Go, you chicken fat, go away!

After Saturday's run, which was my fastest time since we started running it again, I noticed that my legs felt surprisingly good.  So I thought I might as well try and run a little extra this morning than what I usually do.  I decided to run north up the Floodway path and continue north past Brown Rd.  A little less than a quarter of a mile (probably an eight of a mile) past Brown is where the Floodway path merges into the RWCD east road.  When I got there for some reason I thought I should take a look behind me and see if anyone was coming up the RWCD road.  Sure enough there was another runner coming behind me.  He quickly caught up to me and said, "Have a good one."  He looked a few years older than me, but he was moving fast.  I felt like I was moving slow, but my pace was one second per mile faster than Saturday's pace.  Anyway, when the runner got to Greenfield and crossed the street, he started walking and I could tell he was pretty tired.

Right before I got to McKellips I saw another runner coming towards me.  I thought maybe it was my Strava friend, Matt.  But it was some kid.  I saw a man walking his dog way up the road, but I never caught him.  He turned around at the catwalk and I continued on and touched the fence.  I couldn't catch him before he turned at the 1-1/2 canal gate either.  Again, I thought I must really be going slow.  Right before I got to Brown Road again I saw Gordon.  I petted him for the first time today. 

The daydawn is breaking, the world is awak'ning.  Y huyen las sombras de obscuridad.

I got up before 4am this morning and started running at 5:19am.  It was dark.  I didn't bring a light with me.  Except my phone, which I didn't use.  As I approached the Floodway path, I could see a cyclist coming up to Adobe from the south on the Floodway path.  He/she had to stop to squeeze through the fence opening.  He/she probably saw me turn on to the Floodway path heading north, so he/she decided not to follow me.   This is where it was real dark.  There was no moon or stars, just a little bit of light from the neighborhood.  Then I got to a place where someone had a very bright light in their backyard.  But that didn't help.  It made it worse as it blinded me.  I couldn't even tell if I was going to stay on the path or not.  Luckily I did.

I got to Brown and headed over to the RWCD road when I saw someone leaving going through the fence of the RWCD road.  He had a light and a dog and seemed to be moving swiftly.  It took me about a second, but I realized it was Jesse Lee from the ward.  You know, the former relief society president's husband.  I said, "Hi Jesse!"  He said, "Hey Burt."  Glad he recognized me in the dark.  Half way between Brown and Adobe I saw a woman on the west side of the RWCD Canal.  She also had a light and a dog.  I wondered if it was Jesse's wife, but I didn't ask.  Then when I got to Adobe there was another woman waiting for me to go through the fence so she could walk her dog.  She also had a light.  Apparently I didn't get the memo.  That was the last person I saw until I came up to Jeff.  It was still dark out, but dawn was upon us.  I couldn't see him right away, but then I noticed him standing up next to the tree.  I said, "Good morning, Jeff."  He said, "It's early.  What time is it?"  I said, "It's really early!", as I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check the time.  "It's 5:42!", I yelled as I ran by.

My pace was slower than yesterday which is to be expected when running in the dark.  My legs are a little sore from yesterday and Saturday, but they're good.

I had to go to a meeting today in Florence which is about an hour away.  I contemplated not going running, but I figured I had time.  I felt pretty good today.  I saw more runners than I usually see.  One was running on the RWCD road while I was running on the Floodway path.  He was going slightly faster than me.  He turned and went west when he reached Brown.  I saw another runner that was running west on Brown and turned north on the RWCD road.  She looked like she was going fast.  When I crossed Adobe I could see another runner in front of me maybe a quarter mile.  When he got to University he turned west.  But then he got on the west RWCD Canal road and headed north.  So I waved at him.  When I got to Jeff he said, "You're really picking up the pace today, huh?"  I said, "I'm trying!"  I did feel like I was running somewhat faster than normal, and I was, but not that much.  Oh well.

I got up early, but didn't go running 'til it was light out.  I did 3 loops today.  As I approached Adobe I saw Gordon and his owner crossing the street at the stop sign.  He finally turned his head, the owner that is, and saw me, so I waved at him.  Then I got on the Floodway path and turned north.  I saw the Porter ladies again.  I felt like I was running faster, but not really that much faster than yesterday.  I headed back south down the RWCD east road.  Not much was going on except that I noticed my breathing was under control and I felt good.  Half way between Adobe and University I heard footsteps behind me.  What the heck?  I turned and saw this tall blonde lady about to pass me.  She looked at me and said, "It's such a beautiful morning out.  I love it."  She had headphones on and couldn't hear a word I said back to her.  But I told her I agreed.  When she got to University she circled around a mesquite tree and headed back north.  We waved at each other and I crossed University and continued south.  I was still feeling good, but not like I was doing any better than yesterday even though I was running an extra mile than yesterday.  I saw Jeff standing at the edge of the Floodway looking out over it.  He seemed sad so I didn't say anything to him.  Then I saw Sis. Reed and her dog.  I told her good morning, and I finished up.  I was surprised when I looked at my Strava and saw that my pace was 20 seconds faster per mile than yesterday.  I think that's a good sign.

I've been doing real good at not missing days for at least a month now, except for Sundays.  I mostly run on a relatively flat surface except on Saturdays when we run Usery.  But I just signed up for a team to run the Arizona Trail Ragnar race in a month's time.  So I'm going to have to do some more hill training.  Also, I guess I'm currently in the middle of a Ragnar event.  The Triple Peak Challenge.  I'll blog about that Saturday.

Yesterday my brother-in-law had one of his court dates.  It's a real awkward situation because it's my wife's sister's ex-husband and we're supporting him instead of her.  I don't want to get into the "why's" here on the blog, but it was a long morning.  At least things finally got accomplished.  Afteward I had a headache.  I don't know if it was a stress headache from the last five years of seeing my BIL go through this or what, but I didn't get a lot of my work done yesterday like I wanted to.

I woke up early this morning and got dressed.  My wife told me that she had to babysit for someone in our ward.  I took Herbie out back and stretched out.  When I came upstairs to feed Herbie I saw my wife wearing regular clothes.  I'm so used to seeing her in her workout clothes that I asked her what she's doing.  Then I remembered she had to babysit.  And then I remembered that I needed to run Hilltop today because of the Ragnar Three Peaks challenge.  I had thought that I would have to take my daughters to school and do it then.  But my wife reminded me that it was still early and I could do it now, but she also asked me when the boys were going out on their survey this morning.  That's when I forgot that I didn't even set it up for them.  So I ran downstairs and got everything ready.  The point is, I've been very forgetful since yesterday.

I still had time to go before we had to get kids off to school and whatnot, so I drove over to Hilltop.  I started out real slow.  There were probably 20 other people hiking up and down it.  The first ascent up wasn't too bad, but I was wheezing a lot.  I stopped to catch my breath and take a couple of pictures and then headed back down.  Going back down was slow, too, because I didn't want to slip.  I went back up one more time and this time there was a lot of walking.  Then I ran back down again and drove home.  The total elevation gain as recorded by Strava was 612 feet.

I sent a text out yesterday to see who was running today.  Everyone was coming.  But I woke up at 3:45am to a text from Maggie saying she wouldn't be able to make it.  I went to the bathroom, then went and laid back down.  Then I went to the bathroom again.  Mike was supposed to pick us up at 5:00am, and I got a text at 4:53am saying he was here.  I texted him back and said I had just gotten off the toilet.  I threw my running clothes on and urged my wife to hurry up since she was lagging behind, too.  Then Mike texted again saying he needed to use our bathroom.  So I put Herbie outside and told him to come in.  This gave Vickie time to get ready.  But she also let Herbie back in before Mike went outside.  So Herbie started barking at Mike.  Then he stopped and went and sniffed his leg.  Then he started barking again.  Stupid dog.

By this time it was 5:04am and we went to pick up Glen.  We drove out to Usery, stretched out, and were on our way.  I left before everyone else, but Glen and Mike were right behind me.  Mike's tummy was giving him issues and he was worried that he'd have to turn around before getting to the top, but he made it fine.  Vickie also was having issues, but she held it in.  Mike and Glen both caught me at the stop sign as there were a few cars that I waited for because I don't trust anyone.  It was dark out so I was wearing my reflective vest, LED, and headlamp.  There were a lot of cyclists coming down, which was a bit annoying because I always step over into the dirt/gravel, and that's hard to do in the dark.  It wasn't until Bulldog that it was light enough for me to take my headlamp off, but I was only 0.8 miles to the top, so I left in on 'til then.  I saw Mike coming down first.  Glen is the fastest, but he always runs further.  Right as I got to the top I saw a bike slowing cresting over the hill.  It was a former Ragnar teammate of mine from 2008, Jay MacKinlay.  We stopped and talked briefly and I headed back down.  It's always fun to see people you know.  I saw Vickie near Bulldog again.  I think she was going slower than last week, but she's still putting in the work.  Now it's time for General Conference.  Good luck St. George marathoners.