.  I decided to do one loop around the cul-de-sac just to make sure.  I don't trust Strava when it only shows you to the tenth while you're running.  I ended up with 6.76 miles.  Now I'm home and everyone's asleep.  They couldn't even wait up for me.

My left foot feels like it has gout.  I don't know what gout feels like, but I imagine it feels like my foot right now.  Anyway, I was running north on the Floodway path when I saw some people on the path ahead.  The first was a guy walking his dog.  He pulled his dog over to the side when I ran by.  Right after that were two boys.  Turns out they were two boys that just moved out of our ward.  I used to home teach them when that was a thing.  Their dad became elder's quorum president when high priests groups became not a thing.  They just moved into the new community on the corner of Brown and Greenfield.  I turned back south on the RWCD road and saw them again as they were coming back.  I briefly stopped and asked them how their new house was.  I was wearing one of my many Ragnar shirts and I told them that I had run a Ragnar with their aunt and uncle like 10 years ago.

This morning real early my wife took Maggie and her kids to the airport.  Then she went and hiked at Papago Park.  When she got home I asked her to drive me over by our old house so I could go on a run.  She thought it was a weird place to drop me off.  She asked if I was meeting someone there.  I said nope.  But she knew I was up to something.  I had charted a course out and wanted to run it today.  Most of the run is in an area known as Dreamland Villa.  It's a 55+ community.  I was running in loops and I counted 4 motorized wheelchairs.  I don't know if some of them were repeats because of the loops.  One old man saw me and yelled, "You're making us look bad."  Anyway, after a while when I was done running my loops I called my wife and asked her to come pick me up.  She was very confused. 

The course I ran may or may not have spelled the word POOP.
 

I actually got up before 6am today.  I was out the door and running by 6:32am.  It was warm, but not bad.  I was running slow, as normal.  I was heading north on the Floodway path and I saw a girl running pretty quickly on the RWCD Canal road with her dog.  When she got to Brown Road she turned around and started walking.  I was catching up to her and wondering if she would start running again, because I knew I wouldn't be able to stay up with her.  Then I recognized her.  She's one of my daughter's friends from the ward.  Her mother was up until recently the Relief Society President.  She seemed like she didn't want to make eye contact with me, but I said hi to her anyway.  She told me good morning.  All the way down at the other end of the road I could see two more people which I quickly deduced were her little brother, who was one of my cub scouts, and her aforementioned mother.  I love that word.  Aforementioned.  Can't use it enough to make me sound cool.  Anyway, the former RSP reached Adobe and turned around.  I was closing in on my scout when he decided to turn around presumedly to run with his mom.  I yelled, "Keep up the good work!"  Then his mom said, "Momma boot camp.  He's not liking it."  I gave her a high five for that.

Two days ago was my friend Greg New's birthday.  I texted him to see if he wanted to have lunch.  He was too busy so I said what about breakfast tomorrow, which would have been yesterday.  Well, he never texted me back, so I didn't end up running.  I also took a nap yesterday, so I had no problem getting up early this morning.  I ran my RWCD/Floodway 3 loops which is north on the Floodway path for approximatley a half mile, south on the RWCD path for a mile and a half, and back north on the Floodway path for a mile.  Heading north for the first half mile I saw this old Hispanic man that I've been seeing lately that walks with a walker.  It worries me that the walker will one day get stuck on a piece of gravel and he'll fall down.  Then as I was running from the Floodway to the Canal, I saw Gordon.  I don't know what his owner's name is yet.  As I headed south I saw a lady run/walking.  I couldn't quite catch her before she reached Adobe and went west.  I continued south another half mile when I randomly bumped into my wife on her walk.  I stole a couple of kisses, and because this is a family friendly blog, I may or may not have squeezed her tush.  Then I ran another half mile south to Main and turned back north on the Floodway path.  I counted 7 lizards during this half mile.  I didn't see any.  I just heard them scurrying in the bushes next to the path.  In the final half mile on the path I saw the hobo again.  I see him every time I run or walk my dog and pass by that way.  He asked me again what time it was.  I told him 7:30, but it was actually 7:29.  Then I got home and tried to cool down some so I could help my neighbor move.
 

I didn't really have a plan for today.  I thought I would just start running and decide how far to go.  I saw Gordon again.  Then I saw another guy walking his dog.  When I got to the Canal I crossed paths with two runners.  One is the old man I see all the time.  He looks so slow, but he's probably faster than me.  Then right before I got to University I saw an old man walking with his fishing gear.  I told him that he's not supposed to fish in this canal.  He asked why.  I told him because they stock their own fish here.  He said SRP has never had a problem with him before.  I told him that this isn't an SRP canal.  It's RWCD.  He said that he just catches and releases and they never have a problem with him.  I said that I don't think they like that.  I was trying to be nice, but he was getting snippy with me.  I don't blame him.  It's they typical conversation I have with people that are fishing where there are clear signs that say NO FISHING.  Anyway, I kept going and saw the guy walking his dog again.  I also saw the hobo again.  This time I told him what time it was before he could ask me.  Right before I got to Adobe I ran into my wife again.  I asked where she was going because I didn't want her going by the hobo even though he's probably harmless.  She was just going down a little ways so she could get 5 miles in.  Then when I got to Adobe I saw a zanjero and totally tattled on the fisherman.  It felt like a douche move, but he shouldn't have been snippy with me.

I took too many days off.  But I'm kind of dieting again.  Well, I'm trying to eat less.  Anyway, I stretched out and felt pretty tight.  I started running and as soon as I got to Adobe I saw my wife.  Knowing she hadn't been gone very long and seeing her walking in the direction back home, I asked her what's up.  She said she was going back to get the girls so they could walk together.  I showed a public display of affection and continued on my way.  I saw a handful of other runners out.  One was approaching Adobe from the south as I was approaching from the north.  There is a 4 foot wide opening in the chain link fence.  Right next to the opening is a vertical pole, then another opening, but this opening has a horizontal pole about a foot above the ground so you can step or jump over it.  We both reached the fence at the same time and he decided to jump over the pole.  At the same time I think he put his hand out for me to give him five, but I didn't realize it in time.

It was kind of warm this morning.  I was feeling better than last week.  I think I've managed to drop a couple of pounds even though I ate a donut yesterday.  So I went an extra loop.  According to Strava I missed seeing my wife and a couple of my daughters when they were walking on the Floodway path while I was on the Canal road. 

I scheduled a survey for my boys to do this morning, but I didn't do the paperwork.  I got up real early to do it.  Also, I think it was Emily that woke me up when I heard her door open.  Not sure why she was up so early.  Well, when I sat down at my computer I saw an email.  Someone needs a drainage letter from me, which means another mini survey.  It's not too far from my house, pretty close to my old house.  I decided that we would do that survey first and I would just run home while the boys continued on to the other survey about an hour and a half away.  We finished up and I took off at 7:28am.  It was warming up, but not too bad.  I ran about 100 yards down the street and forgot to tell them something about the other survey, so I turned around and told them.  Then I headed out to the main street.  I ran right out in front of a truck on the side street.  Ooopsy.  Then I turned west and headed home.  It's slightly downhill, and maybe that accounted for my pace that was about 45 seconds faster per mile than yesterday's.  At about the half way point I could hear my phone ringing in my pocket over the noise of the traffic.  It was a Colorado number.  I have a client that lives in Wyoming but has a Colorado number, so I thought it might be him.  It wasn't.  Turns out it was a new client.  I told them to send me an email and I would get back with them.  About a quarter a mile away from home I got another call.  This one was from my main client, so I had to answer it, too.  He had a question, but I told him I was still out jogging and would have to call him back.  So, even with the two stops I was surprised that my pace was so much faster.  Perhaps it was the downhill or perhaps it's that I've been trying not to eat that much junk food lately.

Today's high is supposed to be 110º.  It was a little warmer today than yesterday, and my pace was a lot slower.  As I exited the Floodway path to go back home I saw this older black gentlemen that I see all the time, usually from the other side of the road.  As I passed him he said to me, "Looking good.  Looking good."

I've fallen behind on blogging.  Today is Saturday and the time is 4:36pm.  I'm really slacking.  I don't remember too much about this run other than I took a picture of a large falcon sitting in a tree.

It was warm this morning.  Like 91º.  So I went slow.  But good news!  The old man that I see that I thought probably runs faster than me, he doesn't.  I passed him this morning.  He's very kind.

Yesterday was the first day of girl's camp.  This is Emily's first time going.  So mommy is going with her.  I felt it more important to see them off rather than go running.  Plus the boys had to do a survey this morning.  They ended up surveying the wrong property.  lol.  I went this morning.  My phone said it was 90º and 95º when I stopped. 
 

I've been having this pain in my foot for, I don't know, maybe the last month?  Once I was outside by the pool slightly limping and my wife asked what was wrong.  I thought it was just a bunion or something so I told her nothing.  Well, early last week I decided to actually look at my foot.  I see this brown dot surrounded by pus.  I'm like, "Oh wow.  I have a splinter.  I guess there was something wrong."  Well, my wife was at girl's camp, and I wasn't brave enough to dig it out myself.  I figured I had been running on it this whole time so I did do another run last week.  But then I took a bunch of days off.  She finally got it out yesterday.  She poked and tweezed and prodded and squeezed.  She was getting bits and pieces of it out.  Or something out.  Then she finally squeezed and out pops this shard of glass!  So I've been running around for the last month with a shard of glass in my foot!

Anyway, it's a bit tender this morning.  But I was able to run fine.  I was super slow even though it was somewhat nice out.  I saw slow man and the hobo today.  My wife walked with two of my daughters, but I never saw them even though they were Flyby's on Strava.

My wife and I are taking a little trip up to Utah.  So if any of you Utah bloggers want to get on My Bloggers I've Met in Real Life list, now's the time.
 

My wife and I took a vacation up to Utah.  We visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City, mostly stayed in Park City, and spent half a day in Midway.  It was fun.  We tried to do a lot of outdoorsy type stuff.  On this day we hiked on a very busy pedestrian trail.  It was pretty scenery and some artsy murals in the underpasses and one tree with lots of retired shoes hanging on it.  We hiked up two miles together.  Then we turned around and ran down.  I got a little head start on my wife and I'm a little faster, so I waited at a bench for her at the trail head.   She texted me that she had a half mile to go, so I ran up to meet her.  She was only about a tenth of a mile away.  Then we ran back to the condo we rented together.
 

Today we went on a hike on the Abandoned Bonanza Trail Mine.  It started out kind of steep.  We got to the top and saw the old creepy abandoned mine.  Actually, it was pretty cool, but it was musty.  I saw a marmot.  That was really cool, too.

Today my wife and I rented mountain bikes and just rode around a little.  We went on the same trail as Wednesday, but we went the other direction.  That direction is downhill.  But it's a gradual downhill, and the climb uphill was not bad if you're in the right gear.  My wife was struggling because she never rides bikes anymore and it was hurting her pelvic bone.  Anyway, she told me to go on without her so I rode back up the trail to where we turned around Wednesday and then headed back towards her.  It started raining pretty good, but if felt nice.  By the time we got back to the bike shop it had stopped.  I got a little over 10 miles in, which is a short bike ride, but it was fun.

I thought I would feel pretty good today after all the outdoor activities we did on our trip.  But I felt awful today.  I'm really going to stick to my diet this time.

I felt a little better today.  But I was wheezing slightly for the first three quarters of a mile.  And my lower back is aching.  But I got out the door before 6am.  It was still 87º out and humid.

This morning was an interesting run.  We got some summer monsoon last night.  There was water in the Floodway.  When I got to it, I heard a clear sharp noise.  I honestly thought it was my wife calling my name.  I hope she doesn't read this.  I stopped and looked around but couldn't see anyone.  I heard it again, but since I was stopped I was able to distinguish that it sounded more like a duck.  Now, I don't speak duck, but it sounded like it was saying, "Somebody help my babies!"  Since I have saved baby ducks before, I knew I was the man for the job.  It sounded like it was coming from the Floodway as I kept hearing the quack over and over.  Like every 7 seconds.  I couldn't see it.  I wondered if it was coming from the culverts.  I didn't want to get my shoes/feet wet, but I decided I had to.  I couldn't let the baby ducks die.  When I got in the water, I couldn't hear it anymore.  I waded away looking in each culvert box.  Nothing.  Maybe I scared it and it flew out the other side.  I decided to enter one of the boxes.  It's about 7' tall and maybe 6' wide.  There's an 18" pipe that discharges through the sidewall.  I turned my flashlight and looked in.  Just cobwebs.  Well, maybe it wasn't a mother duck in distress.  Maybe it was a daddy duck in heat.  I decided to get out of there before I became the object of some lecherous duck's affection.

After about a mile it started to sprinkle.  It sprinkled the rest of the way.  I stopped to take a picture of the Canal.  That was the second time I stopped.  I think I stopped about 5 times.  Actually it was 7 times.  I just counted.  The third and fifth time was trying to cross University.  Lots of traffic.  After crossing University and heading towards Main St. I heard the duck sound again.  So I stopped and creeped up to the edge of the Floodway.  I couldn't see any ducks.  I could hear at least three quack noises, but no ducks.  I should be able to see ducks!  They're fairly large creatures!  Then it started to remind me of the noise I heard the time I did the Rangnar Chase the Moon.  I posted it on Facebook and somebody told me it was frogs.  I recorded it again, and now I'm convinced that it was frogs.  So I guess my wife sounds like a frog.

Anyway I continued running, stopped to cross University again and stopped shortly after that because I actually did see some ducks.  I wanted to take a picture, but my phone and finger was too wet, so it wouldn't unlock.  I started running again and was looking for the hobo.  I thought I could see a tent set up from a distance.  The closer I got, I could see something laying on the side of the Floodway path.  Was it the hobo?  Why wasn't he in the tent?  Was it really a tent?  Nope, it was something haning in a tree.  And it was the hobo laying down underneath another tree on the pavement.  Was he dead?  How did he survive the night without a tent.  No.  He's moving.  I got to him and he asked if I knew what time it was.  7th stop.  I pulled my phone out and told him it was 7:15am; meaning it was exactly 25 hours since I told him what time it was yesterday.  I then asked him where his tent was.   He said, "Oh, I don't have one."  I said, "I thought you did."  He said, "No.  What're you gonna do?"  I said, "How was it last night?  Did it rain all night?"  He said, "Yeah.  I was about as wet as you are."  I was soaked.  He looked real dejected.  We told each other to have a nice day and I finished up my run.
 

It was so warm today!!  I didn't get out until 7:30am and already it was in the mid 80's.  I ran so slow and I sweated like a pig.  Looks like there might be two hobos now.  I'll have to see if the other one takes up residence.

I felt a little better today.  My pace was over 20 seconds per mile faster.  I think I've lost about 10 lbs so far.  Gotta be careful, because I can gain that back in a day!  The other hobo appears to have moved on.

I guess taking Saturday and Sunday off made me nice and fresh.  I did better on my diet this week, too, so I'm sure that helped.  Today's pace was a minute and three seconds per mile faster than Friday's. 
 

I think I forgot to mention last week that I saw Rich Porter's wife, Lindsay and their son, Ashtin as they were taking a walk.  Ashtin was one of my scouts about a year and a half ago.  I said, "Hi guys."  Well today as I was heading down my street I saw someone running towards me from the other side of Adobe.  I thought it might be Rich.  It wasn't.  It was someone else with grey hair.  I didn't recognize him until he said, "Hi Burt!"  Then I realized it was Byron Allen.  He lives right down the street from me and we have neighborhood barbecues at his house every three or four months.  But not in the summer.  It's just too hot. 

I decided to do just one loop today because it's the first day of school for my kids.  I headed up the Floodway Path and as I approached Brown, I could see the Gradall on the west Canal road.  The Gradall (pronounced grade-all) is usually run by Lonnie.  He's older than the dirt he scoops out of the Canal.  There was another RWCD truck there, too, but I didn't recognize the driver.  Maybe he was new.  A Gradall has two compartments.  I've never been in one, but I believe one is for driving and the other is for scooping.  So as I was running by I was looking in the front one for Lonnie.  There was nobody there.  Then I felt stupid because he was in the back one waving at me.

I continued back towards Adobe and saw another man walking down the east Canal road.  I didn't know if I would catch him.  But I finally caught up to him as we both reached the fence at the same time.  Luckily he was just walking up to the fence and turning around while I was going through the gate.  It would've been awkward if we both tried to go through the gate at the same time.  He was a big boy.  Even bigger than me.

Slow run today.  So humid.  The Gradall was scooping out more muck today.  Summer is a good time to do it.  Unless it rains.  They just scoop out the muck and pile it next to the Canal.  Once it dries out, they scoop it up and haul it away.  I saw Gordon on the other side of the Floodway as I was heading south.  I didn't think I'd see him on the way back since it would be over a mile to get back there.  But he was there.  He had stopped to talk to another dog.  I said hi to him and reached out and petted him for the first time.  I'm glad he didn't bite me.

I got some real sad news yesterday.  They are only going to do the Del Sol Ragnar one more year.  I almost cried.  I'm going to captain it up for the last time.  I'm sure I will continue to do other Ragnars, but this one holds a special place in my heart.  It was the first one I did.  It's my favorite course.  And I've done all of them.

I saw Sis. Lee again today.  She was running with her dog.  I didn't recognize it was her at first because there was this older couple in front of her walking their dog.  It was a small dog and it wasn't on a leash.  I wondered if there would be a confrontation with Sis. Lee's big dog.  Those little dogs are yippers.  But there wasn't.  I also saw the Ray's again.  Sis. Lee's boy was one of my scouts and the Ray's son is currently one of my scouts.  I texted both Br. and Sis Ray to see if they wanted to join my last team.

Another hot and slow day.  I lost 5 lbs this morning.  I saw a family walking down the street a ways off.  I could tell they were all wearing red shirts.  How fun, I thought.  I couldn't recognize them because they were far off and it was a little dark out still.  Then two of them started racing each other through the little park on the corner.  When they finally got close enough, I could tell that it was the Ashcroft's.  The Ashcroft's recently decided to foster a child.  They just wanted one young one.  Well, after a month or so they got a phone call saying they had found their foster child's brother and sister.  So now they have three foster kids on top of all of their own kids.  Now my wife wants a foster child and it looks like we might get one here shortly.

I had been doing so well on my diet that I decided to take a cheat weekend.  That was a bad idea.  I felt terrible today.  I just did one loop.

I felt better today.  Now that Emily is in junior high her bus doesn't come until 8:47am.  But it usually comes a bit earlier than that.  I told my wife that I was just going to do one loop, but she said she could get Emily on the bus so I could go further if I wanted.  I didn't want to because I figured it would be too hot.  But it wasn't too bad, and as I said, I was feeling better.  So I went two.  I passed the hobo.  I'm pretty sure I could smell him even though he was 50 feet away.  Maybe it was me.  Then I got a phone call from a client.  I stopped and answered.  It was probably only a 2 minute call.  I started again and went about 100 feet and got another call from another client.  I didn't answer this one.  But it did slow me down because I didn't want to put my phone back in my pocket lest I pocket answer them.  Then I realized I might be able to make it home before the bus got there.  I picked up the pace and turned the corner at 8:45am.  I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get there before the bus left, but I just barely made it and was able to wave goodbye to her.

Feeling better and better.  I started out seeing 5 out of 5 regulars.  I ended up 6 for 7.  The one person that wasn't a regular will be soon.  I've seen her once before.  The first person I saw was Gordon's owner.  I didn't see Gordon right away.  He was off his leash.  His owner said he was hunting birds today.  Then I saw my wife.  I stole a dozen kisses from her.  I saw and passed up the old man in the fisher hat.  The temperature was much cooler than yesterday.  That's because I got out a lot earlier.  And my pace was faster than yesterday even though I ran an extra mile today.

I took it nice and easy today because I was feeling a little sore from yesterday.  I saw my wife at the intersection while I was stretching out.  I waited for her to get home before I started.  It felt real warm out but my phone said it was only 80º.  As I was coming down the last stretch of the Floodway I didn't see the hobo under the tree where I usually see him.  I thought this might be the first time I don't see him.  But then I saw him on the path under another tree.  I'm the worst at making conversation.  Knowing I would only be able to get about one line of conversation in, the only thing I could think of to say was, "It's supposed to be another hot day."  He then said in the most pathetic voice, "Yeah."  Then he looked at his arm.  I thought he might be looking at his watch to see what time it was, but obviously he doesn't have a watch.  So maybe he was doing the universal gesture to ask what time it was, because he often asks me what time it is.  But then I noticed his blotchy skin and I wondered if he has some sort of skin cancer.  So, here I am spending another hot day indoors while he's outside with his skin cancer.  I'm the worst.

I didn't run yesterday because I wanted to be ready for a long run today.  Yes, 6 miles is a long run for me nowadays.  It was 5:50am when I began.  83º.  I started off noticing a lot of people out walking their dogs.  One guy was cutting across the retention basin/park on the corner.  I recognized the dog as Gordon.  They got to the Floodway before I did.  I was able to say hi to Gordon, but then I noticed another dog on the other side of the Floodway.  But where was the owner?  I couldn't see an owner anywhere.  Then I realized it wasn't a dog.  It was a coyote.  I said to Gordon's owner, "There's a coyote over there on the other side."  He said, "Oh yeah.  I see it."  As I kept running I saw someone walking towards the coyote on the other side.  But coyotes like to avoid humans, so it had scampered down into the bottom of the Floodway and was skimming along the side of the bank.  The guy probably had no idea he was there.  Anyway, that was early on and the rest of the run was pretty uneventful.  I finally saw people that were walking without dogs.  Then I saw a couple of runners, but not until I had turned around and headed back.  It was warming up, but not too bad.  I jumped in the pool as soon as I got home.

It was 7:53am when I started running.  It was warm.  I was a little sore from Saturday, but not too bad.  I was listening to Chael Sonnen on his YouTube show talk about the Saturday night fights.
 

Emily has been sick again.  Not even two weeks into the school year and she's already missing days.  Two nights ago I fell asleep on the couch upstairs.  Only about an hour.  I went downstairs to find Emily asleep on my side of the bed.  Normally I would just push her over to the middle, but she was sleeping on top of the covers and had her own covers.  One of my employees was still here working, and I thought it would be weird if she went upstairs to get a water bottle or something and saw me sleeping on the couch, so I decided to hole up in the toy room on this tiny little couch.  That wasn't comfortable at all and I woke up with a sore throat.  So I didn't run yesterday.

I woke up a few minutes after 6am this morning.  Abby was in the shower, so I had to wait a little bit to use the bathroom.  But that was good because it had given me time for my bowels to wake up.  When I was finally sitting on the pot, I could hear a lot of sirens.  I finally texted my wife to make sure she was all right assuming she was out on her walk.  She was upstairs.

I finally started my run at 6:57am.  I felt quite sore.  I thought that was weird for having taken a day off.  But I'm probably still a little under the weather.  I was just going to do two loops.  Maybe even 1.  But I could do 2 if I ran slow.  So I started my 2nd loop.  After about a quarter mile into the second loop, I thought that if I kept this slow pace up, I could do 3 loops.  So I decided to do three loops.

When I got to the University, which is where I commit myself to that 3rd loop, I saw the sirens about a quarter mile to the east.  There must've been an accident because I saw a tow truck, also.  I continued south and when I got to the bend, I saw another runner.  He looked much faster than me, and he gave me a thumbs up.

Before I knew it I was back at University and looking for the hobo.  He wasn't under the tree that he is usually laying under.  So I looked to see if he was on the trail.  Once the trail straightened out enough for me to see, I spotted him standing there talking to someone.  I saw three tiny little dogs, too.  As I got closer the other guy started to walk away.  Then I noticed the hobo was eating a sausage biscuit, most likely from the corner gas station convenient store.  I asked him, "What's new?  Same ol', same ol'?  He didn't answer.  I think he was crying because the other guy bought him a sausage biscuit.  The biscuit buyer must've heard me because he turned around.  He told me good morning.  I had to weave through his dogs as they weren't leashed up.  After passing the second dog something small scurried across my path.  I almost stepped on it.  It was a horned toad.  I totally stopped and pointed it out.  That's when one of the dogs started barking at me.  I said, "Don't bark at me.  Bark at this guy."  Biscuit eater said they love to chase lizards.

I headed home and as I turned the final corner I could see people walking out of my house.  It was my wife and two high school daughters.  For some reason I thought they would've been gone already.  But it was 7:42 am, which is their normal time that they leave.  I got to say good bye and sneak a kiss from my wife.

I just realized that I didn't blog today.  (Today is tomorrow.  Or tomorrow is today.  I don't know.)  Now I can't remember if anything significant or funny happened.  Maybe I'll come back to this if I remember anything.  I'll put it in the comment sections since I get very little comments these days.  Ooh.  That reminds me.  I just read through all of my blog entries for this year.  There seems to be a recurring theme that I'm getting old, fat, and struggling to stay healthy.  Diet has been a big thing this year.  I've been sticking to it pretty well since coming back from vacation.

So I was walking my dog a couple of nights ago.  It was around 6:30pm and still 110º.  I noticed that when we got down into the bottom of the Floodway, it was significantly cooler.  Like 10º cooler.  I thought this might be good information for the hobo to know.  I don't usually go that far south on my nightly dog walks as I generally cut through the green belt.  So we walked by the hobo and I started out the conversation saying, "Do you ever see any coyotes around?"  He said not usually.  I told him about the coyote we used to see and how I saw one the other morning on the other side of Adobe.  Then he asked me if I smoke.  I said no, and that pretty much ended the conversation.  I was left thinking about how awkward my conversations always are with him.

Today I got up early and was out the door earlier than normal.  I started running at 5:51am.  When I got to the hobo, he actually initiated the conversation.  He said, "You're earlier than usual."  I said, "Yep."  Then he asked what time it was and I told him.  It was another awkward conversation, but at least he started it this time.

I went to be early last night, but I decided to finish binge watching the final season of the show that I'm watching on Netflix.  Said show will remain nameless.  Anyway, the problem with Netflix is that once you finish one season of a show you you've been watching, you start the next one.  Then you finish that one and you start the next one.  Before you've even finished watching them all, the next seasons come out.  Not sure what time I finally fell asleep, but I'm sure it was after midnight.

I didn't get out the door until after 8am this morning.  That was a mistake.  It was hot.  I'm glad I brought a bottle of water with me.  I was running real slow.  Before I crossed Greenfield, I could see two figures out on the Canal road.  Everytime I see someone I wonder if they're on Strava.  As I got closer I could tell at least one of them was on a bike.  A little closer and it looked like one of them might be on foot as they appeared smaller.  Then I realized it was a dad and a daughter riding bikes.  Right before I got to them the daughter had veered over in front of me.  She kept veering over towards the Canal and I thought she was going to ride right in.  Luckily she was able to correct course and went around me.  I think her dad was worried, too.  Right after that I saw a lady and a dog.  I got to the Canal gate that indicated half a mile away from McKellips.  There's a dirt road and a fence gate that lead up to the Canal gate.  The fence is about 3 feet away from the block walls that form the alleyway.  This is so pedestrians can get through, but vehicles cannot.  I saw an old man about to come through the fence.  Well, older than me.  He would be right behind me and I thought for sure he would pass me.  I was getting pretty close to the dog and the lady and the dog started trotting over to me.  But actually it was trotting to the old man behind me.  The lady said, "Is that daddy?"  So apparently they were one big happy family and he never passed me. 

I kept going and got to McKellips.  This is where I started doubting if I really wanted to go all the way to McDowell, another mile.  So I decided to just do maybe a little over 5 miles.  From previous runs I knew if I turned around at the Canal gate a quarter of a mile south of McDowell I would be around 5.25 miles.  But as I neared the gate, I could see another couple walking down the road.  I kept thinking how awkward it would be if we both reach the gate at the same time and I turn around with them.  So I checked my Strava and I was at 2.5 miles.  I went a little further and turned around.

There was a bit of a headwind, which was nice, but the sun was getting hotter and hotter the further I went.  The last two miles were a real struggle and I thought about calling my wife to come pick me up.  But then I thought, it's okay to walk some.  So I walked a little here and a little there.  The final mile I walked a lot.  In fact, I started running in between trees and then walking in the shade.  I finished my water bottle and figured I'd fill it back up at the water fountain even though it's only 0.15 miles away from my house.  I'm pretty sure I saw Kori.  It was her car at least.  That's funny because I had texted her and her husband before I went running to see if they wanted to be on my Ragnar team.  She hadn't replied yet, but she has since.  Perhaps because she saw me.  They are maybes.  So I went to refill my water bottle, but only hot water was coming out of the fountain.  I must've let it run for a full minute and still hot.  I thought, "This is ridiculous.  I'm almost home."  So I just ran the rest of the way home.  I've lost about 15 lbs. since my vacation.

I slept a lot this weekend.  I felt pretty good this moring, but still it was hot.  My pace was faster than it has been lately, but still slow.  I saw this one dude.  I'm going to call him Trent Cox.  Thank you Strava.  We both headed north at Adobe at the same time; he on the RWCD east road, and I on the Floodway path.  He was running almost twice my speed!  Geez!  Strava shows him averaging like a 6:45 pace!

I woke up at 5am.  Our landlord wants a realtor to come look at the house this Thursday.  So we've been cleaning and trying to fix things up.  Last night we had someone fixing the flooring in the kitchen, so my wife didn't want to cook dinner.  She asked me if I'd rather want Del Taco or Little Caesars.  Little Caesars usually makes me sick for some reason, so I said Del Taco.  I probably ate one burrito too many last night.  Anyway, I got out the door just before 6am.  It was light out, but the sun hadn't come up quite yet.  Still it was already 83º.  It seems like every time I look at the temperature in the morning it's 83º.  I started running and felt surprisingly good considering the extra burrito.  I decided to do three loops and my pace today was faster than yesterday's two loops.

I didn't run yesterday.  Too busy with work.  We got a thunderstorm yesterday evening.  Some of the thunder was instantaneous after the lightning.  The dog was scared.  Stupid scaredy cat.  It was humid this morning, and there was water in the bottom of the Floodway, but it was a few degrees cooler than normal.  I did three loops, and my pace keeps getting faster.  As I approached Brown I could see this woman walking on the Canal road.  It looked like it was Sis. Lowe.  As I headed over there, I saw a zanjero truck pull up.  It was Eric.  I stopped and talked for about a minute.  Then I ran down the Canal road and as I was catching up to the woman I realized it was actually Sis. Ray.  I stopped and talked to her for about 10 seconds.  When I crossed Adobe my wife saw me.  I did not see her.  Not sure how I missed her after looking at Strava, but maybe the sun was in my eyes.  She thought she would see me because she figured I would head back up at University, but I went all the way down to Main.  As I passed the hobo, I saw him eating another sausage biscuit.  I said, "That was some thunderstorm we had last night!"  He must think I'm a real douche.
 

First time I've run Usery in a while.  Last week I texted Mike and asked when we were going to start running Usery again.  He said today.  I texted Glen and Maggie.  Glen said he already had plans.  Maggie said she would love to join us if it's a weekend she doesn't have her kids.  So I texted Mike yesterday to see if we were still on.  He responded like 4 minutes later, but I didn't see it until I got a text from Maggie asking if we were going.  Then I looked back and saw that Mike had responded and couldn't go.  So I asked Maggie if she wanted to come along with my wife and I.  Have I mentioned that I finally talked my wife into running a Ragnar?  Anyway, I told Maggie we would pick her up at 5:15am. 

Vickie and I woke up at 4:47am-ish.  (For some reason I remember that being the time.  I think.)  I sat on the toilet for the longest time because running Usery and having to go is the worst.  I had texted Maggie at 5am to say - see you in 15 minutes.  But it was more than 15 minutes because it took me a while to have a bowel movement.  We drove to Maggie's and the over to Usery.  I was hoping we'd see some wild horses, but we didn't.  In fact, after we were done running I drove down by the river, but we still didn't see any. 

Vickie and Maggie were talking about divorces; Maggie about hers and Vickie about her sister's.  I started running in the parking lot, and they started running after the crossed the intersection.  I told them to be wary of cyclists.  They're probably moving down the hill at 35mph.  Since it's a holdiday weekend, there was a lot of traffic and a lot of cyclists. 

I was feeling pretty decent running up.  I had a frozen bottle of water in my pocket.  It was weighing my shorts down, and I had to stop to retie them.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to go all the way to the top.  So I opted to just run 3 miles up and 3 miles down.  It was hard, but not too bad.  My pace was comparable to the pace I've been running on flat surfaces lately.  So that's good.  Of course I run faster going down and the cyclists are riding slower going up, so every now and then on the way down a cyclists would tell me how good I was doing.  One lady said, "Lookin' good!"  Another said, "You have a lot more stamina than me!"  And a dude said, "Can you feel the tail wind?"  Well, that didn't have anything to do with how good I was doing, but still.  I had texted Vickie when I got to the turn around to let her know I was going back down.  I took my first drink of water and it was about half way melted.  It would be completely melted before I got all the way down.  Vickie and Maggie continued going up a little more after I texted her.  They wanted to get to 2 miles.  I finally saw them with about 1.75 miles to go.  I passed them with 1.1 miles to go.  It wasn't long after that I decided I better take my shirt off because my areola was getting a little sensitive.  But I didn't want to do it right in front of them because I didn't want them to think I was weird.  I took it off without about 0.75 miles to go and a whole horde of cyclists came cruising by.  I tried to hang my shirt over my shoulder and strategically pump my arms in front of my body so they wouldn't be able to see my fat white hairy gut.  I finished up and Vickie and Maggie got there about 10 or so minutes later.  They were still talking about divorce.  I had sat down on a picnic bench and they came over by me.  After a little bit all these bees were swarming Maggie.  She thought they were flies.  She said she had eaten garlic the night before and was afraid that she would smell like garlic today.  I guess bees are attracted to garlic.  Anyway, I told her she was getting swarmed and we better go.
 

Season 9 of the Walking Dead is now available on Netflix.  What better way to spend a Sunday than by holing myself up in my room and binge watching?  I can't think of any.  I actually only watched one episode.  My grandson was in the room with me so we were probably watching that weird rabbit cartoon.  But I got this alert on my phone that there was a severe storm alert for the Maricopa area.  I looked outside and the wind was blowing and clouds were moving in.  I went outside because the temperature had dropped and it felt nice.  We hardly got any rain, though. 

This morning the temperature was actually 81º despite me leaving to run at 7:16am.  So that was nice.  I saw mostly dog walkers out.  As I was heading south on the Canal road I could see the hobo standing up looking over the Floodway.  I wondered if he was taking a tinkle.  I wonder where he usually takes his tinkles and poops.  I'm guessing he must go somewhere or by this point I would be able to smell it.  When I was heading back north on the Floodway path I saw another dog walker.  I also saw a tree that had been blown over in the storm.  I had to take a picture of it, and I had to tell the lady walking her dog that I was going to take a picture of it so that she wouldn't think I was a creeper for stopping right when we passed each other.  Then I ran past the hobo and yelled, "Did you see that tree that blew over down there?" He grumpily said, "Yes."  I think all he hears is, "I live in a house, and you don't!"  I'm the worst.  But I'm trying.
 

My feet are still a little sore from Saturday, but today's run felt like one of those runs where you could have gone faster.  Like parts of my legs wanted to run faster, but my sore feet did not. 

As I was running south on the Canal road, I saw a lady walking ahead of me.  I knew she was too far ahead for me to catch, but when she got to University, I lost sight of her.  Turns out she went over to the Floodway path, and I just didn't see her for some reason.  I finally caught up to her right after we passed the hobo, and I was so afraid that she was going to think I was the hobo chasing her.

I woke up at 5am this morning.  Well, I'm sure I was awake before that, but I got out of bed at 5am.  It was a little dark out, but the sun was on its way.  My phone said it was 87º out, but I think it cooled down.  There weren't very many people out.  I saw two ladies walking their dogs while I was heading south on the Canal road and they were heading north on the Floodway path.  There is a dip in the path where the green belt spills into the Floodway.  I saw one of the ladies run up the dip.  I crossed University and saw another runner.  We said good morning to each other.  Then right before I reached University again I saw another runner.  He looked familiar.  Turns out it was Matt Bell, a guy I've friended on Strava.  I sent him a message on Strava saying, "Nice seeing you this morning," even though I didn't recognize him at the time.  After I crossed the dip section I saw the two ladies again.  I was then able to recognize them as Sis. Porter and her daughter.  They were probably like, "Gross.  Br. McCumber is so sweaty."  Then I turned on Adobe and saw my wife.  She was just starting her walk.  She's been dealing with tummy issues the last week or so.  I gave her a quick kiss and headed home.

My wife has been complaining of stomach cramps for the last couple of weeks.  I got them last night.  As soon as they hit, I went and laid down.  They weren't that bad this morning, but I had two bouts with the toilet and finally started my run (my run-run, not the other kind) at 6:26am.  It was 85º.  I had this funny idea to try and run fast today.  So I picked up the pace.  I realized that it hurts to run fast.  I'm not used to it anymore.  And I certainly couldn't sustain a faster pace for much more than a quarter mile.  So that's what I did.  Run as fast as reasonably could, slowed down, then sped up.  I quit after a mile and a half.

I just wanted to do a nice and easy run this morning to recover from yesterday's "speed work."  Also, I'll probably run Usery Pass tomorrow, and I want to be ready for that.  Even though I was purposely trying to go slower, I actually was running about the same pace as usual.

I had a restless night sleep.  But I got much more sleep than my wife who got less than 3.  We're headed up to Kingman today so I can bless my niece.  But we still had time to run Usery.  It was me, Vickie, Mike, and Glen today.  Nice to have the band back together again.  For Mike, it was his first time running since basically Ragnar.  Still he ran faster than me.  I didn't really push it today.  I wanted to make it to the top, and I did.  Mike passed me first.  Glen had given us a head start.  When he finally caught up to me his headlamp was so bright that it made my shadow look enormous.  The traffic wasn't quite as bad as last week.  Probaby because we started an hour earlier and it wasn't a holiday weekend.  A few cyclists passed me going uphill as I was going up, but no one passed my going down as I was going up until I hit the 1 mile to go mark to the top.  Then there were about three more after that.  I crossed the road at the top and texted my wife.  Strava shows that she still went up a little ways after I texted her.  Maybe she didn't receive the text right away or maybe she wanted to ge a little extra.  It didn't seem like Glen and Mike were too far ahead of me.  In fact, I was surprised at how close to Glen Mike was.  It made me wonder if Glen kept going a little ways after reaching the top before turning around.  I didn't ask.  My shoe was coming untied, but I didn't want to stop until I got to the top.  About a tenth of a mile from the top there is a place where cars pull off the side of the road.  I saw some people in the dark around the truck so I ran up to them to ask if I could use their tailgate to tie my shoe.  It was two 12-ish year old boys holding shot guns, a dog, and their dad.  They were happy to let me.  I was happy to not get shot.  The way down was almost worse than going up because we had a headwind on the way up that helped cool us down.  Ooh, I almost forgot.  We got a few sprinkles on the way up.  Just bareley.  Made me wonder if it was bugs or something.  But Glen and Vickie confirmed that it was rain.  Mike didn't feel it.  Anyway, on the way down I could see Vickie at about the 2.25 mile to go mark.  I didn't catch up to her until 1.5 to go.  I briefly stopped to take a selfie with her.  Then I ran about another half mile and texted Mike to say that he could come pick us up if he wanted.  But he didn't reply back until I was basically at the stop sign.  So I just finished up, and I knew Vickie wasn't too far behind so we waited.  She was so close to 6 that she ended up running a little extra 'til she reached it.  I'm proud of her.

This weekend we took a short trip up to my home town of Kingman, AZ.  My sister wanted me to bless her baby, which I was happy to do.  She's no longer active in the church, and her husband is not a member, so you know, no pressure.  But I think it went all right.  I got to see some old friends.  I even saw inactive blogger Kerry Herbine.  When I first met him on the blog, he wasn't a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Now he is, and that makes me happy. 

Although it was nice to get out of town and see family, I ate more junk food than I should have.  I gained about 6 lbs. this weekend.  Blah.  That may be why I didn't feel like getting out of bed this morning.  But I did.  I started running, and felt more blah.  Wasn't sure if I would just do one loop today, but I decided I could do two.  When I got to University to head  north on the Floodway path, I saw a young, maybe late 20's, Latina who was getting her headphones and stuff ready to start running.  Her friend was about 200 feet up the path.  There was also the old lady I passed last week.  And finally, there was the biscuit buyer.  I caught up to the second Latina and was closing in on the old lady, but then I caught up to the biscuit buyer, with the sausage biscuit in the brown paper bag.  I decided to stop and ask him what the hobo's name is.  Jeff.  We talked for a couple of minutes.  Maybe only one.  The first Latina ran by me.  Then I wished him farewell and ran by the hobo, but I didn't say anything to him.  I passed the old lady up, then I almost got to the second Latina, but she started running.  She only ran for a little bit, so I was able to pass her.  I wondered if I would pass the first Latina, but she was running about the same pace I was, so I never caught her.  I turned at Adobe and saw Sis. Spencer running pushing her two-kid stroller.  I didn't check the temperature, but if felt cooler than it has been lately.  My last half mile was a lot faster than my first two miles.  Did I catch my breath after talking to biscuit buyer?  Was I subconsciously trying to catch the Latina?  I guess I'll never know.
 

Herbie was barking at something this morning at 5am.  It woke me up out of a dream.  Previously when Herbie barked at something and we didn't go check, we later found out that someone had gotten into our van and rummaged through stuff.  So I got up and went outside unarmed like an idiot.  I was so tired and it was taking a while for my eyes to adjust to the street lights.  I didn't see anything.  Finally I saw a couple walking down the street.  Later on I wondered if it was the Schumaker's.  Not sure if that's what Herbie was barking at or not, but I was up, so I may as well go running.

It was warm and humid out.  83º.  I could see a bright light on the RWCD road.  I figured it must be a cyclist.  It was.  Man that light was bright.  The sun was rising, and it was pretty out.  I saw my wife when I crossed the street south on the RWCD road at Adobe.  She gave me a kiss and asked how far I was going.  She's still having stomach issues, but she walked 3.96 miles.  When I got to Jeff he said, "You're out earlier this morning."  I said, "Yeah, my dog woke me up."  Then I told him to have a good day.  He seemed to be in a better mood today than usual.
 

So yesterday on my morning run I noticed that the Flood Control had wiped out all the creosote bushes that line the sloped banks of the Floodway in between Main and University.  I thought about the time when I counted the number of lizards I heard scurrying through them.  Now those lizards will have no shade.  Then, in the evening, when I was walking Herbie, I saw that they had cleared out all the creosotes from University to Main.  I was a little sad.  There was this cute little cactus that got wiped out.  I would've like to have taken that home and transplanted it.  Also, the coyote now has no place to hide.  And Jeff.  Jeff will now lose some of his privacy and possible shade.  So Herbie and I walked over to Jeff and I said, "They took all your bushes away."  He was back to sounding sad again.

This morning I saw they were ready to remove the bushes north of Adobe.  I didn't get very far in to my run when I got a phone call from my son.  They were already out at the site for their survey.  Truthfully, I had forgotten that they were going.  So I stopped and he told me they couldn't get radio connection again and one of the GPS heads kept dying.  So I told them I would meet them out there.  This meant I had to cut my run short, and I just did one loop.  But I tried to pick up the pace.  I pretty much pushed it as hard as I could and I can't even break a 10 min. pace anymore.  Well, I did last week when I just did one loop, but I couldn't today.  Just means I have to keep losing weight.
 

The power just flickered at my house and now I get to re-write my blog entry.  [Insert mad face emoji]

So yesterday I saw some posts from my friends up in Utah about how cool it's getting and that there is snow on the mountain tops.  This morning a friend up in Kingman posted that it was 60º.  So I looked at my phone and whaaattt??  77º???  It's finally under 83º.  It still felt warm, but I am noticing a difference.

Running south on the RWCD road I saw my two old Latina friends.  Why do I call them my friends?  Because today when I ran past them I said, "Hola amigas!", and one of them said, "Hola amigo" back to me. 

Now that I can see the other side of the Floodway because they've wiped out all the bushes, I noticed that I couldn't spot Jeff where he is usually at.  I figured I'd find him when I looped around.  But he was no where to be found.  Some of his stuff was there.  The tree goes vertical for about four feet, then bends west toward the Floodway.  Seems like all the trees on either side of the Floodway bend towards the Floodway.  His sweater was draped over the trunk.  His bag of water bottles was there.  That's pretty much all he has.  But no Jeff.  This was the very first time I've gone by there and he wasn't there since he took up residency about three months ago!

I finished up and my wife finished up right behind me.  She did 4.2 miles because she just turned 42 today.

Less than 100 miles to go on my shoes.  Will they last?

We went to IHOP last night for my wife's birthday.  She likes to take the entire family out for her birthday.  I saw one of my best friend's son there.  That was fun.  I haven't seen him in years.  Anyway, I ate too much.  I wasn't feeling great this morning, but that's all the more reason to run.  I ran real slow.  Typical for a Friday.  The Flood Control still hasn't cleared the creosotes on the west bank of the Floodway north of Adobe.  I'm sure they'll get to it soon.  I just did two loops today.  I saw my Strava friend Matt Bell.  I looked across the Floodway and Jeff was gone again.  But then I spotted him walking towards his hang out/home.  I passed a lady walking her two kids to school.  She was smoking a cigarette while holding her daughter's hand.  I felt sorry for the daughter who must be reaping the benefits of the second hand smoke.  But it's not my place to judge.  Then I passed Jeff and he had a cigarette in his mouth ready to strike up.  I said good morning and finished up.

Early morning run with Mike, Vickie, and Maggie.  I didn't sleep very sound last night.  I woke up at 1:30am and checked the time.  Oh good.  Still have over two hours before the alarm goes off.  But I kept waking up several times in between then.  The alarm went off at 3:45 am, meaning I had half an hour before Mike got here to pick us up.  Half an hour is barely enough time to get ready.  But it worked out today just fine.  After we jumped in Mike's truck we swung back around to pick up Maggie.  She only had one of her kids with her this weekend, and he's old enough to take care of himself.  We have different conversations when there are females in the vehicle.

After a quick stretch out, we were on our way.  The moon was full and lit up the desert enough for it to look real pretty.  Traffic wasn't bad, but I was surprised at the number of cars going uphill.  Mostly the cars are going downhill on their way to the lake.  Mike had past me up pretty early.  He finished a mile ahead of me again.  I would look back occasionally to see if my wife was still within my sight.  A lot of the time she would be.  She was moving pretty well.  She wanted to run up to the top and then turn back around and have us pick her up, which she was able to do.  I saw some runners heading downhill on the other side of the street when I neared the top.  It was still pretty dark out when I turned around, but my headlamp was squeezing my head too tight, so I took it off and held it for a while.  I took a sip from my water bottle at mile 3, 3.7 at the top, 4.7, 5.7, 6.5, 7.0, 7.25, and finished it off at 7.45.  I had also brought a bottle of PowerAid and I drank the whole thing in Mike's truck.  Maggie had turned around after a little over two miles, so she and Mike were waiting for me.  Then we went and picked up Vickie.  She had gotten to 6.15 miles.  She's doing great.
 

Usually I just enter in whatever number Strava tells me I got, but my Strava didn't record today.  I tried taking a picture of a partial rainbow this morning before I ran, and I must've not hit start or something because it said 0.0 miles and 0 minutes and 0 seconds.  Boo!  So I'll just put the mileage in from the last time I ran this route. 

As I was heading south on the Canal road a zanjero pulled up the same time I reached Lateral 3.5 (Adobe.)  I didn't recognize him so I kept going.  Now that all the bushes have been removed I could see all the way over to the other side of the Floodway.  From a distance I could see some people over near where Jeff is usually at.  My first thought is that it was the police.  As I got closer I could see that it was more hobos.  Or vagrants.  Or homeless people.  Whatever is the PC way of saying it.  I've gotten in enough trouble on this blog for my lack of sensitivity.  They had a bunch of stuff.  I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but there is another hobo that I see from time to time.  He's got himself a bike, a tent, a sleeping bag.  He's pretty hooked up.  I thought it might be him.  But when I finally got across from them where I could see better, I realized that Jeff was under one tree and the other two were under then next tree about 50 feet to the south.  I ran all the way down to Main St. (Lateral 4.5) and headed back up the Floodway path.  As I got to University, the other homeless couple had finished packing up and were leaving the path.  It was a man and a lady.  They were talking and the lady was standing right in the fence opening that I needed to go through.  She seemed like she had no intention of moving.  So I said, "Coming through!"  She moved a little bit and I threaded the needle between her and the fence.  They were talking about something.  Maybe about where they would go next.  It reminded me of the time I was in high school and my friend and I went down in this ravine and there was a homeless couple living under the bridge.  The man told his wife that he would be home soon.  Then he looked at us and got embarrassed because he didn't know we were there.

Well back to Jeff.  So I continued running and I saw biscuit buyer up the path.  Jeff was going out to meet him to get his daily sausage biscuit.  I got there right after the hand off so I stopped.  I asked him if he had new neighbors moving in.  He just kind of grunted.  I then looked at biscuit buyer and told him that the couple he had passed had camped out under the other tree.  I said I could see them from the other side and I thought it was the police coming to haul Jeff away.  Biscuit buyer said I'm sure Jeff wouldn't mind that.  I asked Jeff if he had talked to them at all.  He mumbled, "No."  He was not in a good mood today.  So I decided that I should get going.  Biscuit buyer told me that I need to motivate him to start running.  I said, "I'll tell you what.  This is the only thing keeping me from being 300 lbs."  Then I told them I'd see them tomorrow.  It was yet again, another awkward conversation.

It took me a while to get out the door this morning.  It was a little after 7am when I started.  But that's ok because Emily is staying home again today.  She's still a little sick.  My legs felt sore today.  I was moving slow.  Also, I didn't tie my shorts tight enough and they felt like they might fall off.  I decided to stop and tie them once I got behind the first tree on the Floodway path, but a guy was following me.  So I had to run farther to lose him.  But then there was another guy walking a dog.  So I had to run a little farther.  Luckily they never fell down, and I finally tied them up.  Also lucky the lady running on the other side of the Floodway didn't look over and see me.

I woke up shortly before 5am.  It was dark out.  I got dressed and went outside.  I could see a couple walking down the street.  I knew it was the Schumakers'.  I hollered good morning at them while I stretched out.  I ran my usual RWCD/Floodway 3 loop route.  Even though it was dark, there was just enough light to see without needing a headlamp.  I could see a few other runners out.  As I approached Brown Rd. I saw a lady walking two dogs.  Not sure where she was before.  Perhaps she was on the trail the whole time and I couldn't see her because it was dark or perhaps she was in the bottom of the Floodway.  Anyway, she heard me coming and moved over.  She was wearing a jersey with the name Susan on the back.  So naturally I said, "Good morning, Susan."  She said back to me good morning with an inflection in her voice that meant, "I don't recognize you yet, but you obviously know me, so I'm going to say good morning back to you and hope that it dawns on me soon who you are."  I felt like such a jerk because I just kept running.

It started getting light out as I was headed back north.  That's when I noticed my underwear was rubbing me raw.  It stung so bad in the shower.  I saw Sis. Porter and her daughter again walking their dogs.  Then I saw my wife heading east on Adobe.  It looked like I was a little bit ahead of her.  But then she turned south on the Canal Road.  I waved at her and saw her stop.  I was wondering why she had stopped.  So I stopped.  Then I got a text from her that she was going to run a mile.  She ran it in 12:03.  That's her best time yet!

I forgot to blog today.  (Today is Friday.)  I remember turning on to the Floodway path shortly after the Porter ladies ran by.  I was following them and thought I would be able to catch them, but wasn't sure how long it would take.  They're slow.  I'm slow.  So, you know...

Eventually Sis. Porter stopped to check her dog's paw.  Her daughter kept going a little way with her dog.  Then Sis. Porter started running again and her daughter stopped so she could catch up.  That's about when I caught up.  Then the two dogs got their leashes tangled and Sis. Porter seemed annoyed about it.  That's all I can remember.

I just did one loop today.  My left ankle is pretty sore today.  Tendons I think.  I saw the Porter ladies again.
 

This morning at 3:14am I was awoken by Herbie barking.  I looked at the time and immediately thought it was 4:14am and that Herbie must be barking at Mike and we were late.  But nope, we still had half an hour before we needed to be up.  I went upstairs to find Herbie.  He was actually in the room above me which is my daughters' room.  He was barking out the back window, so no idea what he was barking at.  Maybe a coyote jumped the fence?  Well, I still wanted that extra half hour of sleep.  But then at 3:22am Mike sent a response to the group text that he wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be able to make it.  I responded, "Ok."  Then I responded, "Everyone else, I'll pick you up an hour later."  Everyone else was my wife, Maggie, and Glen.  Then Maggie replied that her youngest was up and wasn't feeling well, so she wouldn't be able to sneak out.  It ended up being just me, Vickie, and Glen.  And we were a few minutes late because of the Jalapeno Bucks we ate for lunch yesterday.

We got to the sheriff's station and stretched out.  I was the first to leave with my wife right behind me.  Glen gave us a head start.  He caught me at the half mile mark.  Since we were out an hour later we didn't bring any of our lights with us, but Vickie and Glen wore reflective vests.  I just wore my orange outfit.  But since we were out an hour later, there were tons and tons of cyclists today.  Glen left me in the dust and I'm not sure how far he went.  I stopped once to take a picture of a tarantula on the side of the road.  I finally saw Glen when I got to the top.  He reached the crest a few steps before I did, but I had to wait for some motorcycles and cyclists before I could cross.  So he was a good 50 feet ahead of me again.  And at this point we were being attacked by gnats.

I had sent that picture of the tarantula to the group text.  My wife saw it and took her own picture and sent it out.  That means she wasn't too far behind me.  When I passed by her going down she was only about 9 tenths of a mile behind me.  She's getting better and better.  Glen was out of sight again.  And now is when just an entire horde of cyclists started riding up.  I spent more time on the side of the road than on the shoulder.  Of course that's not true, but with my left ankle still sore from yesterday, it felt like it.  I finally made it to the bottom.  It was nice and cool today and I still had plenty of water left.  I was going to run to our jeep, but I saw a bunch of horses in the Salt River Tubing parking lot across the street.  So I ran to them to take a couple of pictures.  Then I called Vickie to see if she wanted to finish so she could see the horses or if she wanted us to come get her.  She opted to have us come get her.  She was able to do 6.25 miles, her furthest run ever.

Yesterday I saw that there would be an 80% chance of rain this morning.  It did indeed rain.  We could hear it starting around 6am.  I still wanted to run so I got dressed.  It started coming down harder.  Then I looked in the laundry room and saw that water was coming in the door.  This does happen from time to time when it rains just right.  But now that our pig has destroyed the rain gutter downspout, I'm sure it will happen more often.  So I went around the house and started scooping buckets of water out and tossing them in the yard.  The rain kept coming and I was getting drenched.  After a while I was noticing that it was filling up faster than I could scoop.  My wife came by and I asked her to get the tarp.  My son brought it out and of course as soon as we got it hung up, it stopped raining.  I then decided to clean out the pool because that's a mess, too.

Finally I decided I could go running.  But my shirt was so soaked that I took it off as soon as I hit the Floodway.  I figured nobody would see me, and I was mostly right.  I didn't worry about puddles because my shoes and socks were beyond drenched by that point.  The Floodway was half full and I stopped a couple of times to take pictures.  There were a lot of ducks in it and I was worried that they lay their eggs in the bottom and now they would be lost.  When I got back around to Adobe, I saw another runner wearing what looked like a green cotton T-shirt.  He turned north on the the other side of the Canal.  I don't even think he saw me.  I continued south crossing Adobe.  I could hear the frogs again.  I stopped a couple of more times just to watch the water flowing by and try to look for frogs.  Jeff wasn't there.  Hopefully he found shelter somewhere.  As I was approaching Adobe again, I saw green shirt again.  This time we were on the same side of the Floodway so I said good morning to him.  He probably thought I was a weirdo for not wearing a shirt.  I think he's a weirdo for wearing a cotton shirt.  I put my shirt back on before I got out of the Floodway and into the neighborhood.  I got home and noticed my pace was faster than usual.  This tends to happen I've noticed when I run in the rain.
 

I had to purchase a new radio for our survey equipment yesterday.  That was a quick two grand.  [Insert crying face emoji].  It works well.  We even used it immediately after picking it up.  It was late in the afternoon before we headed home and my wife was taking one of my daughters to a job interview, so she told us to buy our own dinner.  I was going to stop at Jalepeno Bucks again.  But they were closed.  So we went somewhere worse.  Filiberto's.  I tossed and turned all night last night.  I've got to stop doing that. 

I felt terrible as I started running.  I decided to just to one loop.  But once I got close to Adobe I decided I could easily do another loop.  My pace was a lot slower than yesterday, but that's okay.  I saw Jeff.  He asked me what time it was and seemed to be in a good mood today.  Not sure if it's going to rain more today, but it is cloudy.
 

I had sore muscles in places where I don't usually have sore muscles.  I ran slow again today, but it was a little faster than yesterday.  Jeff stopped me today to see if I had seen Dave.  Dave must be biscuit buyer.  Then he apologized for making me stop.
 

Well, our new radio still wasn't transmitting.  That's kind of frustrating.  Could just be site specific.  I hope it is.  It worked fine the first day we got it.  Anyway, I had to go out with the boys this morning to do our survey by hand.  I had to make sure I got up early.  I was feeling better today, so I decided to do 3 loops.  I saw the Porter girls.  They seemed to be getting in better and better shape.  I saw a couple more runners pass by me on the Canal road.  And I saw Jeff, but we didn't speak today.  When I got home and looked in the mirror I could see red dots around my left nip.  I thought, "Did I bleed on such a short route?"  I mean, I did sweat a lot.  Then I looked at my right nip and could see a stream of blood going down my shirt.  It wasn't much, but I thought it would sting when I took my shower.  Lo and behold it was fine.  That is until the water hit my right armpit.  Then holy Hannah, it stung!  I guess my shirt tore the heck out of my under arm.  I'm going to have to get rid of it.
 

I guess I forgot to blog again.  (It's Saturday.)  Let's see what do I remember about this run?  Lots of sweat.  Definitely lots of sweat.  Jeff asked me what time it was and said it couldn't possibly be past 6am, could it?  It was 6:45am.

Well, I have to say this is the most miles I've gotten in a month in a while.  Just a guess.  I might go back and look when the last time I got this much.  I'm not sure if my shoes will last another 50 miles, but I'm optimistic.

This morning it was me, Vickie, Mike and Glen.  No Maggie.  She was sick.  It didn't seem like there was as many cyclists this morning as last week.  I had stretched out before Mike came to pick us up, so I only needed to stretch a little before I started.  I got another head start on everyone.  The first cyclist came cruising down the hill and turned around and headed back up.  I could hear him saying to Glen and Mike that they were the real men.  Glen caught me at the half mile point.  Mike caught me right around 0.9 miles.  Mike ran 14 secons per mile slower than he did last week.  I ran 10 seconds per mile faster.  When Glen passed me it was like I was standing still.  And he runs so effortlessly.  It's amazing.  I was able to keep Mike in my sights for most of the time.  Mike is really tall.  Like 6'5" or 6'6". He looked real stiff this morning and I thought he looked real goofy.  But then I thought, "He just passed me.  I must look even goofier."  Before I got to the top I saw another runner running down.  He was not part of our group.  Then I saw Mike coming down.  That means Glen had continued on.  When I got to the top I could see him coming back.  Last week we both got to the top at the same time.  This week I was a little ahead of him.  I stopped to take a quick drink out of my frozen water bottle that was mostly thawed out by this time, but still had a chunk of ice in the middle.  Oh my gosh, cold water during a run is soooo good.  Then I plodded downhill.  I don't know if it was my plodding or Glen's stealthiness, but I didn't hear him when he caught up to me and it startled me a little.  I asked how far he went.  He said down to the shooting range.  I asked if that's how far he went last week.  He said yes.  So I guess I'm getting faster and he's staying the same?  Anyway, I saw my wife right after she passed Bulldog.  That means I was a mile ahead of her.  Her goal was to average a 15:30 pace going uphill.  She average 15:36.  My water bottle stayed mostly cold on the way down, and I would take a couple of swigs every mile.  I finished it right before the stop sign.  I called Vickie to see if she wanted us to wait for her to finish or pick her up.  She said she was at 5.5 miles and wanted 6, so we should wait 10 minutes and then come get her.  So naturally I waited 5 minutes and we went and picked her up.  She got 6.2 miles.  Another fun run, but man I was sweaty.

After Saturday's run, which was my fastest time since we started running it again, I noticed that my legs felt surprisingly good.  So I thought I might as well try and run a little extra this morning than what I usually do.  I decided to run north up the Floodway path and continue north past Brown Rd.  A little less than a quarter of a mile (probably an eight of a mile) past Brown is where the Floodway path merges into the RWCD east road.  When I got there for some reason I thought I should take a look behind me and see if anyone was coming up the RWCD road.  Sure enough there was another runner coming behind me.  He quickly caught up to me and said, "Have a good one."  He looked a few years older than me, but he was moving fast.  I felt like I was moving slow, but my pace was one second per mile faster than Saturday's pace.  Anyway, when the runner got to Greenfield and crossed the street, he started walking and I could tell he was pretty tired.

Right before I got to McKellips I saw another runner coming towards me.  I thought maybe it was my Strava friend, Matt.  But it was some kid.  I saw a man walking his dog way up the road, but I never caught him.  He turned around at the catwalk and I continued on and touched the fence.  I couldn't catch him before he turned at the 1-1/2 canal gate either.  Again, I thought I must really be going slow.  Right before I got to Brown Road again I saw Gordon.  I petted him for the first time today. 

The daydawn is breaking, the world is awak'ning.  Y huyen las sombras de obscuridad.

I got up before 4am this morning and started running at 5:19am.  It was dark.  I didn't bring a light with me.  Except my phone, which I didn't use.  As I approached the Floodway path, I could see a cyclist coming up to Adobe from the south on the Floodway path.  He/she had to stop to squeeze through the fence opening.  He/she probably saw me turn on to the Floodway path heading north, so he/she decided not to follow me.   This is where it was real dark.  There was no moon or stars, just a little bit of light from the neighborhood.  Then I got to a place where someone had a very bright light in their backyard.  But that didn't help.  It made it worse as it blinded me.  I couldn't even tell if I was going to stay on the path or not.  Luckily I did.

I got to Brown and headed over to the RWCD road when I saw someone leaving going through the fence of the RWCD road.  He had a light and a dog and seemed to be moving swiftly.  It took me about a second, but I realized it was Jesse Lee from the ward.  You know, the former relief society president's husband.  I said, "Hi Jesse!"  He said, "Hey Burt."  Glad he recognized me in the dark.  Half way between Brown and Adobe I saw a woman on the west side of the RWCD Canal.  She also had a light and a dog.  I wondered if it was Jesse's wife, but I didn't ask.  Then when I got to Adobe there was another woman waiting for me to go through the fence so she could walk her dog.  She also had a light.  Apparently I didn't get the memo.  That was the last person I saw until I came up to Jeff.  It was still dark out, but dawn was upon us.  I couldn't see him right away, but then I noticed him standing up next to the tree.  I said, "Good morning, Jeff."  He said, "It's early.  What time is it?"  I said, "It's really early!", as I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time.  "It's 5:42!", I yelled as I ran by.

My pace was slower than yesterday which is to be expected when running in the dark.  My legs are a little sore from yesterday and Saturday, but they're good.

I had to go to a meeting today in Florence which is about an hour away.  I contemplated not going running, but I figured I had time.  I felt pretty good today.  I saw more runners than I usually see.  One was running on the RWCD road while I was running on the Floodway path.  He was going slightly faster than me.  He turned and went west when he reached Brown.  I saw another runner that was running west on Brown and turned north on the RWCD road.  She looked like she was going fast.  When I crossed Adobe I could see another runner in front of me maybe a quarter mile.  When he got to University he turned west.  But then he got on the west RWCD Canal road and headed north.  So I waved at him.  When I got to Jeff he said, "You're really picking up the pace today, huh?"  I said, "I'm trying!"  I did feel like I was running somewhat faster than normal, and I was, but not that much.  Oh well.

I got up early, but didn't go running 'til it was light out.  I did 3 loops today.  As I approached Adobe I saw Gordon and his owner crossing the street at the stop sign.  He finally turned his head, the owner that is, and saw me, so I waved at him.  Then I got on the Floodway path and turned north.  I saw the Porter ladies again.  I felt like I was running faster, but not really that much faster than yesterday.  I headed back south down the RWCD east road.  Not much was going on except that I noticed my breathing was under control and I felt good.  Half way between Adobe and University I heard footsteps behind me.  What the heck?  I turned and saw this tall blonde lady about to pass me.  She looked at me and said, "It's such a beautiful morning out.  I love it."  She had headphones on and couldn't hear a word I said back to her.  But I told her I agreed.  When she got to University she circled around a mesquite tree and headed back north.  We waved at each other and I crossed University and continued south.  I was still feeling good, but not like I was doing any better than yesterday even though I was running an extra mile than yesterday.  I saw Jeff standing at the edge of the Floodway looking out over it.  He seemed sad so I didn't say anything to him.  Then I saw Sis. Reed and her dog.  I told her good morning, and I finished up.  I was surprised when I looked at my Strava and saw that my pace was 20 seconds faster per mile than yesterday.  I think that's a good sign.

I've been doing real good at not missing days for at least a month now, except for Sundays.  I mostly run on a relatively flat surface except on Saturdays when we run Usery.  But I just signed up for a team to run the Arizona Trail Ragnar race in a month's time.  So I'm going to have to do some more hill training.  Also, I guess I'm currently in the middle of a Ragnar event.  The Triple Peak Challenge.  I'll blog about that Saturday.

Yesterday my brother-in-law had one of his court dates.  It's a real awkward situation because it's my wife's sister's ex-husband and we're supporting him instead of her.  I don't want to get into the "why's" here on the blog, but it was a long morning.  At least things finally got accomplished.  Afteward I had a headache.  I don't know if it was a stress headache from the last five years of seeing my BIL go through this or what, but I didn't get a lot of my work done yesterday like I wanted to.

I woke up early this morning and got dressed.  My wife told me that she had to babysit for someone in our ward.  I took Herbie out back and stretched out.  When I came upstairs to feed Herbie I saw my wife wearing regular clothes.  I'm so used to seeing her in her workout clothes that I asked her what she's doing.  Then I remembered she had to babysit.  And then I remembered that I needed to run Hilltop today because of the Ragnar Three Peaks challenge.  I had thought that I would have to take my daughters to school and do it then.  But my wife reminded me that it was still early and I could do it now, but she also asked me when the boys were going out on their survey this morning.  That's when I forgot that I didn't even set it up for them.  So I ran downstairs and got everything ready.  The point is, I've been very forgetful since yesterday.

I still had time to go before we had to get kids off to school and whatnot, so I drove over to Hilltop.  I started out real slow.  There were probably 20 other people hiking up and down it.  The first ascent up wasn't too bad, but I was wheezing a lot.  I stopped to catch my breath and take a couple of pictures and then headed back down.  Going back down was slow, too, because I didn't want to slip.  I went back up one more time and this time there was a lot of walking.  Then I ran back down again and drove home.  The total elevation gain as recorded by Strava was 612 feet.

I sent a text out yesterday to see who was running today.  Everyone was coming.  But I woke up at 3:45am to a text from Maggie saying she wouldn't be able to make it.  I went to the bathroom, then went and laid back down.  Then I went to the bathroom again.  Mike was supposed to pick us up at 5:00am, and I got a text at 4:53am saying he was here.  I texted him back and said I had just gotten off the toilet.  I threw my running clothes on and urged my wife to hurry up since she was lagging behind, too.  Then Mike texted again saying he needed to use our bathroom.  So I put Herbie outside and told him to come in.  This gave Vickie time to get ready.  But she also let Herbie back in before Mike went outside.  So Herbie started barking at Mike.  Then he stopped and went and sniffed his leg.  Then he started barking again.  Stupid dog.

By this time it was 5:04am and we went to pick up Glen.  We drove out to Usery, stretched out, and were on our way.  I left before everyone else, but Glen and Mike were right behind me.  Mike's tummy was giving him issues and he was worried that he'd have to turn around before getting to the top, but he made it fine.  Vickie also was having issues, but she held it in.  Mike and Glen both caught me at the stop sign as there were a few cars that I waited for because I don't trust anyone.  It was dark out so I was wearing my reflective vest, LED, and headlamp.  There were a lot of cyclists coming down, which was a bit annoying because I always step over into the dirt/gravel, and that's hard to do in the dark.  It wasn't until Bulldog that it was light enough for me to take my headlamp off, but I was only 0.8 miles to the top, so I left in on 'til then.  I saw Mike coming down first.  Glen is the fastest, but he always runs further.  Right as I got to the top I saw a bike slowing cresting over the hill.  It was a former Ragnar teammate of mine from 2008, Jay MacKinlay.  We stopped and talked briefly and I headed back down.  It's always fun to see people you know.  I saw Vickie near Bulldog again.  I think she was going slower than last week, but she's still putting in the work.  Now it's time for General Conference.  Good luck St. George marathoners.
 

Less than 20 miles to go on these shoes.

I finally took a day off.  Well, I always take Sundays off, but that doesn't count.  I am so busy with work.  I pretty much didn't work Conference weekend, so I have to catch up.  That's all I'm ever doing is catching up. 

There are all these pretty bushes that are in bloom right now with little purple flowers.  They smell like a rotting carcass whenever I run by them, but they really are pretty.  So I decided to take a picture of one which was off the path a little way.  Right when I got off the path I saw this lady.  She probably thought I was going over to tinkle.

I ran to the top of the RWCD Canal today.  That's nearly the same distance as our Saturday morning runs.  It felt like it was slow, but turned out to be a decent pace for me lately.  That's a good sign.  I feel exhausted now, so I hope I can have a productive day.

Today was kind of a weird day.  My legs are more sore than they have been in quite some time.  I guess that means I'm getting out of my comfort zone.  I normally have cub scouts today in the afternoon, so I was texting the parents of my scouts to see who would be able to make it today.  There's only two boys left.  Well, three, but one is real sickly and hasn't been able to come yet.  Another turns 9 this month and he earned his Wolf ages ago.  The other is the son of our former Bishop who reminded me that our current Bishop asked that there be no activities during Fall Break.  Well, both sets of parents were texting me back early in on my run and since my legs were sore, I stopped to read and respond to them.  While I was texting Bishop back I realized that standing across the other side of the Floodway was a man dressed in all red.  I was literally pointing right at him so that he might have thought I was taking his picture or something.  I finished my texts and looked back over and couldn't see him.  I started running again and went to the other side.  I still couldn't see him anywhere and I started imagining that he had crossed over the Floodway to find out why I was taking pictures of him.  I finally saw him about 200 feet south of where he was when I originally saw him.  There was a bike laying down where I had seen him.  I kept running 'til I got to him and saw that he was carrying a medium sized stone in his hand.  Did he want to bash me over the head?  He looked dirty, like maybe a vagabond.  We told each other good morning.  I kept going towards Adobe and I saw this older couple walking up the road.  I contemplated telling them to be on guard, but I didn't.  Instead I stopped at Adobe and watched to make sure they passed him safely. 

That was the half way point and my legs were feeling better so I kept going.  I ran down to University, left the RWCD road and went back to the Floodway path.  It's been a few days since I've been around here and I hadn't seen Jeff since the last time.  I could see his stuff from the RWCD road so I knew he was there.  When I got close I saw what looked like a clump of clothes.  But that's weird because he only has one outfit.  Then I realized it was him lying down with his jacket over his head.  I stopped to see if there was any movement.  I couldn't see any, but he's a sound sleeper.  Still, I guess he could have been dead.  I thought about calling for him, but didn't want to wake him.  So I started running again, but shortly thereafter I stopped again because there were all these tents set up behind some bushes on the other side of the path.  There was a bicycle and some other stuff.  I couldn't see anyone, but my imagination once again started to create a scenario that the red outfit guy and his crew set up camp here, murdered Jeff, and pulled his coat over his head.

I took my wife and we went and hiked Hilltop.  She summitted once and I did it twice.  My legs are still sore, but as long as I'm getting stronger, it's all good.

My muscles were real sore this morning.  I contemplated doing 3 loops today, but because of how my legs were feeling I was leaning more towards just 2.  Plus, I want to be fresh for tomorrow.  I figured I would decide while I was running whether or not to go 3.

It was dark out.  I saw a lady up ahead of me on Adobe walking her dogs.  I hoped she would continue straight, but she turned up the Floodway path.  I made sure to let her know I was coming when I got close so as to not spook her.  I was hoping my legs would loosen up and they finally did after a half mile.  When I got to Brown and went over to the Canal road, I saw a boy walking with a skateboard.  I told him good morning.  Then I could see a light coming up the way.  It was another lady walking a dog.  So many people out in the dark this morning.  Then I could see two more figures down the path.  I told them good morning.  They said good morning back to me as we passed and that's when I noticed it was the Ray's.  I said, "Oh hey, Ray's."  When I got to Adobe I still thought about doing 3 loops, but a quarter of a mile later, my knee started hurting a tad so I decided two would be fine.  I came back up the Floodway path and saw Jeff sleeping under his jacket again.  It's kinda getting cold now, so I hope he gets a thicker jacket.  It was starting to get light out.  Right before I got to Adobe I saw the same lady and her dog again, but she had taken off her headlamp.  When I got on Adobe I saw the Ray's again and wished them a great day.

So, our landlord wants to put the house on the market.  He offered to sell it to us, but my wife hates it.  Seems as though we'll be moving again shortly.  I'll miss my neighbors and friends and ward and Jeff and my running paths.  I hate moving.  We do it so often.  It would be nice to actually be able to settle down somewhere.  Hopefully this is the time.

Glen was out of town.  Maggie got back into town late.  Vickie was sick.  So it was just me and Mike this morning.  On the way there we almost hit a big fat skunk.  I started out with Mike right behind me.  He caught me at about 0.4 miles.  I only saw 4 cyclists on the way up.  They were all headed downhill.  I got to the top and saw that someone had decorated a small saguaro cactus in Halloween decorations.  I took a picture and headed back down.  This is when all the cyclists came out.  They must not be coming out as early anymore due to the colder weather.  I mean, why not wait until there's daylight if it's gonna be a beautiful day?  On the way down I saw two ladies standing on either side of the road.  I knew what that meant.  Horses.  There were probably 10 wild horses, one of them a baby.  I took a couple more pictures and finished up.  Over the last 6 weeks I've gotten faster and faster on this route.  I was 8 seconds per mile faster than last week.  Last week I was 6 seconds per mile faster than the week prior.  The week prior I was 10 seconds faster, which was 12 seconds faster, which was 24 seconds faster than the week previous.  The bottom of my right foot hurts now, but hopefully it will get better by Monday.
 

I just wanted to do a small run today because of how my foot felt after Saturday's run.  Seemed ok today, so I'll go further tomorrow.  I ran past Gordon today.  His owner saw me coming and made sure to put him on his leash real quick.  I don't think he needed to do that for me.  He probably didn't realize it was me at the time.  Anyway, I got to Brown and started heading back south on the RWCD road when I heard him hollering for Gordon.  Apparently Gordon had bolted for the street.  But he came back.  I continued south and saw two coyotes up ahead.  When I got closer the saw me coming so they went over to the bushes.  I took some pictures of them.  One of them squatted down and took a poo.  Honestly.  Coyotes have no sense of shame.  I tried to get close to them, but they ran away.  I looked around to see if Gordon was coming back, but they must've turned east on Brown.  I watched them for a while until I saw another runner coming.  When they got there I pointed them out to him.  Then I ran home.

Finally I get to put these shoes to rest.  I should've stopped wearing them 300 miles ago.  Little old lady.  I ran two loops this morning in the dark.  I was running south down the RWCD road and I heard some music behind me.  I glanced back and saw someone.  But it was dark, so I couldn't tell if it was one person, two persons, a person on their bike, or what.  Whoever it was, it seemed like they would pass me soon.  After running a little bit without being passed, I looked back again.  Now I could make out that it was one person and a dog.  I kept running and they finally passed me.  The man said, "Good morning, Burt."  It was Jesse Lee.  I said good morning back and later sent him and his wife a text message that he was a creeper for running in the dark without a light.  I'm trying to recruit them to join my Ragnar team.  What better way than by calling them creepers?  I kept running and Jesse put some some distance between us.  Then I could see another form up ahead.  Had Jesse reached the fence and turned around?  Nope, it's a man on a bike.  And he's headed right towards me.  I was pretty much hugging the edge of the Canal, and he wouldn't move over.  So I completely stopped and practically tippytoed the top of the canal bank so he could ride past.  Douche.  I kept going and I could see another shadowy figure.  Without arms.  It was a guy walking with his hands in his pocket.  I got to Adobe and could see Jesse running down to his neighborhood.  He lives on the other side of the Canal from me.  They are the soc's and we are the greasers.  I ran the next loop without seeing any more figures.  Other than Jeff snoozing away.

I'm feeling pretty good.  I wanted to do a long run, but I didn't get outside until late.  It actually wasn't that late, but I thought it was because I'd been up for over an hour.  So I did 3 loops.  It was just starting to get light out, but still dark when I started.  I came into the Floodway and a dog barked at me.  The owner said, "He won't bite.  He sees you running and wants to run with you."  I've seen this lady and her dog before.  I believe that's the exact same thing she said to me last time.  I got to Brown and went over to the RWCD road to head south.  Somewhere between Brown and Adobe I came across another runner whom I'd never seen before.  I ran down to Main Street, went back over to the Floodway path and headed back north.  My pace was pretty good.  Well, pretty good for me lately.  When I crossed University, I saw Gordon and I patted his head.  Then I saw Jeff snoozing with his jacket over his head.  The End.

2 climbs up Hilltop again.  My wife is part of a bunko group of 12 ladies.  So once a year bunko is held at my house.  Last night was that once a year.  I ended up eating my dinner in my room.  Naturally I fell asleep early.  My 4 year old grandson was also in bed with me with a fever.  Around 1:45am I woke up.  I couldn't get back to sleep for another two, two and a half hours.  I finally got out of bed around 7:45am which is the time we wake Emily up.  So, no running before getting her on the bus.  My wife and I left at 9am and it was a little warm.  I think I could have done more than just 2 climbs if we'd gone earlier and it was still cool out.

There were a lot of people there as usual.  Vickie didn't want to climb up because she is still not feeling well.  I haven't been able to run all the way up without stopping to catch my breath yet.  Maybe next week.  On the way down after the first climb almost at the bottom I saw this girl on the road ahead of me taking selfies.  I passed her up and stopped at the gate to catch my breath again.  She asked me how many times I was going to go up.  I said, "I think just twice."  She said, "Don't say 'just' twice.  That's great.  Keep up the hard work."  She smelled just like my wife's best friend, but I thought it would be inappropriate to tell her that.

I sent the text message out yesterday to see who was coming.  Mike said he couldn't come.  His dog died this week.  I don't know if that's why he didn't come or not.  Maybe.  Glen said he would need to be back by 7am, and it would be cutting it a little close, so he would let us know.  I said we could start at 4:30am if he wanted.  Maggie finally responded around 6:30am and said she would as long as my wife was coming.  I told her that my wife was feeling better and would be.  She was worried about the pizza she was going to eat and how it might make her feel sick.  I told her we were having Taco Bell for dinner, so we'd all suffer together.  Glen texted back after I had gone to bed to say he wouldn't make it.  So it was just me and the ladies.

The last three nights I've woken up real early.  I woke up around 3am this morning.  But that turned out to be a good thing because it gave me plenty of porcelain time, and I needed it after Taco Bell.  We told Maggie we would pick her up at 4:45am, but we got there 5 minutes late.  We drove out to Usery and I was trying to figure out how many miles I could get in because Maggie also needed to be back by 7am.  I figured 6 miles would be about right.

Maggie and Vickie got the head start today.  I was having trouble getting my LED blinky light to turn on.  I had almost given up, but then it came on.  I caught up to them shortly after the stop sign.  There was a whole slew of cyclists that were coming down right when I passed them and some cars.  It was like a traffic jam.  Luckily there's an extra patch of asphalt right there.  I was feeling rather good this morning despite the Taco Bell.  It was for the first time in a long time a bit cold.  I warmed up pretty quick, so it didn't bother me, but my wife complained that she was freezing the whole time.  She and Maggie stayed together and just walked today.  Maggie is going through a hard financial crunch right now, and she was unloading on Vickie.  I know it's got to be hard for her.

It was dark and hard to see my regular landmarks, but I was pretty sure I knew exactly where I was.  But I questioned myself because I was running faster.  I was like, "Am I really at 1.7 miles?"  I pulled out my Strava and it said 1.7 miles.  I think working out my climbing muscles doing Hilltop is really helping.  I felt strong all the way up.  I knew 3 miles would be shortly after Bulldog so I pulled Strava out and saw that I was at 3.0 miles.  I ran a little bit further just in case I stopped before reaching our Jeep or something.  Then I crossed the street, texted Vickie to let her know that I was turning around, and took a drink.  My water bottle was still over half way frozen.  Usually it thaws faster, but with the cooler temps it didn't.  It's still not melted all the way and it's 9:30am right now.  I headed back down and it felt like I was moving faster than my usual Saturday morning runs.  I was in fact.  My pace was 26 seconds faster per mile than last week.  It wasn't too long and I could see a couple of shadowy figures ahead of me.  I knew it must be Vickie and Maggie.  I hoped I could sneak up on them without them hearing me.  I caught up to them at 4.4 miles, but they heard me right before I got to them.  I still yelled "boo!" and good gamed my wife.  I was going to keep running, but she reminded me that she had the keys.  So I grabbed them from her and headed down for the final 1.7 miles.  There were other runners out today.  I think I saw 5 others.  Which is a lot.  I got down to the Jeep and was disappointed that I didn't see any wild horses today.  But I did see a coyote in the parking lot.  I did my best to call it over to me, but it wouldn't come.  Then I drove up the hill and picked up Vickie and Maggie.  We got her home by 6:55am.
 

I wanted to do a 6 mile run today, but it was getting kinda late by the time I got out the door.  I decided to run up the Floodway to Greenfield Rd. then back down the RWCD Canal to Main St. and home.  Turned out to be 4.65 miles.  I had a good pace despite the dessert I ate last night.  I could feel it, but I think I'm definitely getting faster.  After doing the loop from Brown to Greenfield and back to Brown, I could see a lady walking with two little dogs.  She all of the sudden turned around and headed back towards Brown.  I thought that was an odd place to turn around.  Did she forget something?  Did she have diarrhea like I did this morning?  I said good morning to her and then spotted a coyote up ahead on the Canal road.  I said, "Is that a coyote?" (knowing full well that it was.)  I just wanted to make conversation.  She said yes.  Turns out the two coyotes I saw last week are still hanging around.  I wonder if they have babies around there somewhere.  They seemed like they were being protective.  Or maybe they were just hungry.  I stopped for a while and took pictures and video.  Then I finished my run.

I got out the door a little earlier today, so I was ready to run a little longer.  My right hamstring is a bit tight. 

So, I take my dog on a walk every day around 5:30PM - 6PM.  Last night I was hoping we'd find the coyotes again that I saw on my run in the morning.  We usually go south down the middle of the Floodway.  We went north and Herbie was very excited to be exploring something new.  As we were going a lady and a kid told us that there was a coyote just up ahead of us.  I thanked her and it wasn't long before we saw it.  Of course Herbie wanted to chase it, but knowing that there are two of them, I wasn't about to let go of the leash.  We just watched it for a while, and when it disappeared in the bushes, we cut through the brush on to the east Canal road.  There we saw it again.  I took three videos of it.  One when we were down in the bottom of the Floodway and two on the Canal road.  In the second video (all of the videos are posted on Facebook) we decided to get a little closer and chased it back in the bushes again.  Then we headed back south toward home and saw it one more time.  Only now, it was agitated and started yipping at us.  My guess is that they've got a litter of pups right close to there and they're being protective.  It's a real cool video.

Anyway, this morning I wanted to see if I could see them again so I ran past there.  I didn't see them.  I continued north all the way up to McDowell.  It's about 2.8 miles to McDowell.  I turned back south and a half mile later I saw my Strava buddy Michael.  I said, "Good morning, Michael!"  He said, "Hey, good morning!  Lookin' good, Burt!"  It was cool.  Then a quarter mile later I saw a coyote.  This coyote was about a mile north of the ones I saw yesterday.  I would assume it wasn't one of the same ones.  It ran over into the orange grove.  When I got close I turned the volume all the way up on my phone and played the video of the coyote yipping from last night.  I was trying to draw it out.  But it was too smart.

Not exactly sure on the mileage because Strava glitched.  It's done this twice now, both on top of Hilltop.  Maybe because I took a picture?  Anyway, today is Friday.  I forgot to blog yesterday.  And my hamstring was kinda sore all day Tuesday, so I decided to take Wednesday off, even thought it felt fine Wednesday.

I decided to try three climbs today on Hilltop.  It was quite the workout.  It's a nice steep-ish climb, and it's perfect for Ragnar trail training.  Next week is the race. 

My legs are sore from yesterday's hill work.  I was just going to do one loop, but decided to go two.  I saw three other runners out including my Strava friend Matt.
 

Today we had me, Vickie, Mike, Glen, and Bryan show up to run Usery.  Maggie was sick, so she texted that she couldn't make it.  Bryan drove himself and didn't get there until right after we started running.  It was about 46º according to Mike's truck.  Everybody was freezing.  Except for me.  I stay nice and warm underneath this layer of insulation.  My fat.  My fat is my layer of insulation.  Anyway, it was around 5:30am when we started running, so it was still dark out.  Vickie was the first to leave.  Then I left.  Then Mike.  Then Glen.  Glen said he saw Bryan pull in as he was leaving.  Mike passed me right before I passed Vickie.  I pinched her behind.  Glen caught me after 3/4 of a mile.  He ended up running about 9.1 miles.  Around the 1.5 mile mark, a couple of cyclists came cruising down.  When thye got to me one of them yelled, "Crazy people!"  But he said it in a kind voice.  I heard him yell it again a few seconds later.  I figured he was yelling at my wife.  Then I heard him yell it again.  I didn't put two and two together until a little bit later when I heard Bryan's footsteps behind me.  I told him it was good to see him, and I gave him a fist bump.

I wasn't feeling great today.  I didn't sleep well, and I woke up with a sore throat.  It was one of those days where the goal is just to run the distance.  I have been steadily getting faster each week, but I slowed down considerably today.  Mike, on the other hand, was feeling great, and he ran almost 2 minutes per mile faster than me today.  He was about 6 tenths of a mile ahead of me when we passed each other, me going up, and him going down.  Not long after that I saw Bryan.  Bryan never caught Mike, and they only saw each other briefly when they finished.  I got to the top and couldn't see Glen.  It was starting to get light out, but I kept my headlamp on for a little more.  Maybe three quarters of a mile.  Right before I saw my wife.  She wasn't feeling great either, but she did real good.  Glen finally caught up to me with one mile to go.  Right after he passed me, a cyclist waved at me with his hand high in the air.  It was Jay again.  I tried to give him a high five, but I was too late.  I got down to the bottom and was disappointed to not have seen any horses.  But Vickie saw a coyote.  We then drove to pick her up.  She ended up getting 5.88 miles. So, pretty good.

Seems like every time I do Hilltop my Strava glitches.  It's weird.  Anyway, I had a sore throat yesterday, so I didn't run.  I still feel a little sick today, but if I'm going to be able to run this weekend, I need to get a few more runs in.  I have been going to Hilltop on Thursdays, but I didn't want to do it the day before the race, so I did it today.  I brought my inhaler with me and ended up taking two puffs of it while running, both on the first ascent.  I ran as far as I could until I had to catch my breath.  Both times I stopped three times on the way up probably about the same place each time.  Hilltop is pretty steep.  Much steeper I think than even the yellow loop of the McDowell Trail race.  Even though I haven't been able to run all the way up to the top without stopping, I still feel confident.  We'll see how it goes.

My sore throat is pretty much gone, but now my lungs are starting to gunk up.  I hoped that if I tried to run faster today, it would help clear some of it out.  Also, I am hoping that some speed work will do good for my race this weekend.  I'm going to skip out on a spooky run tomorrow so that I'm fresh for Friday.  I actually felt decent while running faster than I have in a long while. 

It was quite cold for me this morning.  My phone said it was 51º.  I almost thought about going back inside and putting on a warmer outfit than the shorts and T-shirt I was wearing.  But I did not think about it.  :)  I know that I warm up pretty quick once I start running, but I wondered if I actually would today.  I did.  I was looking for coyotes, but I didn't see any.  When I was heading south down the RWCD road, I saw someone walking toward me.  Then I was like, "Hey, I know her."  It was my wife.  We kissed.  Then I got to Adobe and thought I saw a coyote, but it was a dog.  When I got to University I saw a lady walking her dog.  I was going to step off the sidewalk and run in the street, but she did it first.  As I was running by her dog wanted to play with me so she kneed it in the face.  Then I headed north on the Floodway path and saw a homeless guy sleeping in a sleeping bag.  It's the same guy I see from time to time.  Then I saw two more homeless people laying/sitting up against the wall.  I'm pretty sure it was a guy and a lady, but the lady had her head covered with a coat.  Then I saw Jeff in his usual spot.  He had his head covered with his jacket and was sleeping.  I hope.

Ragnar #32

Last year I jumped on a team last minute-ish to run this relay.  I had missed it the two previous years, but was feeling pretty good last year, and didn't want to miss it again.  The team that I joined was an RWB team out of Sierra Vista.  They actually had three teams, and this year they put together four teams.  Scott, Victor, and Joshua, were returning from last year.  Theresa from last year was on another one of the teams.  The other three didn't come.  In their place was Victor's wife, Brenda, newcomers Lulu and Jackie, and returning from last year, but on a different team, Katherine.

The order we ran in was Brenda, Joshua, Chris, Lulu, Jackie, me, Katherine, and Victor.  Everyone was able to run all of their legs without a problem.  Joshua even picked up an additional leg from one of the other teams.  Joshua was our fastest runner, followed shortly by Victor.  But Victor was having stomach issues, so he struggled on one of his legs, but still ran faster than me.  Being runner #6 means I started with the red loop, then the yellow loop, and finally the green loop.

My boys had a survey Friday morning, so I had them drop me off on their way.  I saw Rae checking in the vehicles and charging everyone the park entrance fee of $10.  The line was a little longer than I though it would be, but we finally got to the gear drop and it ended up being right in front of our campsite.  Lucky.  I took my gear to camp and was surprised that I actually got there in time to see Brenda start us out. 

I did a lot of sleeping.  I took about an hour nap before my first run.  I ate a light lunch around 11am.  I don't like running with a lot of food in my belly, but you need to eat something.  I finally started my red loop at 2:39pm.  It was warm.  Probably about 80º.  I'm used to that kind of heat, even though it's cooling down here, so it wasn't too bad, but I believe it did slow me down some.  The red loop is the longest loop.  6.73 miles.  I ran it 46 seconds slower per mile than last year.  I felt strong going up the hill, but just like last year, when I reached the water station around mile 4.3, it was hard to start running again.  I finally convinced myself that I could do it, but I had to take off my shirt because I felt like my nipple was going to explode soon if I didn't.  There's a hairpin turn around mile 5.5.  I had to walk some of that briefly, but after that I had no problem finishing up.  I put my shirt back on about a quarter mile from the finish line.  I saw my friend Josh (a different Josh, from the Adventure Run) while he was running the green loop.  I gave him a fist bump as he passed me.  When I finished and handed the bib off to Katherine, I apologized.  She thought I was apologizing for being slow, but it was for sweating all over the bib.

I decided it would be a good idea to eat dinner as soon as possible right after running.  There were food trucks of all kinds and we got a dinner included with our race entry.  I wanted to get a gyro sandwich, but the line was real long, so I ended up getting a Sicilian mac 'n cheese bowl.  It has Italian sausage, grilled onions, and tomatoes.  It was delicious, but 6.7 miles in the heat wiped me out, and I couldn't finish it for lack of appetite.  But one of my favorite parts of the race happened during dinner.  I met another blogger in real life.  And yes, nobody blogs anymore, but it still counts whether they actively blog, quit blogging, or even just created a blog and never made an entry.  If there's anyone I'd really like to meet in real life that I haven't yet other than allie, it would be this guy.  Twinkies!!!

I also got to meet his lovely wife, Susie, who was once upon a time a blogger herself.  Apparently I passed Susie on my first loop.  She remembered my orange outfit.

After dinner I took another nap.  It started getting cold when the sun went down so I put my sweats and sweat shirt on.  About an hour before it was my turn to run again I rolled out of my sleeping bag and got ready.  I took off my sweats and sweat shirt and found that I was actually hot even though it was cold.  Menopause, I guess.  On my way to the transition tent, I saw Kelli.  I can't hyperlink her anymore because she's deactivated her blog, but I gave her a side hug and talked to her for a few minutes.  Now it was time for the yellow loop.  Jackie handed off to me and I started my night run.  It was 11:23pm.  I wore my headlamp.  There was no moonlight.  It wasn't too long into my run that I noticed my headlamp wasn't shining as bright as it normally does.  Rookie mistake not to change the batteries before the race.  I ended up having to take it off my head and hold it in my hand so I could see.  Running the yellow loop at night is no fun.  Actually running the yellow loop in the day is no fun, but at night it's very difficult.  I slipped, stumbled, and tripped, but never fell down, thank goodness.  I only stopped briefly to text Kathy that I had one mile left.  Yellow loop really works your muscles.  There's lots of ups and downs.  Even though it's 4.72 miles and doesn't go as high up as the red loop, there is more overall elevation gain because of all the ups and downs.  Kelli says it's her favorite loop.  I remember thinking, despite the imminent danger, it wasn't too bad.  But then there were a couple of places where it was just up, down, up, down, and I thought, "This isn't cool." I was 77 seconds per mile slower than last year.

After finishing yellow I went back to camp and slept some more.  (Actually, before that I saw Kelli again.  I told her no more hugs for her because I was dripping wet with sweat.  Her friend that she was with gasped in horror with the amount of sweat that I had produced.)  When the morning came, it felt even colder.  And of course, the wind picks up once the sun comes out.  Still, the high was supposed to be 85º.  It was 9:05am when it was my turn to run again.  Now was the green loop.  The green loop is by far the easiest.  The climb is very moderate, almost unnoticeable.  There is one quick steep climb right before the street, but that's it.  I remember wishing I had run this leg last year during the day where I could see better, because I believed I could have run it real fast.  So I was excited to be able to run it this year in the daylight.  And I didn't feel to bad before running it, but as I got going, I realized I didn't have much left in my tank.  I ran it 61 seconds per mile slower than last year.  Oh well.  What I remember most was a kid passing me real fast about half a mile in.  He was running the red loop.  The green loop is a loop within the red loop.  They share the same path for the first three quarters of a mile.  Then red turns and makes the big climb up the mountain while green continues forward on the gradual incline.  The meet back up at the two mile mark and diverge again at the 2.4 mile.  Then they meet back up for the final quarter mile right before the timing pad.  The kid was wearing a black T-shirt with a giant middle finger on it.  I was like, "That's kind of rude."  But at the same time, it's kinda funny.  Cuz really, what am I gonna do about it?  I can't catch him.  Anyway, I saw him charge up the mountain and we parted ways.  But of course right before the finish line he caught me again for one last you know what.  Ha!  As I was making my way into the chute someone was cheering for me.  I looked and saw it was my friend Ricci, Josh's girlfriend.  Josh was there, too.  Then I heard other people saying, "Great job, Burt!", but I didn't know who they were because I was focused on that final hill and not falling.  Maybe it was Twinkies and Susie?

So, I finished another Ragnar.  I was still a little sick, but was grateful that I was able to run at a decent pace the entire time.  I had a fun team and had a good time.  My wife picked me up and we went to Baskin Robbins to get a Rocky Road milkshake.

I took yesterday off because the bottoms of my feet are pretty torn up and sore from the trail running.  I have a couple of blisters.  But I dont' want to lose any of my fitness, so I went out today.  I coughed up some gunk, but that's a good thing.  My feet were feeling fine while running.  I was looking for coyotes, but didn't see any.  They're good hiders.  I did see a lady cross the Floodway with her unleashed dog.  I thought that wasn't a good idea, even though the coyotes generally leave you alone.  But that have been following some people, I hear.  Anyway I got about a half mile in, and I heard a siren.  This made a coyote start to howl.  Normally they yip, but I would consider this a howl.  So, I immediately stopped and looked for it.  I still couldn't see it.  I could see the lady walking on the other side of the Floodway and hoped she would put her dog on a leash now that she could hear the coyote.  But she didn't.  I continued running and crossed over to the other side of the Floodway heading towards her now.  I couldn't see her dog anywhere.  I'm like, are you crazy lady?  She started to head back in to the Floodway, and I was afraid I'd have to chase the coyotes away from her dog, and hoped it wouldn't be too late.  But when I finally saw her again, both she and her dog were safely on the other side of the Floodway.  So that's good.

When I got done running, my lower back started to hurt.  I hope it doesn't get worse.  Sore backs are the worst!
 

I have not been able to run the past few days because my back has been hurting so bad.  I texted the team yesterday.  Only Maggie said she was going to come.  And she ended up cancelling this morning due to "woman issues", whatever that means.  So my wife and I headed up to Usery shortly after 5:30am.  I wasn't sure how my back would do, so I went as slow as possible.  Vickie had a minute or two head start on me.  I didn't catch her until after a half mile.  She stayed pretty close to me as I was afraid to run very fast.  I decided I would do 2 miles up and come back, but my back started to hurt.  I kept pushing myself, and then I saw some wild Salt River horses.  I crossed the street and took some pictures.  My wife caught up to me.  I figured this was a good place to turn around.  She wanted to keep going so she told me to call her when I was done.  I slowly made my way back down.  When I was done, I called her and she said she was feeling good and wanted to keep going.  So I hung out in the Jeep for a while playing Words with Friends.  Then I went for a hike in the desert to see if I could find more horses.  I couldn't.  My wife texted me when she was 3/4 of a mile away, so I turned around.  She ended up beating me back to the Jeep, and we drove back home, but I kept my eyes open for horses.  I spotted some by the new stop sign they installed.  We stopped to take more pictures.  Then we drove back and saw some more about a quarter mile down the road.  We stopped again and followed them until they reached the other group of horses.  There was 22 total.

I need to catch up on my blogging!  Today was Veteran's Day, and it seems there were a lot of people staying home from work.  I saw half of the ward out on my run today!

I got out later than usual.  It was after 9am.  My back was feeling better.  I stopped a few times to take pictures.  The first time was when I saw three old airplanes flying together.  Next is when I saw a coyote.  What was he doing up so late?  I remember stopping one more time, but I don't remember why.  It wasn't for a picture.

Okay.  Now I'm caught up on my blogging.  Yesterday I took my Wolf scout and the Bear scouts on what will be not only our final hike, but our final den meeting.  We'll have pack meeting next week, and the following week is Thanksgiving.  After that, Bishop wants us to concentrate on family time in the month of December.  So luckily, I was able to get all the requirements done for our lone wolf to earn his Wolf.  We hiked up Hilltop and we all had garbage grabbers so we could pick up garbage along the way.  It wasn't that bad.  My wife had done the same thing with her Activity Girls a couple of weeks ago.  We got up to the top just as the sun was going down.  We did a skit and ate snacks, and then hiked back down.  We dropped off all the boys at their houses and when we got to the new kid's house, we saw a moving truck in front of it.  I remembered that his mom recently gave a talk in sacrament meeting, as bishoprics commonly pick the new families to speak.  She said for some reason all of their stuff was still in Maryland.  They had been here for a few months!!  Well, apparently today was the day that their stuff finally arrived.

After that I got ready to go to Young Women's in Excellence night.  My daughter Emily had worked real hard all year to earn her Personal Progress medallion.  My wife's best friend would work with her every Wednsesday and Saturday, and slowly but surely they checked off all the modified requirements for her to earn it.  All the young women were really impressed and I was touched at how inclusive they are for my special little girl.

After the program ended I saw the parents of the boy whose family's belongings had arrived that day.  I asked if they were glad all their stuff was here and the father said yes and that he was hoping to recruit some guys to help unload the piano.  I offered to help and I put a blast out on our ward Facebook page to see who else could help.  Between that and his recruiting we had 8 men show up.  But then Danny Brinkerhoff practically moved it himself.  He had his piano dolly and he told everyone to back off.  He lifted up one end of the piano, kicked the dolly underneath it and wiggled the piano into place on top of the dolly.  It was quite impressive.  There was also a large wooden armoire behind the piano that he couldn't get to.  So somehow I got on the wrong end of the dolly for that one.  Oh my gosh, it was heavy!  I pulled it in the house mostly by myself and regretted it because it kind of made my back sore.

Anyway, that was a long story to say that my back is getting better, but every day so far I start to feel it during the second loop of my run.  All in all, it was a decent run, though.

For most of the last school year I would pick up Emily from school on Fridays.  Now that she's in junior high, I haven't done it at all.  But she wanted me to yesterday, so I finally did.  We would mostly always go to Taco Bell.  That's where we went yesterday.

I texted the team to see who was running today.  It would just be me, Vickie, and Mike.  Mike said he would pick us up at 5am.  I set my alarm for 4:02am.  But then I didn't get up when it went off.  I thought I would be safe to sleep in a little longer.  I should know by now that I need at least an hour for my bowels to wake up properly.

I managed to get some out before Mike got there and thought I was good.  But guess what?  I had Taco Bell yesterday!  Remember?  So by the time we got to Usery, I asked Mike if he had any TP.  Luckily he had two rolls under the seat.  I went off in the desert behind a bush and popped a squat.  So gross.  Vickie had already left and Mike hollered at me that he was leaving.  He wanted to know if he could lock the truck up.  I told him I had all my stuff, so he was good.  Mike left and I finished up.  I placed the roll of TP on his dashboard and finished putting on my gear.

According to Strava, Vickie had a three quarter mile head start on me by the time I started running.  Mike was right behind her.  Mike runs much faster than I do, so I only saw him as he was coming down.  When I got to the intersection, I saw pylons in the middle of the road.  They looked like they went at least a half a mile up the road where the road bends.  I hoped that was all the further they went because cars were driving on the shoulder and I had to get off the road every time a car came by.  Well, I got to the first half mile and could see that they went to the next half mile.  I felt like texting the group to see how long they go, but I didn't want to wake up those that didn't run today.  I got to mile one and could see that they kept going.  That's when I knew in my heart they went all the way to the top!  Now, I usually get off the road whenever a cyclist comes by, so it's not that big of a deal, but there are much more cars than cyclists, so it was like every five minutes!  And there were places that the dirt is more like sand, or rocks, or sloping.  So it was no fun.

Speaking of cyclists, there was not a single one until I got to 0.15 miles from the top.  I thought that was smart of them to avoid riding here because you can't get off the road on a road bike.  But I saw a lot more cyclists making their way up the hill and some going downhill while I was running down.

After a while of running I was starting to get worried that I hadn't seen my wife yet.  I was hoping that she's just getting faster, not that she had been plowed over by a vehicle and thrown in a ditch somewhere.  I saw Mike coming down at the 3 and a quarter mile mark, which means he was a mile ahead of me.  I was going to ask him if he had seen Vickie, but just then I saw her behind him.  It was still dark out so I couldn't tell if she was going uphill or downhill, but she was on the other side of the road.  She needs to start wearing a blinkly light.  I was like, "Did she beat me to the top?"  But I realized that she was still going up and I finally caught her a quarter of a mile before the top.  She said that she was sick of getting forced off the road all the time, so she switched sides.  I actually did that twice, but both times I was too nervous that I wouldn't see the vehicle behind me and would get hit, so I went back to the regular side, against traffic.

I ran back down.  My back seems to be back to normal, but my pace was a little slower than it has been in the weeks leading up to Ragnar.  But, it was decent.  I'll take it.  Mike finished a mile and a half ahead of me.  I finished 0.9 miles ahead of Vickie.  We waited for her to finish this time.  She's getting stronger and stronger.

I didn't run yesterday.  I got dressed to, but I got busy.  Yesterday was a very busy day.  And since I was still wearing my running clothes all day yesterday, all night last night, and this morning, it was no problem to get out today.  I headed out to do my normal two loops, but when I got to the Floodway I noticed that they had finally finished mowing down the final bit of creosote trees along the west bank of the Floodway.  Sounds like somone else also had a very busy yesterday. 

We used to see only one coyote.  But when they mowed down all the trees, four of them moved in together and hung around the remaining bushes.  Now I wonder where they will go.  Hopefully not in my backyard with my chickens.  So instead of turning around at Brown, I decided to cross Brown and run up to Greenfield just to see if there were bushes over there for the coyotes.  Looks like they got those, too.  I took a picture of the Floodway and then took a picture of the beautiful sunrise.

After turning back around at Greenfield I ran my normal route.  I felt ok.  I even saw my wife out running and I teased her for starting to run when she saw me.  She said she was doing quarter mile intervals and she just reached the quarter mile mark.

It started raining yesterday around 3pm and hasn't stopped since.  Sometimes it's just a light drizzle.  Sometimes it's a downpour with lightning and thunder.  This morning I waited until 9am when it seemed like there was a break in the action.  It was still a light drizzle, but it felt good.  The Floodway looked to have a foot of water sitting in the bottom of it.  There were ducks everywhere.  I saw a few people walking their dogs.  I got to where Jeff usually is and saw his stuff, but he was gone.  He usually doesn't have that much stuff.  Mostly the clothes on his back and some water bottles.  But there was a bag of stuff there today.  About 0.4 miles before being done it started to rain just a little bit harder.  But it didn't get very bad, and my pace was a lot faster than yesterday.

I could hear it raining every time I woke up last night.  But it stopped momentarily while I was running this morning.  My back was a little sore before the run, but it didn't bother me at all while running.  In fact, I felt stronger than I have in a while and my pace was even quicker than yesterday.
 

Yesterday while I was walking Herbie, my knee started to hurt.  I was hoping it was just the cold weather.  Maybe it is.

We had 6 runners from the Ragnar team show up this morning.  There was only one that didn't come that was invited.  That was Maggie.  Vickie, Mike, Bryan, Glen, and I showed up in one vehicle, and Alyssa got there 5 seconds before us in hers.  She was real worried because the furthest she's run is 4 miles since our last Ragnar two years ago. 

Vickie took off before everyone else.  Alyssa needed a headlamp, and luckily Mike always brings extra.  Mike took off, and after helping Alyssa adjust the strap of the headlamp, I took off.  Then Bryan and Glen left together followed shortly by Alyssa.  I ran out of the parking lot and about 40 feet up the road when all of the sudden my knee started to hurt real bad.  I immdediately stopped to try and stretch some more.  Glen and Bryan passed me, and Glen asked if I was all right.  After stretching briefly, I started to run again, but this time much slower. 

I was going to switch my batteries out in my headlamp this morning, but when I opened it up, I realized I needed triple A batteries and I only have double A's.  So, I ran with a dim light again.  But that worked out to my advantage when I caught up to Vickie at 1.6 miles and grabbed her behind.  She jumped pretty good.  Hee hee hee.

I could see Alyssa's light behind me as she was working her way up the hill.  After I passed Vickie, I couldn't see her anymore.  At 0.3 miles from the top I saw Mike coming back down.  That meant he was 0.6 miles ahead of me.  I got to the top and headed back down.  That's when I felt the wind blowing and it was kinda cold.  Luckily it was just at the top.  I passed my wife at the 4 mile mark, pretty close to the same place Mike passed by me.  Then I saw Bryan coming up behind me.  He passed me up and then I saw Alyssa.  About 10 seconds later I looked back and thought I saw Glen.  I kept expecing Glen to pass me, but he never did.  I looked back a couple of more times and his light was about 20 yards behind me, so I started to wonder if he was ok.  Now it was starting to get more light out, so I looked back again and realized it was Alyssa.  Ha!

Glen did finally pass me with one mile to go.  At about a half mile to go I stepped on a shredded piece of tire, and the reinforcing wires stuck to my shoe.  I tried kicking it off, but it wouldn't release.  So I stopped and pulled it out and threw it to the side of the road.  I decided to wait for Alyssa to catch up to me and we ran the last half mile in together.  She did pretty good on the downhill.

I texted Vickie to see what she wanted us to do.  She said that she was at 6.25 miles so we could do whatever.  I was going to say let's go get her, but everyone was talking, so I decided to wait for a break in the action, which there never was.  Vickie also texted me a selfie of herself and a shovel that she found.  She ended up carrying the shovel with her for the last two miles.

After a while I was getting worried because if she was at 6.25, that means she should only have 1.15 miles to go and she was averaging a 14 min. pace coming down.  Well, it turns out she actually went 4 miles and then turned around.  So she ran 8 miles, the longest she's every run.  She showed me up today.

It was a fun run.  I'm glad the construction pylons were gone this week.  I wish my kne wasn't hurting, but my pace wasn't too bad.  Next week we're going up to Utah for Thanksgiving.  We'll see how that affects my running schedule.  And I'm totally bummed that the BOSA donut challenge is next Saturday, and we'll be out of town!!! 
 

Last night we went to my wife's best friend's house for dinner.  There was a lot of people there and I didn't want to use the bathroom so I held it in the whole time.  When we got home I immediately took Herbie on a walk.  I couldn't hold it any longer so I went on the side of the trail.  This morning I could still see the stain.

I wore my trail shoes today because I packed my regular running shoes.  We're going to Utah today and will spend the rest of the week at my sister's house in Enoch.  It's always a good time, but there's going to be a lot of snow this year, so I'm worried.

So today I turned north on the Floodway path and saw a coyote in the Floodway.  I kept running and I saw another close to it.  Then I thought I saw another, but I quickly noticed it was a dog.  I was too far away to see the owner.  I got closer and recognized that it was Gordon.  The coyotes were cautiously keeping their distance as was Gordon, but neither were running away.  I then saw Gordon's owner.  He was trying to call Gordon back to him.  But Gordon doesn't always listen to him.  So when I got close enough I called him.  He came darting toward me.  It was cool.  Then his owner struggled to get his leash on him because his hands were so cold and he couldn't push the metal clip open.  He finally got it and we talked about coyotes for a minute.  Then I took back off and as I was getting close to Brown, I saw a Flood Control truck coming down the path.  I flagged them down and told them about the coyotes.  They probably thought I was weird.  I then continued running my loop and when I got to the other side I stopped to take a picture of the coyotes.  They ran to other side of the Floodway.  Not sure if the workers saw them or not, but they probably did if they were looking.  When I got to Adobe I had caught up to the workers even though they were on the other side of the Floodway.  They have to stop and unlock each gate as they drive down and then lock them back up again.  I passed the RWCD well which is the half way point between Adobe and University when they passed me again.  I caught back up to them at University and was running back over towards them.  The kid that was locking up the gates had to zig and zag because I almost ran into him.  Ha! 

Jeff wasn't there today.  I hope he's gone to a shelter.  It's getting too cold to be sleeping outside.

Like every year for the last few years, we rented an RV and went up to my sister's house in Enoch, UT for the week of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving Day was the first run I did.  It was snowing.  I headed east from her house out to the main road that parallels the I-15 Freeway.  I realized that if I headed north I would have snow blowing in my face.  But it was either snow blowing in my face now or later, so I chose now.  I ran another half mile up the main road and stopped when I saw that Strava was at 1.0 miles.  Then I looked over to the Freeway and saw an undercrossing.  I decided to run there.  I took a couple of pictures and headed back.  I felt better on the way back because there was no snow blowing in my face and it was downhill.  But when I turned on my sister's street that snow was in my face again.  All I had on was my regular running clothes, a pair of sweat pants, and a hoodie.  And one time I stopped on the way out and my glassed immediately fogged up, so I had to put them in my pocket.  Maybe snow running would be fun if I had the proper gear.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My second and last run in Utah.  We celebrate Christmas with my side of the family right after Thanksgiving.  My family likes to call it Thanksmas, but I say it should be called Christgiving, because why take Christ out of Christmas?  Anyway, we all went to IHOP in the morning.  All 28 of us.  Then I had a small window to go running while everyone else wrapped presents. 

It was no longer snowing, but snow was all over the ground.  I decided to run to the culvert underpass again.  I wanted to get more miles than Thursday.  I took a back road to get out to the main road.  It's almost a straight shot to the culvert, so it shaves some distance off from how I ran it Thursday, but it was covered in snow, so I had to run slower.  I got to the underpass and ran to the opposite side of the freeway.  I then ran on a dirt (but mostly snow) road north parallel with the I-15 Freeway.  So if anyone was heading north and saw a guy running in a black hoodie and dark blue sweats just north of Cedar City, that was me.  I ran until I got tired of running and then turned around.  When I crossed under the freeway again I decided to run along the main road instead of taking the short cut.  I ran against traffic, but luckily there were only a few cars.  I stopped when I got to my sister's street to make sure the traffic was clear.  That's when I saw two fast runners, one boy and one girl, behind me.  I waved at them as I crossed the street.  Then I finished up and enjoyed the rest of Christgiving with my family.

We're home now.  It's 1 in the morning on Dec. 2nd.  I drove all day Sunday.  Now I think I'll go to bed.

It's good to be back in the 'hood, where it's shorts and T-shirt weather year round.  I went to bed late and woke up with a headache.  I finally got outside at 9am, but then I talked with my neighbor for a while.  They did the BOSA donut challenge as a family.  Still bummed that I couldn't do it this year.  Anyway, I finally started at 9:25am.  I felt ok, despite only running three days last week and eating everything.  Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I weigh the same or less than I did before I left on vacation.  Not sure how that happened.  Maybe my scale is broken.

I turn 46 today.  So naturally I need to run 46 miles.  How about 4.6 miles?  Yeah, I'll do that instead.

3 loops today.  I was sore for some reason, so I went slow.  The weather is perfect.

I skipped yesterday.  Busy at work again.  When I got to the Floodway I saw a lady walking her dog.  As I got closer I saw that she was wearing a Ragnar McDowell Trail shirt.  She said good morning, and I said, "I think I have that shirt."  She said, "Yeah.  Ragnar."  Good story. 

I think Jeff has moved about a quarter mile south now.  That's where I've seen him the last couple of times.  I think he has a sleeping bag now, so that's good.  He asked if I had my wallet with me today.  Nope.  Sorry.

It was me, Vickie, Maggie, and Mike this morning.  I went to bed last night feeling kinda sick.  Achy all over.  Luckily I woke up feeling better.  I thought it might be cold this morning, so I wore some long running pants.  It wasn't cold.  It was perfect.  I was hoping for a good run today because for whatever reason, hurt back, being sick, I haven't been able to run very well on a Saturday run lately.  I did feel good, so it was nice.  Vickie and Maggie were the first to leave, but they didn't get a very big head start on us.  Mike left just after me.  Mike caught me seconds before I caught Vickie at the 0.4 mile mark.  I could only see Maggie when a car came by because she was wearing all black and had no reflective gear or lights.  I finally caught her around 0.75 miles.  I couldn's sneak up on anyone today because I was wearing a brand new headlight, and it was quite bright.  For the last few weeks, I've seen on Strava that Mike always goes a little bit further than the top.  So today I wanted to get more distance than him so I kept going.  He must've known or something because he ended up with 7.6 miles.  Jerk!  I headed back down and was surprised to see Maggie wasn't too far behind.  I was maybe half a mile ahead of her.  She hardly runs, but if she did, she could be faster than me.  Then I saw Vickie and I was about three quarter of a mile ahead of her.

I was feeling good, and was hoping for a fast time.  It was the fastest I've done all year, but not as fast as I thought it would be.  Oh well.  Mike usually beats me by a mile, but it was only 0.9 miles today.  I texted the girls to see if they wanted us to pick them up or finish.  Maggie didn't respond, but Vickie said it was up to us.  So we drove up and found Maggie about three quarters of a mile away.  She said she wanted to finish.  So we drove up and got Vickie and drove back down.  She ended up with 6.32 miles.  Also, we never see horses when Maggie comes :(
 

Saturday night it started raining again.  Not very hard, but enough to ruin our plans of s'mores.  We got a little rain yesterday, too, and I'm guessing it rained during the night.  Last night when I took Herbie for his walk, it looked foggy.  I thought maybe my glassed were dirty, but it was fog.  This morning it was still foggy.  My legs were sore from Saturday, so I went slow.  I got to the half way point and it started to rain.  It felt kinda nice.
 

Not a cloud in the sky this morning.  But it was cold.  I got to almost the half mile mark when I saw a coyote running in my direction.  I've seen them do this before.  They usually ran as fast as they can along the wall until they get passed you.  So I immdediately started to run after it.  It was too fast for me so I just howled at it.  Then I did my normal route and when I got to half a mile from home right after passing the green belt, I hear this voice yell, "I love you!"  I look over and see my wife running on the other side of the Floodway.  Ha!

Today is Saturday.  I took two days off from running, and apparently I forgot to blog on Wednesday.  I don't remember anything from this run other than I took a picture of the gorgeous sunrise.

Today was supposed to be our ward Christmas party/breakfast.  But somebody died and they needed the building for the funeral, and they couldn't secure another location, so they just cancelled it.  Boo!  That meant we could go running.  Yay!

Alyssa texted last night to say that the swelling has gone down in her feet, but she still has sore muscles.  Or torn muscles.  I don't know.  Maggie texted this morning to say that she woke up with her neck hurting and a headache and she needed to bake cinnamon rolls, so it was either going to be running or baking, and baking won out.  So it was me, Vickie, Mike and Glen.

Vickie started out first as usual, but the three of us left right behind her so that Glen caught me before the stop sign, I caught Vickie right after the stop sign, and Mike caught me shortly after that.  On the way up Mike had said he almost cancelled on us because he also had a sore neck and ankle.  I was able to see Mike most of the way except when there were curves, but I knew either I was a little faster this week, or he was a lot slower.  It was a combination of both.

It was 5:30am when we started running and it stayed dark up until the last mile.  I saw three shooting stars.  There were 0 cyclcists on the way up and 8 on the way down.  About a tenth of a mile from the top, there is this place where you can pull over and park a few cars.  Maybe 10 if you squeeze them.  It's close to the start of the Phoenix Marathon course.  There was a big group of runners about to run the first 10 miles of the course.  Most of them left right before I got there.  But one left a little after them and was right behind me.  I recognized her as one of the twin girls I follow on Strava.  I thought it was Leann, but it may have been Debbie.  According to the Flyby's they both were there, so I think it was Debbie.  I said, "Is that you Leann?"  She said, "Good morning."  Then I asked her about it on Strava after and she doesn't remember.  LOL!  Running down I expected that Glen would catch me.  He usually runs extra, but catches me before I reach the bottom.  With half a mile to go, I could still see Mike, and I turned around to look for Glen.  He was no where in sight, so I knew he wouldn't catch me today.  When I turned to go into the parking lot, I looked and saw his headlamp not too far away, maybe 4 tenths of a mile.  Vickie, I think, slowed down a lot.  She likes to wear headphones and sing.  I could hear her half way up the hill still, so she couldn't have been too far behind.  But when I texted her after Glen got there, she said she was 5.5.  So we waited a few more minutes and went and got her.  It was a beautiful morning for running.

So Herbie is kind of a mean dog.  Not like super mean, just protective.  He thinks it's his duty to protect the house, which is great.  Except that he has on occasion gotten lose and terrorized the neighbors.  I think he's been getting better.  When he was a young pup he would bite.  But I don't think he bites anymore, but he will run after a neighbor and corner them and growl at them. 

We used to keep him outside most of the time, but he always finds a way to get loose, no matter what we do.  Now he's an inside dog.  We got a cat and he now gets along with the cat, and I've noticed a difference in his behavior when I walk him and he sees other dogs.  He won't run up and bite other dogs, which used to be a problem, too.  Now he actually plays with them.  But when it comes to being around our house, even though he's seen these neighbors a million times, he has to bark at them to protect us.  Right now he's barking at a big fat cat in our front yard.

I usually take him outside in the morning so he can go potty.  Then I walk him everyday around 5 to 6pm.  Yesterday (Sunday) I didn't take him outside before I had to leave to go to a ministering interview.  I asked my wife to do it, and she let him out back, but didn't watch him.  So he squeezed through the pool fence and went and opened the RV gate.  Then he apparently went and barked at our neighbor.

We haven't had a good relationship with this neighbor.  He's always so grumpy.  I think he doesn't like us because he keeps his front yard so nice and groomed, and ours isn't as nice.  Plus we have like 15 vehicles parked out front all the time.  One time, a couple of years ago, Emily and my wife were late getting ready for church.  My wife jumped in the shower real quick and in that time, Emily decided she needed to go for a walk to find the rest of us.  Our neighbor saw her walk off.  Then when Vickie was trying to find her, she ran outside, ran around the yard, and got in the van.  My neighbor saw her doing this.  Vickie found Emily down the street not too far away from the Canal.  What kind of jerk sees a kid with Down Syndrome walk off alone and doesn't say anything?  His excuse was that in today's age, if you approach a kid, you get labeled as a pedophile.  I ended up having a talk with him, and that's been the extent of our relationship.

Up until yesterday when he started yelling at me about my dog.  Look, I get it.  I would be mad, too, if my neighbor's dog got loose and terrorized the neighborhood.  So the first words out of my mouth were - I'm sorry.  But he just proceeded to yell, cuss, and berate me.  And I have my breaking point.  He has the right to be mad.  But he does not have the right to berate and to go on and on and on.  So we started arguing and he called me stupid, and I told him to call me it again.  He did, and then dared me to come on his property.  I told him to meet me out in the street.  He wouldn't, but if he would have, there would have been fisticuffs.

I feel like there's been a number of instances like this in my life lately that have escalated beyond what they should have.  Is it me?  Has my attitude changed?  Has my demeanor changed?  Maybe.  I feel the same.  But I haven't been studying scripture as often as I should.  I haven't been attending the temple as often as I should.  There's a number of things on a spiritual level that I need to get back to doing on a routine basis.  What would Christ do in this situation?  Turn His other cheek and let it get smote, also?  That's the difference between me and Christ.  I'm not there yet.  But I need to get there.  I need to learn to forgive.  I do forgive, but I don't forget.

Anyway, enough of that.  I ran 3 loops this morning.  When I was coming back toward Adobe I saw someone in the dark wearing a beanie with a headlamp.  I was pretty sure it was my wife, but it was too dark to know for sure.  So I texted her and it was.  She usually stays on the main streets.  I realized that if I was doing 3 loops, I might see her again at University.  Sure enough, when I was heading north and crossed University, I could see her light about an eighth of a mile down the road.  She's getting faster.

I did 3 loops again today.  It was 41º out.  Still T-shirt and shorts weather, but it's getting colder every day.  It was about 20 minutes later than when I ran yesterday, so it started to get light out.  When I was half way in between Adobe and University, I could see a man riding a bicycle real slow and a small dog following him.  I assume the dog was his.  Anyway, the man said, "I fee like a sissy.  I'm all bundled up and wearing long johns!"  All I could do was shrug my shoulders at him. 

I have a pair of reversable shorts.  They are baby blue on one side and dark navy blue on the other.  I usually wear them baby blue because that puts the draw string on the inside.  When I grabbed them out of my drawer today they were inside out, so I decided to wear them navy blue today.  It would also match my shirt.  Win, win.  That was great until I realized my pockets were on the inside.  So I ended up having to hold my phone the whole time.  That's why I just did two loops today.  That, and my left leg (shin) is aching.
 

It was 6:18am and 43º when I started running this morning.  It was dark most of the time.  When I got to Brown, I could see a coyote under the light of the street lamp.  It ran towards the wall and I tried to call it to me, but it wouldn't listen.  The rest of the run was pretty uneventful.  My pace was slower today, but I think it's because of how dark it was.

Today was the coldest morning that I can remember.  40º.  I just went nice and slow so that I feel good for tomorrow.
 

I went to bed real early last night.  So early that I didn't see some of the texts from the group come in until 2:30 in the morning when I woke up.  For a while there I was worried that I would be able to fall back asleep.  But I got about another hour in before it was time to get up. 

It was me, Vickie, Maggie, and Mike today.  We were supposed to clean the chapel at 8am this morning, so Vickie wanted to run 8 miles, but was afraid we wouldn't have time.  So I decided to run 8 miles since I'm faster.

I thought it was going to be super cold this morning, so I brought some gloves.  But it was only 45º.  Beautiful running weather.  Maggie and Vickie left first and stayed together the entire time.  Mike left right before me and he was back to his old speedy self.  I caught Maggie and Vickie at 0.6 miles.  They ran all the way to the top and back.  I kept going for another 0.3 miles so that I could get 8 miles in.  There was another running group that we saw at the top of the hill that were coming from the other side.  They were much faster than us.  But they were friendly.  I saw my first cyclists with 1.25 miles to go.  Then I saw two more at the stop sign.  It's either too cold or too close to Christmas.

When I finished, I texted Vickie to see if she wanted us to come get her.  She said no.  She wanted to finish.  That's when I knew we wouldn't make it back in time to clean the chapel.  Oh well.  No blessings this week.

I thought that since it was Christmas break, I would be able to get out and run at the same time, and could go straight to work without having to worry about getting kids ready.  But instead, I slept in.  It's now 10:30am and I will start working after I'm done blogging.

It's nice and cloudy today.  The weather is so nice.  Not too cold.  I decided to only do two loops since I got out late.  Maybe I'll do more tomorrow.  Merry Christmas everyone!

I woke up to the sound of rain.  It was 5:30am-ish.  I waited for it to die down some.  I left to go running at 9:13am.  It was nice out.  I decided to run up to McDowell.  That would be about 5.6 miles.  I crossed Brown Road and saw a coyote in the Floodway.

I watched it for a bit, and it ran around me.  I have that video on my story on Facebook.  This is the top of the Floodway, or rather, where the Floodway starts.  I could see water discharging through a pipe into the Floodway, so I went to the other side to investigate.  It hadn't been raining hard enough for that much water to be coming out.  I could see an irrigation standpipe about 20 feet away.  Sure enough, water was being pumped into the standpipe from a nearby well and then just discharging into the Floodway.  Weird.

I then crossed Greenfield and headed toward McKellips.  A man named Tory Adair (thank you, Strava) stopped me and told me there was a coyote watching us.  I saw it, but didn't take a picture because of how far away it was.  I crossed McKellips and ran by the orange grove.  I was looking in the grove in hopes of seeing more coyotes.  Sure enough, I spotted two together.  I took a picture and kept running.  I caught up to a guy walking his dog.  I asked him if he had seen the two coyotes in the grove.  He said he saw one that crossed the Canal, but did not see the other two. 

I kept running and then I saw a barricade half a mile before McDowell.  I guess I won't be going to McDowell today.  I stopped and took a picture to send to my friend Greg who works at RWCD.  He teased me about trespassing.  I turned around and watched for the coyotes again.  I spotted two on the other side of the Canal.  I stopped and watched for a bit, and I saw the third.  So the two I saw had joined the other one the other guy saw.