Go, you chicken fat, go away!

As a personal choice, I don't usually run on Sundays.  But I signed up for this event, and  it was either run on Sunday or double up on Saturday.  I didn't sleep well last night which I attribute to terrible eating yesterday.  My wife bought this WalMart pizza for dinner, which was suprisingly delicious, yet incredibly greasy.  When 5:30am rolled around I didn't want to get up because since 1:30am I had been waking up every hour.  But I got up and sat on the toilet for 20 minutes.  That wasn't long enough.  I contemplated bringing TP with me for the run, but I didn't.  I had Vickie and Vanessa drop me off at the parking lot and drive up three miles on Usery Pass to a dirt parking lot where a lot of people go hiking on trails.  Almost immediately after they left something stirred within my bowels.  My first thought was just practice selective muscle control and I'll be all right.  But moments later I knew I would not be all right.  I've been in this situation before, but I've always had something to bail me out, whether it be a nearby porta john or Mike King's high quality Melting Pot napkins.  Now I had nothing.  I went over to the tube rental parking lot and was certain that they would be locked.  They were.  I thought, "I'm going to have to use my underwear and I don't want to because they're such a nice pair of running underwear."  I wandered out in the wilderness and I found a piece of paper.  It was dirty and had little sticks and weeds all over it.  But I crumbled it up to make it soft, and most of the dirt and weeds fell off.  I went behind a tree and stripped off my shoes, shorts, and my nice underwear.  It was light out by this time, but I was confident nobody could see me.  I squatted down, and will spare you of the remaining horrific details.  But I finally got dressed, picked the cactus needles and weeds off my socks and shorts, and started my run.  I felt terrible still, but today was the last day of the 7SummitsChallenge, and I knew I could make today's goal of 580 feet.  It took a while, and it felt difficult, but I made it.  I saw two of the Salt River horses, likely the same ones we saw Saturday.  About a quarter of a mile before I finished, I saw Vickie and Vanessa walking down because by this time they had become slightly worried about me.  I heard Vickie screech for joy and clap when she saw me.  I'm serious.  Anyway, they asked if I was all right and if I needed water.  I was good, so I kept going up to the dirt parking lot and I successfully finished the challenge with 606 feet of elevation gain.  I'm glad I did this.  I feel stronger.  Now I just need to keep up the consistency and maybe I'll lose some weight.  Last thing before I go - What does it mean when two ladies pass you up on their bicyles and one of them says, "We were admiring your dedication in running up this hill?"

Friday the 13th.  It was nice to run on a mostly flat surface this morning.  However, my shins hurt most of the way.  I kicked two teenagers off the Canal for fishing.

27.4 mile bike ride, Usery Pass route.  I decided it would be more fun to do a bike ride today.  As I pulled my bike out of the garage I noticed the tires seemed slightly low on air pressure.  I thought, "It'll be fine."  It was not fine.  I was getting passed by other cyclists right and left.  Well, mostly on the left.  The low air pressure made a noticeable difference in my speed.  It also made the climb more difficult.  At one point during the climb, I had just said to myself, "C'mon, Burt!"  I do that a lot.  But this lady was in the process of passing me and I felt embarassed for having just said that out loud.  Anyway, she went out into the road and had her head down, so she didn't see that a car was passing and she darn near got flattened.  They were honking at her and I slamming on their breaks.  The funny part was I was too tired to even care.  It was strange.  Anyway, on the decent I was able to pick up a lot more speed, but I kept feeling my back tire drag.  At one point I thought it went completely flat, so I pulled over and stopped.  This lady behind me must've seen me because later when she caught up to me she asked if I was all right.  I told her I was fine, and that I thought my tires were a little low.  She said she had a CO2 container and offered to top them off.  It was incredibly kind of her.  There was a big difference after that, but my legs are so dead now.