Usery Pass, I did not miss you. Earlier this week I sent a text message out to Vickie, Maggie, Alyssa, Mike, and Glen. I said that Vickie and I wanted to run Usery this Saturday at 5am, but only wanted to do 4 miles - 2 miles up and 2 miles down. Maggie said she wanted to come. Alyssa said she would come even though that's early for her. Mike asked what time. (He didn't read close enough.) Glen didn't say anything. I hope I sent the text to his correct phone. So yesterday I texted again and asked if anyone wanted a ride. Maggie said she did. Mike said he wasn't going. Maybe next week. Alyssa said nothing. Glen said nothing. After my Taco Bell I went to bed. I didn't go to sleep right away. I finished binge watching Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Seems like it might be the last episode ever.
Vickie and I both woke up at 3:45am before the alarm went off. As I was sitting on the toilet, I heard both of our phones go off. "Who's flaking out on us this time?" although I knew it would be Maggie. Sure enough, she needed more sleep. I texted her some random emojis. She texted back and said it was raining. I went outside and there was a bit of a drizzle. I checked on Maria, and she was staying dry. She still sleeps next to the back door at the top of the steps. Then it started to rain buckets. But after about 5 minutes, it died down.
So Vickie and I left. We were running behind so I texted Alyssa to see if she was coming. I told her it was raining. No answer. By the time we got there the rain had completely stopped and we got not a drop while we ran. Vickie put on a brand new head lamp, but realized it didn't come with batteries. So I figured I'd stay with her. We pretty much run the same pace now anyway. We both had on reflective vests, and I had on my tail light. She turned on her flashlight on her phone. She stayed right behind me the whole way.
At 0.9 miles I saw a light on the other side of the road. I thought, "What if that's a cyclist that has collapsed or something?" So I went over to check it out. Vickie followed me. Turns out it was just a pen light. Or something. The cover was broken, but the light was on. Weird. We went back to the other side of the road. Vickie said, "We're messing up our times."
Cars usually come in bunches. Or pairs. They get stopped at the light at McDowell Road. It becomes a single lane each way road, so usually you see at least two cars coming. But I saw about 5 or 6 coming at once. The first three passed by and it looked like two more were coming. Then I heard a man's voice. I turned around. Where did that come from? I looked ahead and realized it was a pack of cyclists. Or a gaggle of cyclists. Whatever you call them. Riding together, they gave the illusion of a car. When I finally realized what was going on, I stepped to the side. I was off my game today. Usually I'm more alert to the cyclists. I guess it's been a while.
Shortly after that I saw a van coming toward us. There was a truck right behind it. The van was driving kinda slow. I wondered if it wanted to pull over. I was hoping if it did, that it saw me. It passed by us. A few minutes later the van was coming up from behind us lightly honking the horn as if to say, "I'm a friendly." Was it Alyssa? Does she have a new creeper van? I guess I'll never know.
We were approaching the two mile mark. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and Strava said we were at 1.97. But Vickie said we were at 1.90. I decided I better run just a little further to make sure we hit 4 miles without having to run around the parking lot. Maybe the jaunt across the street skewed our numbers. I went to 2.03 and turned around. From there it was all downhill. I saw a few more cyclists coming up. I stepped off for them even though it was dark and unstable. I kinda thought we wouldn't see any cyclists today because of the rain and the slick roads. But they're hardcore. I got back to the 4runner and I was at 4.06. So I guess Strava was pretty consistent.
Before we went home we drove down to the river to see if we could see any wild horses. We didn't. But we did see a magnificent sunrise. So take that, so called friends.
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