Go, you chicken fat, go away!

My legs are still a little sore from the race Saturday which is weird because I didn't push it that hard until the very end.  Took it easy today.

Time - 25:02 (avg. pace 8:21)

Splits -

1 mile - 8:25

2 mile - 8:25

3 mile - 8:12

Temp - 89

I was running late today, so I'm finally blogging for real.  I didn't get to work until 9:30am because I had to take my boy to his comedy class at Jester'z.  The other reason it took me so long to blog is because I saw a dead lizard lying on its back on my run.  I figured it was a bad omen that maybe Eric Day would die today.  I didn't want to say anything in case it really happened.  I could never live with myself.

Time - 1:06:44 (8:50 avg.)

Splits - 8:23, 8:35, 8:46, 8:52, 8:53 , 8:52, 9:19, 5:05 (9:11 avg.)

Temp - 88

It was a little cooler today because of the monsoons.  At about mile 4.9 the sun peeked out from behind the clouds.  I thought to myself, "These last 2.6 miles are going to stink."  But after a couple 100 yards it slipped back again.  Then with a mile to go it reared its shiny face again, this time as I was running directly into it.  The coolest part of the run was when I crossed Queen Creek Wash.  I saw this big ol' squirrel scurry across a path.  Then as if tagged in by the squirrel, a bunny rabbit hopped the other way.  Right on cue after the rabbit a family of quail followed the path of the squirrel.

My family and I went up to the high country outside of Payson, AZ for our ward camp out.  We had a good time.  There were 10 of us; me, my wife, my 6 kids, my sister, and my dog.  I slept on the hard ground inside the tent.  Because I wasn't stinky enough from wearing the same clothes for two days, sweating constantly, and being around smoky campfires, I went on a run.  We had everything packed up and went down to the lake.  It was 5 and three quarter miles to the main road.  When I left I told my wife to wait 30 minutes, then come and get me.  That was around 12:30pm.  Hot.  As I was driving down to the lake I was scoping out the run.  It was truly "down" to the lake.  I was thinking, "I have to run back up all this?" 

Garmin told me that I started out at an elevation of 7110.  The first two miles was a 300 foot climb (2.84%.)  I did it in just over 20 minutes.  Not too bad methinks.  The next 0.75 miles was a 180 foot climb (4.54%.)  That slowed me down considerably.  Apart from the hills of the first three miles, I was already sore from sleeping on the ground all night.  But after that, the hills weren't as pronounced.  I started feeling pretty good.  I got up to 600 feet higher than than the 7110, but there were a lot of rolling hills, so the net elevation change was probably closer to 700 feet. 

A couple of ladies in my ward complimented me on my genetically huge calves as they drove by.  That made my day.  I really expected my wife to get to me before I reached the main road, but I guess I'm too fast.  I turned around to go see if I could borrow a phone from a guy parked in his jeep.  But he was talking on it.  Then my HPG leader drove by.  I asked if I could use his.  I guess my wife thought that she would catch up to me sooner, too, so she was freaking out.  But she said she was almost there.

Time -  59:22 (avg. pace 10:17)

 Splits -

1 mile - 9:34 - taking it nice and easy.  I was worried the altitude might kill me.

2 mile - 10:47 - trying not to eat too much dust from passing cars and ATV's.

3 mile - 11:38 - the steepest portion of the run, but the sun went behind the clouds.

4 mile - 10:13 - I stopped at 3.25, GU'd it up, and drank a large portion of my Gatorade.

5 mile - 10:04 - heard some loud thunder cracks.

0.78 mile - 7:08 (9:10 avg.) - a very enjoyable run.