Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I woke up at 4:30am.  I took the dog outside to go potty.  Then I got ready to go running.  It was 5:10am when I started.  It was mostly old ladies out.  The construction workers weren't there yet, so I decided to run my normal Floodway/RWCD route.  I was dragging this morning, but at least I wasn't wheezing.  I was coming up on Brown when I saw a large branch covering the entire Floodway path.  It had fallen out of the tree.  We've gotten some crazy wind storms the last few nights.  My next door neighbors are on vacation for a month.  I have been checking on their chickens every day.  Two days ago I noticed that their neighbors behind them have a tree and a saguaro cactus that blew over into their yard.  But I digress.  So, I took a picture of the tree branch and I also saw an old lady on her bicycle.  She got to the gate just after I did, so she waited until I came through.  We had a small conversation about the branch.  I told her she'd just have to go around it.  I guess I wasn't just dragging physically but mentally, also.  I ran to the other side of the Floodway and I saw her get off her bike and drag the branch off the trail.  I didn't even think to do that.  I felt lame.

While this was going on there was another old lady walking her three dogs.  She was on the other side of the Floodway and I was slowly catching her.  By the time I crossed the Floodway, she had crossed the RWCD Canal.  So now we were closer still heading in the same direction but separated by the Canal.  I could tell that the dog she had on her leash was a Doberman.  But where were the other dogs?  Surely she's not going to let two more Dobermans run wild.  Maybe they weren't Dobermans.  Then I saw their heads pop up from the drainage swale between the Canal road and the subdivision wall.  Sure enough, they were Dobermans.  And they weren't leashed.  She must have faith that they would behave themselves.  But they did bark at me.  And then I saw Gary Prahl's wife walking toward them.  It was the second time I'd seen her this morning so I waved again.  I hoped she wouldn't get attacked, and I don't think she did unless they went straight for the throat.

When I got to Adobe I decided I didn't want to do another full loop.  So I would cross the Floodway at the green belt again.  I figured that would get me real close to 2 miles.  Then I could run loops around the cul-de-sac until I got to exactly 2 miles.  But when I pulled my phone out of my pocket just as I reached the cul-de-sac, I was pleasantly surprised that my Strava read 2.10 miles.

I woke up at 3:30am.  I took the dog outside even though he doesn't like to go out that early.  He hesitated, but he went out.  I tried to go back to sleep but was unsuccessful.  About 4:30am I heard it start to rain.  By 5am it had cleared up, so I put my running clothes on.  I did one loop.  I was following a lady, but I couldn't keep up.  She continued north when she got to Brown, and I went to the other side of the Floodway.  I saw two more women running north on the other side of the Floodway.  Then when I was almost back to Adobe I saw a group of 5 or 6 guys on the other side of the Floodway.  They were walking, but then they started running.  So that's 8 or 9 runners I saw this morning.  Much more than normal.  Everyone must be training for something.