Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I need to get up earlier.  Not because it's still hot, but because I would rather run while it's dark and people can't see me.  But I didn't get out until 7:06am.  I think today is the first day back for many kids at school.  I saw the crosswalk guard doing his duty for the elementary school, and I saw my next door neighbor's junior high kid sitting at his bus stop.  My two high school aged daughters only have school two days a week; Tuesday and Thursday.  The rest is on-line.

I turned west to head toward the Floodway/Canal.  I saw four guys walking across the street.  I thought about just going to the other side of the Floodway to run because I didn't want to have to deal with them.  But I couldn't break the habit of running the same route in the same direction.  So I turned in behind them.  I caught up to them and one of them looked to be in his 40's and the other 3 in their 20's.  As I passed them the 40 year old said, "Is that all you got?"  Mohummad Ali once asked that same question to George Foreman, so I gave him the same answer, "That's it."  One of the 20 year olds said, "Well, you're beating us."  Not long after that I heard their footsteps behind me.  They caught up and passed me.  They started walking again before reaching Brown Road.  They went through the gate and turned west.  I was like, "Please don't tell me they're going to go back south on the RWCD Canal.  I don't want to play leapfrog with them.  But they ended up crossing Brown Road, and that was the end of them.

I think they kind of made me push my pace because my second mile was 2 minutes slower than my first one.  My legs were sore, but not as bad as they were during the two weeks I took off from running.  I turned north on the Floodway trail at University.  Jeff was laying down asleep against the wall.  He was probably pretending because there was what sounded like a dirt bike revving its engine real loud as it drove down the street.  As I approached the green belt, I could see a leg up against the wall.  It looked like a woman's leg.  It seemed weird because although I could see a lump of clothes, I couldn't make out the rest of the body.  When I was close enough I could see that it was a lady (or a man with nicely shaved legs) underneath a jacket.  She was sitting on her butt up against the wall with one knee up and the other leg criss cross apple sauce without the cross.  Then there was a man laying down next to her long ways with the wall.  I'm guessing they slept there.  I briefly stopped just to make sure they were ok, and when I saw one of them move their arm, I ran off.  I wonder if they were there the other night when I took Herbie on a walk.  I could smell cigarette smoke, but I assumed it was coming from the other side of the wall.