Go, you chicken fat, go away!

After I dropped my girls off at school I drove over to Usery Pass.  I brought some ice water in a water bottle.  It stayed pretty cool for most of the run even though it got pretty warm.  Often when I run this the wind is blowing south against my back as I climb the hill.  Today it was blowing against me as I went up.  It was kind of nice because it provided a cooling breeze.  I could definitely feel the difference as I ran down.  But it was down, so it was ok.  At mile 6 I remember saying, I've had a pretty good workout.  I'm happy with it.  I wish I was done.  But I still had another mile and a half to go.  There were some construction workers parked in the parking lot by me.  I contemplated asking them for water, but saw that one guy just had a jug.  I didn't want his jugs.  I always park in the parking lot in front of the sherriff's office.  I probably could have parked in Salt River Tube Rentals parking lot if I'd been paying attention.  It's usually closed.  But since school gets out this week, they have it open.  The funniest part of the workout was when I was leaving there were some workers controlling the traffic with their slow/stop signs.  They were staring at girls in bikinis going to rent some tubes to float down the Salt River.

I stopped once to take a picture.  The saguaros are in bloom.

I went to Usery Pass again, but this time I had in mind that I would turn off at the three mile mark where there is a horse trail.  I really want to be ready for the McDowell Mountain Trail Ragnar this year, so I though I'd check out the trails.  The three miles up was nice and steady.  I only saw one cyclist out today.  Kinda weird.  I guess everyone must have jobs or something.  Then I got on the trail to go exploring.  Only it wasn't a trail.  It was a very sandy wash.  You people make your horses walk through this?  Mean!  So, I said to myself, "This is no fun.  Why don't I go try to climb that steep hill?  Bag a peak, as they say."  I changed my Runkeeper to hike mode.  Then I proceeded to go up this steep slippery hill.  It looked high from the bottom, but it wasn't that high.  I realized when it only took me 5 minutes to get to the top it just wasn't as high as I'd like to brag about.  Then I had to scoot on my butt to get down.  That wasn't fun.  From now on I'll stick to the road.  Enjoy the picture show.

On the way back down my right nipple started to bleed.  I noticed it right as I saw a lady cyclist coming up the hill.  So I lifted my shirt up and pretended like I was fanning myself because it was so hot.  I think she bought it.  Then I ran the rest of the way without a shirt. I saw three more cyclists and lots of ladies in bikinis at the tube rental.  While I did not take a picture of the ladies in bikinis, I did take a picture of my nipple.