Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I forgot to mention Friday that when I took my shoe off, I looked inside at the heel and could see straight through them!  Will they last another 15 miles?  We'll see.

Last night I had two bouts with sleep paralysis.  The first time I tried to wake myself out of it as best I could.  I tried slinging my arm over the side of the bed.  But who knows what I'm really doing when this happens.  I finally managed to get my arm close enough to my night stand that I could knock on it with the back of my fingers in the hopes that my brother would hear me and wake me out of the sleep that I could not escape.  The plan worked.  Kind of.  My wife shook me awake.  I realized that I haven't shared a bed with my brother in 30 years.  I'm telling you, it's weird when you're dreaming something, but you think it's reality.  About an hour later I rolled over.  This time, the mere thought of sleep paralysis put me back in it.  Luckily my arm was close enough to my wife that I was able to nudge her so that she could wake me again.  It was almost 4am now, so I just stayed awake and got ready for a run.

Normally I try and have a bowel movement before I run.  But we're down to one bathroom in the house still and I heard someone upstairs in the one remaining bathroom, so I decided to hold it in and go later.  As soon as I stepped outside I saw a white cat running down the sidewalk.  It went and stopped under a car.  I stretched out and then heard noises in the leaves by our front yard orange trees.  I went to take a look and I saw a different cat jump up on the fence.  At least, I'm pretty sure it was a cat.  It was dark out.  I definitely saw a dark tail.  Anyway, I went over to the wall just to make sure it wasn't a coyote.  I shined my light, but I wasn't sure if it jumped in my yard or the neighbors yard.  Hopefully my neighbors didn't see me shining a light in their yard.

When I got to Adobe I could see a light coming my way.  I knew it was a cyclist.  I said good morning as the passed by but got no response.  I also saw a runner coming my way on the south side of Adobe.  I couldn't tell if it was a man or woman.  I started my first loop.  It was so dark this morning.  Some of the lights were blinding me again where it was hard to see the trail.  I got to the west side of the Floodway heading south towards Adobe.  I could see tail lights ahead.  I figure it must be an RWCD truck checking Canal levels.  Then the lights got dim.  At the same time, some white lights started to get bright right next to them.  It took me a second, but I realized the vehicle must've done a 360.  Now I had headlights shining at me, but I was still far away.  After a while the lights suddenly turned off.  I started imagining that the RWCD truck had driven into the Canal, and that I would have to make a dramatic rescue of the zanjero.  That actually happened to Mosiah once.  Luckily someone saw it happen and helped him get out.

Once I got to Adobe I saw a black car parked next to the fence.  So my dreams of being a hero were dashed.  It wasn't long before I saw a shadowy figure ahead.  It was a man walking two dogs.  He held them close as I went by.  When one of the dogs barked at me, I said, "Good morning!"  The man said good morning back.  When I got to University, I could tell the sky was getting a little blue instead of black.  I ran to Adobe and it was even bluer.  It won't be long before I won't be able to beat the sun anymore.

11 miles to go on these shoes.  I slept decent last night, although I woke up a bunch of times.  Mike King and I used to live right by each other.  We shared back walls.  One of our neighbors died yesterday.  I texted him about it.  Around 3:30am I looked at my phone to see what time it was.  Right when I did, Mike responded.  That has nothing to do with running, but I just thought about it, so I blogged about it.

Our dog Herbie had the runs last night.  My wife told me he went all over the stairs.  When I got up at 4:40am I saw that there was more on our welcome rug and at the top of the stairs.  I had to clean it all up.  I was already sweating by the time I started running. 

I just did one loop today.  It was getting light out already.  I saw lots of people walking their dogs.

I guess I forgot to blog today.  (Today being Thursday, but it's really Friday.)  I don't remember much.  I know I didn't run the day before, but I did walk Herbie.  I do remember it was dark and I heard a voice up ahead on the Floodway Trail.  Then I saw a guy zig out of my way with his dog.

I woke up at 3am.  Herbie was restless, which means he probably had to pee, so I took him outside.  I can't confirm whether or not I relieved myself under the grapefruit tree, but Herbie started barking at something and I couldn't get to him right away.  I'm not sure what he saw.  Maybe a cat.  I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn't.  So I went running.  It was 4:30am and plenty dark out.  I felt pretty good.  I live inside my head so much that I really enjoy running this early with no lights.  But sometimes my mind does play tricks on me.  Today it was wondering if I was seeing a person, but I would quickly realize it was just the warning markers next to the Trail.  I saw Jeff with his light on from across the Floodway.  Rather, I saw a light where Jeff stays.  He must've seen or heard me coming because he turned it off before I got there and tried to stay hidden.  I also saw that same car that parked by the RWCD Canal as I did a few days ago.  Only this time I was behind him.

I was surprised when my wife's alarm went off at 5am that I hadn't already woken up.  We had to hurry and go today because my daughter needed to work at 9am, and I wanted to go to Rodney Reed's funeral also at 9am.  We got to Usery at 6am, just in time to do 2 miles up and 2 miles down.  Vickie left before me and said, "See you when you catch up to me."  I wasn't sure I would.

She was ahead of me by almost a tenth of a mile.  Probably not quite that.  I closed the gap somewhat, but when we got to half a mile, I couldn't close it any more.  At about thre quarters of a mile she stopped and started walking.  But that only lasted for 5 seconds.  Then shortly after a mile she stopped again and I caught her.  I was worried that she might catch me, but she never did.  She must've taken another break at the turn around point. 

I saw two of my Strava friends today.  One of them was the guy we saw two weeks ago.  I gave him kudos and he started following us.  On Strava.  Not in real life.  He waved at me while he passed by.  Another guy gave me a peace sign when he passed by.  I didn't realize it until later that it was another Strava friend of mine.

We got home just in time for me to take a shower and go to the funeral.  The problem is, my daughter drove to work and our van is broken down.  So I just rode my bicycle.  It's only 1.8 miles away.  I went nice and slow on the way there.  It was a nice service.  Then I pushed the pace on the way home.