Go, you chicken fat, go away!

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.