Go, you chicken fat, go away!

The sun was just about to come up this morning.  I ran to the Floodway entrance and saw the Ashcroft family was about to leave the  Floodway on the south side of Adobe.  Br. Ashcroft is hard to miss, even when it's kinda dark.  My legs were feeling sore from Saturday, so I didn't push it at all.  I made it to Brown without seeing anyone else.  When I turned south down the RWCD road, I saw a beautiful sunrise and stopped to take a picture.  Then I started to see more people.  I saw the two guys that were running together last week.  Now they were walking together again.  I saw some runners and dog walkers.  My underwear was pretty tight and felt like it was going to chafe my undercarriage.  They were so tight that I couldn't grab them and pull them away.  I finally had to reach inside and pull them down.  This happened about three times.  The last time I just pulled them down to the midway of my rump and left them there.  I hope no one saw.

So, here's another story.  I'm friends with Sasha, the blog founder, on Facebook.  (In real life, too, as he's stayed over at my house a number of times for the Phoenix Half Marathon.)  He made a post about Russian propaganda on Facebook.  As we all know, Sasha is Russian.  The point he was making was that a certain newsworthy thing lately did not seem like Russian dissemination.  I commented the following, "Those crazy Russians!"  Now clearly that's a joke.  But guess what happened.  I was censored for it.  I violated the "hate speech" rules.  I contested it, and lost.  But yeah, contested it?  I didn't even get to plead my case.  All I could do is say that I believe I was not violating their rules.  So I guess you're not allowed to make jokes of any kind that involve race.  And that makes for a pitiful society.  When we can't laugh at others while laughing at ourselves, that's not a world I want to live in.  So maybe I'll stick to the blog instead and ditch Facebook.  Unless of course it was Sasha that reported me.  But I'm guessing it was an algorithm.

I got dressed to go running yesterday, but I wasn't done with the job that I told my client I would be done with the night before.  So I worked instead and thought about running later.  I never did.  So I just wore my running clothes to bed.  I woke up at 2:30am and checked the election results.  Still not official. I had a hard time getting back to sleep.  I think I slept for about an hour between 4:30am and 5:30am.

I started running at 6:20am.  It was starting to get light out.  I could see two figures coming toward me.  Girls.  I bet it's Edythe and Rhoda.  "Is that you, Rhoda?"  Her hand raised to wave at me.  Rhoda is so nice to Emily.  Last week Emily and I went on a walk.  She knocked on Rhoda's door and Rhoda was so excited to see her and initiated a hug. Emily has always been a hugger, but she's learned not to during Covid.

My pace was a tad faster today than Monday.  I need to continue to be consistent, and not miss more than a day of running.

Apparently I forgot to blog this day.  So....I got nothing.

My wife kept asking me what I want for dinner.  I wouldn't mind fast food, but really it's not a good idea knowing I was going to run Usery in the morning.  I asked Emily what she wanted, and of course she said Taco Bell.  I decided I could stomach Taco Bell.  I also decided I would go with my wife so I could look at the menu.  It's changed so much lately.  I also decided I would take Herbie with us.  I made a lot of decisions.  So we drove to Taco Bell with me in the passenger seat and Herbie in the back.  He liked sticking his nose towards the window.  I saw a new item that looked good.  A nacho cheese gordita or something.  And of course I got two Doritos Locos® Taco Supremes.  But as soon as I told my wife what I wanted I jumped out of the car with Herbie.  I figured I was about a mile from home.  Turns out it was 0.90 miles.  I was hoping I could beat her home.  We started running.  Herbie wanted to sniff every light pole we passed.  Or pee on it.  I failed to think about the fact that he probably had to poop.  And he did.  So I ducked down and pretended like I was picking it up.  But I just left it there.  We got to Adobe and headed west.  I wasn't running fast, but faster than normal.  Then Vickie drove by.  She slowed down and looked right at me, but she said she didn't see me.  I got home a couple minutes after she did.

Usery Pass, I did not miss you.  Earlier this week I sent a text message out to Vickie, Maggie, Alyssa, Mike, and Glen.  I said that Vickie and I wanted to run Usery this Saturday at 5am, but only wanted to do 4 miles - 2 miles up and 2 miles down.  Maggie said she wanted to come.  Alyssa said she would come even though that's early for her.  Mike asked what time.  (He didn't read close enough.)  Glen didn't say anything.  I hope I sent the text to his correct phone.  So yesterday I texted again and asked if anyone wanted a ride.  Maggie said she did.  Mike said he wasn't going.  Maybe next week.  Alyssa said nothing.  Glen said nothing.  After my Taco Bell I went to bed.  I didn't go to sleep right away.  I finished binge watching Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  Seems like it might be the last episode ever. 

Vickie and I both woke up at 3:45am before the alarm went off.  As I was sitting on the toilet, I heard both of our phones go off.  "Who's flaking out on us this time?"  although I knew it would be Maggie.  Sure enough, she needed more sleep.  I texted her some random emojis.  She texted back and said it was raining.  I went outside and there was a bit of a drizzle.  I checked on Maria, and she was staying dry.  She still sleeps next to the back door at the top of the steps.  Then it started to rain buckets.  But after about 5 minutes, it died down.

So Vickie and I left.  We were running behind so I texted Alyssa to see if she was coming.  I told her it was raining.  No answer.  By the time we got there the rain had completely stopped and we got not a drop while we ran.  Vickie put on a brand new head lamp, but realized it didn't come with batteries.  So I figured I'd stay with her.  We pretty much run the same pace now anyway.  We both had on reflective vests, and I had on my tail light.  She turned on her flashlight on her phone.  She stayed right behind me the whole way.

At 0.9 miles I saw a light on the other side of the road.  I thought, "What if that's a cyclist that has collapsed or something?"  So I went over to check it out.  Vickie followed me.  Turns out it was just a pen light.  Or something.  The cover was broken, but the light was on.  Weird.  We went back to the other side of the road.  Vickie said, "We're messing up our times."

Cars usually come in bunches.  Or pairs.  They get stopped at the light at McDowell Road.  It becomes a single lane each way road, so usually you see at least two cars coming.  But I saw about 5 or 6 coming at once.  The first three passed by and it looked like two more were coming.  Then I heard a man's voice.  I turned around.  Where did that come from?  I looked ahead and realized it was a pack of cyclists.  Or a gaggle of cyclists.  Whatever you call them.  Riding together, they gave the illusion of a car.  When I finally realized what was going on, I stepped to the side.  I was off my game today.  Usually I'm more alert to the cyclists.  I guess it's been a while.

Shortly after that I saw a van coming toward us.  There was a truck right behind it.  The van was driving kinda slow.  I wondered if it wanted to pull over.  I was hoping if it did, that it saw me.  It passed by us.  A few minutes later the van was coming up from behind us lightly honking the horn as if to say, "I'm a friendly."  Was it Alyssa?  Does she have a new creeper van?  I guess I'll never know.

We were approaching the two mile mark.  I pulled my phone out of my pocket and Strava said we were at 1.97.  But Vickie said we were at 1.90.  I decided I better run just a little further to make sure we hit 4 miles without having to run around the parking lot.  Maybe the jaunt across the street skewed our numbers.  I went to 2.03 and turned around.  From there it was all downhill.  I saw a few more cyclists coming up.  I stepped off for them even though it was dark and unstable.  I kinda thought we wouldn't see any cyclists today because of the rain and the slick roads.  But they're hardcore.  I got back to the 4runner and I was at 4.06.  So I guess Strava was pretty consistent.

Before we went home we drove down to the river to see if we could see any wild horses.  We didn't.  But we did see a magnificent sunrise.  So take that, so called friends.