Go, you chicken fat, go away!

It was 7:53am when I started running.  It was warm.  I was a little sore from Saturday, but not too bad.  I was listening to Chael Sonnen on his YouTube show talk about the Saturday night fights.
 

Emily has been sick again.  Not even two weeks into the school year and she's already missing days.  Two nights ago I fell asleep on the couch upstairs.  Only about an hour.  I went downstairs to find Emily asleep on my side of the bed.  Normally I would just push her over to the middle, but she was sleeping on top of the covers and had her own covers.  One of my employees was still here working, and I thought it would be weird if she went upstairs to get a water bottle or something and saw me sleeping on the couch, so I decided to hole up in the toy room on this tiny little couch.  That wasn't comfortable at all and I woke up with a sore throat.  So I didn't run yesterday.

I woke up a few minutes after 6am this morning.  Abby was in the shower, so I had to wait a little bit to use the bathroom.  But that was good because it had given me time for my bowels to wake up.  When I was finally sitting on the pot, I could hear a lot of sirens.  I finally texted my wife to make sure she was all right assuming she was out on her walk.  She was upstairs.

I finally started my run at 6:57am.  I felt quite sore.  I thought that was weird for having taken a day off.  But I'm probably still a little under the weather.  I was just going to do two loops.  Maybe even 1.  But I could do 2 if I ran slow.  So I started my 2nd loop.  After about a quarter mile into the second loop, I thought that if I kept this slow pace up, I could do 3 loops.  So I decided to do three loops.

When I got to the University, which is where I commit myself to that 3rd loop, I saw the sirens about a quarter mile to the east.  There must've been an accident because I saw a tow truck, also.  I continued south and when I got to the bend, I saw another runner.  He looked much faster than me, and he gave me a thumbs up.

Before I knew it I was back at University and looking for the hobo.  He wasn't under the tree that he is usually laying under.  So I looked to see if he was on the trail.  Once the trail straightened out enough for me to see, I spotted him standing there talking to someone.  I saw three tiny little dogs, too.  As I got closer the other guy started to walk away.  Then I noticed the hobo was eating a sausage biscuit, most likely from the corner gas station convenient store.  I asked him, "What's new?  Same ol', same ol'?  He didn't answer.  I think he was crying because the other guy bought him a sausage biscuit.  The biscuit buyer must've heard me because he turned around.  He told me good morning.  I had to weave through his dogs as they weren't leashed up.  After passing the second dog something small scurried across my path.  I almost stepped on it.  It was a horned toad.  I totally stopped and pointed it out.  That's when one of the dogs started barking at me.  I said, "Don't bark at me.  Bark at this guy."  Biscuit eater said they love to chase lizards.

I headed home and as I turned the final corner I could see people walking out of my house.  It was my wife and two high school daughters.  For some reason I thought they would've been gone already.  But it was 7:42 am, which is their normal time that they leave.  I got to say good bye and sneak a kiss from my wife.

I just realized that I didn't blog today.  (Today is tomorrow.  Or tomorrow is today.  I don't know.)  Now I can't remember if anything significant or funny happened.  Maybe I'll come back to this if I remember anything.  I'll put it in the comment sections since I get very little comments these days.  Ooh.  That reminds me.  I just read through all of my blog entries for this year.  There seems to be a recurring theme that I'm getting old, fat, and struggling to stay healthy.  Diet has been a big thing this year.  I've been sticking to it pretty well since coming back from vacation.

So I was walking my dog a couple of nights ago.  It was around 6:30pm and still 110º.  I noticed that when we got down into the bottom of the Floodway, it was significantly cooler.  Like 10º cooler.  I thought this might be good information for the hobo to know.  I don't usually go that far south on my nightly dog walks as I generally cut through the green belt.  So we walked by the hobo and I started out the conversation saying, "Do you ever see any coyotes around?"  He said not usually.  I told him about the coyote we used to see and how I saw one the other morning on the other side of Adobe.  Then he asked me if I smoke.  I said no, and that pretty much ended the conversation.  I was left thinking about how awkward my conversations always are with him.

Today I got up early and was out the door earlier than normal.  I started running at 5:51am.  When I got to the hobo, he actually initiated the conversation.  He said, "You're earlier than usual."  I said, "Yep."  Then he asked what time it was and I told him.  It was another awkward conversation, but at least he started it this time.

I went to be early last night, but I decided to finish binge watching the final season of the show that I'm watching on Netflix.  Said show will remain nameless.  Anyway, the problem with Netflix is that once you finish one season of a show you you've been watching, you start the next one.  Then you finish that one and you start the next one.  Before you've even finished watching them all, the next seasons come out.  Not sure what time I finally fell asleep, but I'm sure it was after midnight.

I didn't get out the door until after 8am this morning.  That was a mistake.  It was hot.  I'm glad I brought a bottle of water with me.  I was running real slow.  Before I crossed Greenfield, I could see two figures out on the Canal road.  Everytime I see someone I wonder if they're on Strava.  As I got closer I could tell at least one of them was on a bike.  A little closer and it looked like one of them might be on foot as they appeared smaller.  Then I realized it was a dad and a daughter riding bikes.  Right before I got to them the daughter had veered over in front of me.  She kept veering over towards the Canal and I thought she was going to ride right in.  Luckily she was able to correct course and went around me.  I think her dad was worried, too.  Right after that I saw a lady and a dog.  I got to the Canal gate that indicated half a mile away from McKellips.  There's a dirt road and a fence gate that lead up to the Canal gate.  The fence is about 3 feet away from the block walls that form the alleyway.  This is so pedestrians can get through, but vehicles cannot.  I saw an old man about to come through the fence.  Well, older than me.  He would be right behind me and I thought for sure he would pass me.  I was getting pretty close to the dog and the lady and the dog started trotting over to me.  But actually it was trotting to the old man behind me.  The lady said, "Is that daddy?"  So apparently they were one big happy family and he never passed me. 

I kept going and got to McKellips.  This is where I started doubting if I really wanted to go all the way to McDowell, another mile.  So I decided to just do maybe a little over 5 miles.  From previous runs I knew if I turned around at the Canal gate a quarter of a mile south of McDowell I would be around 5.25 miles.  But as I neared the gate, I could see another couple walking down the road.  I kept thinking how awkward it would be if we both reach the gate at the same time and I turn around with them.  So I checked my Strava and I was at 2.5 miles.  I went a little further and turned around.

There was a bit of a headwind, which was nice, but the sun was getting hotter and hotter the further I went.  The last two miles were a real struggle and I thought about calling my wife to come pick me up.  But then I thought, it's okay to walk some.  So I walked a little here and a little there.  The final mile I walked a lot.  In fact, I started running in between trees and then walking in the shade.  I finished my water bottle and figured I'd fill it back up at the water fountain even though it's only 0.15 miles away from my house.  I'm pretty sure I saw Kori.  It was her car at least.  That's funny because I had texted her and her husband before I went running to see if they wanted to be on my Ragnar team.  She hadn't replied yet, but she has since.  Perhaps because she saw me.  They are maybes.  So I went to refill my water bottle, but only hot water was coming out of the fountain.  I must've let it run for a full minute and still hot.  I thought, "This is ridiculous.  I'm almost home."  So I just ran the rest of the way home.  I've lost about 15 lbs. since my vacation.