Go, you chicken fat, go away!

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.