Go, you chicken fat, go away!

This was my cool down from Saturday's race :)  (I almost ran as much miles today as I did all of last week.)   Today I saw three live lizards and one dead owl.  I was shooting for an 8:15 pace today.

Time - 1:02:41 (avg. pace 8:14)

Splits -

1 mile - 7:54

2 mile - 8:07

3 mile - 8:18

4 mile - 8:21

5 mile - 8:21

6 mile - 8:25

7 mile - 8:16

0.62 miles - 5:00 (8:05 pace)

And 50 situps

Sad sad day today.  I heard the dogs barking last night around 2am, so I went to see if Sugar wanted to come inside.  I opened the back door and Ginger came in, but I didn't see Sugar.  I looked around the house to see if she was already inside, and maybe I was just hearing things.  Couldn't find her.  I woke my wife up and told her I couldn't find Sugar.  She told me where the flashlight was.  I got dressed and went looking again for her in the backyard with the flashlight; couldn't find her anywhere.  Then I shined the flashlight out in the golf course.  I saw something out laying in the grass.  I hoped it was just a piece of cloth or a stuffed animal, but I think inside I knew what it was.  I went around the block on to the golf course and sure enough it was Sugar's lifeless body.  I think she squeezed through the wrought iron view fence.  My guess is she saw a coyote out there and went to go play.  She's never tried to go out before.  I scooped her up and put her in a box.  Vickie cried.  We broke the news to the kids in the morning as they wondered why they weren't going to school.  Mary and Julianna had a good cry.  Then we had a family prayer and thanked Heavenly Father for the time we had with her.  We asked who wanted to go out and help bury her.  AJ, Katelynn, Abby, and Ginger came along.  We drove out to the desert and dug a hole.  Katelynn and Abby had their little beach shovels.  Ginger sniffed around at the box.  We buried her and Katelynn and Abby sprinkled leaves and flowers they had picked from home on her grave.  AJ gathered up golf ball sized stones and wrote her name.  All the kids are staying home, their choice.  I never would have thought having a pet for only a week and a half and having to bury her would be that sad. Sad day.

Time - 41:23 (avg. pace 7:56)

Splits -

1 mile - 7:47

2 mile - 7:54

3 mile - 8:12

4 mile - 8:18

5 mile - 7:41

0.21 miles - 1:32 (7:07 avg.)

Temp - 83

I felt so good today.  I was going to average 8:15's again, but I was feeling really good.  Did I say that already?  I can't believe how fresh I felt on that last mile.  My goal for the 5k this Saturday is to average 7 min./miles.  That may be a stretch, but I'm going to go for it.  I hope the conditions Saturday are as good as they are today; overcast and 83.  Man, it's nice.

I pushed it a little hard this morning.  Sorry Sam.  If only I'd read your comment a little earlier.  So I'll have to take it really easy tomorrow.

Time - 22:15 (avg. pace 7:25)

Splits -

1 mile - 7:21

2 mile - 7:37

3 mile - 7:17

And 50 sit-ups.

Rest today.

These pictures are for Bonnie so she'll know how harmless the critters here in AZ are.

AJ next to a fuzzy little tarantula.

The cute little Palo Verde Beetle.  Yes, that is my hand.

A bullsnake we caught in front of our house.  I like how it curls around my old rootbeer and milkshake gut.

Nothing to be afraid of, Bonnie!

James W talked me in to doing this race.  It was fun because quite a few of the top road racers in Arizona were in attendance.  James and I carpooled.  As I was driving to his house from Queen Creek I saw that to the northeast, Apache Junction was getting rained on.  I caught the corner of it as I got closer.  To the northwest, south Phoenix was dry, but overcast.  This made for great running conditions.

On Riverton Paul's advice, I made sure to get a good warm-up in.  I tried to stay loose and keep my heart rate up, but it was difficult due to the way the race was run. They handicap the start by age and gender.  As the clock ticked down to the 7:30am start time, the first runners start out.  Then the clock starts up, and James and I were scheduled to start 13 minutes and 52 seconds later.  The cool thing about this is I was passing people the whole race.  The not-so-cool thing was that it got congested.

Mile 1 - 6:59.  My goal was to average 7 minute miles.  I was right on.  I felt good because I hit it with a lot of bobbing and weaving.

Mile 2 - 7:22.  This is where I lost the most time.  At the turn around there was major congestion.  I almost had to come to a complete halt.  I was trying to stay on the sidewalk that ran along the canal, but that was hard to do with the number of people running on it both ways.  There were times I had to run out into the gravel to pass people.  I think all the slowing down plays with your mind, too.

Mile 3 - 7:12.  There was still a lot of congestion, but it started to thin out.  I was beginning to feel the burn.  I wondered why I don't just try to run these races for fun.  I was running right by this tall guy with a blue mohawk.  That helped motivate me to push it.

0.1 miles - 43 sec.  Blue mohawk out kicked me.  I didn't get passed a lot the whole race.  That was encouraging.  178th out of 790 overall.  145th out of 444 males.  15th out of 53 in my age division.  Chicked by 33 chicks.  I had fun.  Under ideal conditions (nocongestion) I think I would have cracked 22 minutes.  Who woulda thought Oreo cookies could taste so good after a race?  Sorry there weren't a lot of funny stories to tell today or any pictures.  I guess I was all business.