Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I took a week off.  I didn't mean to.  It just happened.  The first couple of days I was busy at work.  I shoulda went Wednesday, but I didn't.  My plan was to hop on a Ragnar McDowell Mountain trail team at the last minute.  But Thursday came along and I felt awful.  Probably the Papa John's pizza I had the night before.  So, no Ragnar, and no running.  This morning I was feeling better and it was beautiful out.  Even though I didn't start until 8:30am, it was still cool out.  The first 100 feet felt great.  I thought, "this week off sure did me a lot of good."  But then my knees and ankles felt like they were going to break, so I settled back down into the slow pace I've grown accustemed to these last 5 or 6 years.  As I was making the last turn up the Floodway I was coming upon a tree with a bunch of doves in it.  Arizona doves aren't pretty white ones like you think of.  They're brownish gray.  Anyway, I spooked them so half of them took off flying to another nearby tree.  It caused me to look up, and I noticed that one of them was a parakeet.  A green parakeet with a red face.  From the on I was singing, "One of these birds is not like the other..."

I was feeling pretty ok this morning.  Maybe because I started out slow instead of strong.  Anyway, I saw another runner that had crossed Brown Road before I got there.  They were on the other side of the Floodway which gave them a slight lead on me.  I use they and them because at this point I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman.  I really thought it was a woman, but the short hair made me think it was a man.  Anyway, I got to the other side and noticed they weren't putting that much distance between me.  Like I said, I was feeling good, but I was still running slow.  They moved over to the other side of the Floodway when they got to Adobe.  I continued on the Canal road.  After a while I forgot about them and thought maybe they'd turned off somewhere.  Then I started remembering how dirty my shoes, socks, and ankles have been lately because of all the dust I kick up on myself.  So I started looking at the footprints and I noticed a barefoot print.  Not sure if it was a barefoot runner  or that homeless guy I see sometimes.  Anyway, after I crossed University I notice the runner was still heading south and still hadn't put much distance between us.  Right before Main Street they stopped and started walking.  They turned right on Main Street allowing me the chance to run by HER.  The moral of the story is I may need a stronger prescription for my eyeglasses.

As I was approaching the Floodway I saw the same lady that caused me such confusion on my prior run.  I felt good inside knowing her gender, although I'm not sure what she identifies as.  She was on the Canal road while I was on the Floodway path.  They're roughly 200 feet apart.  But I could see that we were keeping the same pace.  I briefly contemplated asking her to to fill out the last remaining spot on our Ragnar team.  Anway, when we got to Brown she continued across the street while I ran over to the Canal and turned south.  At a quarter mile south of Adobe I could see two people on the Floodway path.  They seemed to be resting with their bikes.  I got to University and headed back north on the Floodway path.  When I was about 150 feet away I could tell that they had their bikes and everything else they owned strewn all over the path.  Mind you, the path is at least 10 feet wide.  At about 100 feet I could smell the strong pungent odor of marijuana.  Holy smokes!  I could also see that one was a man and the other a woman.  The man was changing one of the tires on a bike.  As I got close enough for them to say something to me, the woman apologized for having their stuff everywhere.  She said it was an obstacle course.  I just stepped off the path and ran around it.  I hollered back, "I cheated!"  They seemed very proud of me.

I actually passed someone today.  I'm seeing a lot more runners out lately.  And that's nice.