Go, you chicken fat, go away!

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.