Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Today I saw my wife, my best friend's wife, and my best friend's wife's father driving while I was running.  They weren't together.  All separate.  But maybe they were all going to the same place.  I guess I'll never know.

Time - 46:53 (avg. pace 8:38)

Splits - 8:37, 8:37, 8:34, 8:41, 8:36, 3:49

Today I didn't have time to run a lot for undisclosed reasons.  So I did my three mile loop.  As I was coming up the canal I saw two ducks sleeping on the bank.  I didn't know what they were at first.  When ducks sleep they turn their heads all the way around and rest them on their backs.  I honestly thought they were two chupacabras heads.  Honestly.

Time - 25:05 (avg. pace 8:22)

Splits - 8:24, 8:15, 8:22

A very easy three today because there may be a special guest appearance on my blog tomorrow...stay tuned.

So I was running by the ducks today and I'm pretty sure they are the ones that have been visiting my front lawn.  Someone said I may be seeing little ducklings soon, and I saw them the other day, but today I got close enough to see that they indeed are the ones that have been coming by.  Pretty sure.  The sad thing was I only saw two little ducklings this morning.  Did 7 little ducks go out to play over the hill and far away and when the momma duck said - quack quack quack - did only 2 little ducks come waddling back?  Or perhaps it was flatlander's alligator friends that snatched them up.  All I know is that when I was running by the momma, she shooed her babies underneath her wing opposite me to protect them.  Why do all mothers do that with their children when I come by??

Time - 26:36 (avg. pace 8:51)

Splits - 8:51, 8:49, 8:54

Finally I'm blogging!  I've been so excited and scared all week to get to meet Julie Esplin.   Would she really show up?  Would I be able to keep up with her?  Will she see me for the fraud that I am? 

Despite her better judgment, she did drop by.  I was really worried about where we would run.  I mean, who wants to run around a boring neighborhood?  But I couldn't really think of anything cool.  Then I thought well, hey, she's on vacation.  She might like to see the Mesa Temple.  So she got to my house, begged me to see me spray water in my son's face to wake him up, I took a couple of failed attempts snapping some pictures, and we were off.

I told her to stick close to me because I'd never run to the temple before, but I knew we were going through a bad neighborhood.  Actually I just didn't want her to ditch me.  She got a couple of cat calls from the day laborers at the corner.  We had a good conversation about our kids.  We got to the temple and took a couple of pictures with her camera.  (Don't forget to email those to me, Julie.)  I showed her where the stage was for the big Easter pageant they have every year.  There was already somebody there saving seats at 6:30am!  Then we ran back, and she met my wife, daughter, and sister.  She's so nice and so fast.  It must have been killing her to run so slow with me :)

Time - 1:04:37 (avg. pace 7:55)

Splits - 7:59, 7:46, 7:38, 8:00, 7:48, 7:528:03, 8:12, 1:21

Today Julie told me I smell like chocolate roses.  I'm not even lying.  She told me her kids tell her that she stinks when she comes home from running.  Later as she was leaving town she sent me a text that may have explained the reason for the stink.  (Yes, I'm being mysterious again.)  

Julie only wanted to run about 5 miles today because she's running a long one tomorrow with melanieb.  I was okay with that.  We ran my 5.4 mile loop, but we cut along the canal to shave a little bit off.  I was sad that Lady Liberty wasn't out today with only a few more days 'til Tax Day.  Julie would have loved that.  But we did see some more ducks.  They were surprised to see me running with a girl.  I told them she was my girlfriend and they started doing the hokey pokey.  Or was that a scene from Bedtime Stories?

Time - 41:08 (avg. pace 7:47)

Splits - 7:48, 7:36, 7:42, 7:59, 8:03, 2:01 for 0.28 (7:06 pace)

The goal: get to the finish line before the bunny.  The bunny gives everyone a 4 minute head start.  Could I do it?  No!  Why?  Because I was the bunny!

With the prestigious honor of being the bunny, I got a set of ears and a fluffy tail to run in.  Immediately after everyone started I had my wife draw on some whiskers and pin my tail on.  Then right as the clock ticked 4 minutes, I started.  I caught the first set of walkers within a half mile.  I caught the walkers/runners right before the first mile.  They were so disappointed.  The first mile was in 7:08. 

Then I got to the water station at the end of my street.  I didn't take a drink, but I was so busy remembering that this was the way Julie and I ran the other day that I missed the turn.  It wasn't too big of a deal.  It only made me run up one extra block, then back down.  The only problem was when I came back down to Pueblo I saw people running on the correct route.  So I turned and started running the course backwards for a little bit.  I asked a girl if I was going the wrong way.  She said, "No.  This is the right way."  So I turned around and ran with her for a ways as she tried to keep up.  Once she started to fall back I told her she was doing great.  Then I left her in a cloud of leporidous dust.  All in all I probably only added on  an extra two tenths of a mile.  The second mile was 7:36.  This was the mile that I passed most of the Paschal runners. 

At the beginning of mile three is when I caught Bishop.  I told him I may have taken a wrong turn, and he agreed I must have because he started over a minute after everyone else.  Turns out the wrong turn worked against my favor, so I was actually burning some serious asphalt.  With a mile to go we run right by the turn off to the finish line.  I asked Br. Haws how many people were ahead of me.  Three.  Perfect.  The goal was to not beat everybody.  Now I was so far ahead of everyone else and had three runners pretty far ahead of me.  When I turned at the school I saw two of them ahead.  I wasn't sure if I could catch them but I picked up the pace a little.  The third mile was 7:23.    I pushed a little harder to see if I could make some ground on them.  One of them had taken off.  The other was just cruising in.  I knew I was going to catch her.  I didn't want to, so I started Lyle Robideauxing, "Choo choo!  The Easter Bunny is coming for you!!"  Once she heard me, she kicked it in and I let her earn her certificate.    The last 0.46 miles was at a 7:03 pace.

So once they took my four minutes off it turns out I had the fastest time.  Alas, no prizes for the bunny :(  But, it was fun.  The best part was all the sweat I wrung out of the bunny ears.  And it was a rental!