Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Guess what the stork brought to Britta?  Well, you don't have to guess because here's a picture.

We got some rain off and on yesterday.  There were mud puddles here and there.  I was so tempted to jump in them.  Wonder why?  Speaking of mud, I had one of those occasions where I had to stop on my run.  There's a Walgreens on the corner that would provide sweet relief.  Alas, they don't open for another two hours.  Well, I could try the Piggly Wiggly across the street.  And by Piggly Wiggly I mean Fry's Food and Drug.  Surely they're open 24 hours a day and twice on Sunday.  I just have to jump this small wall and hope the strength exerted to do so doesn't take away from other muscles straining to maintain digestive equilibrium.  Dare I say my wall leaping abilities are Bruce Lee-like?  Onward to Fry's where undoubtedly nobody would be using the facilities this early in the morning.  What the...???  Come on!!!  I'm going to give myself cancer if I hold it any longer!  Plus I get to put up with this dude's rich aroma.  Forget it.  I'm going to look to see what movies RedBox is offering.  And if anyone cuts in front of me while I'm not in the bathroom, I'm going to plow them into the wall!  For a good time call BLAM!!!  Well, after that delightful experience I felt light as a feather, swift as an ox.  It really was a beautiful morning.  And now I could enjoy it to the fullest.

Time - 49:36 (avg. pace 8:45)

Splits - 8:48, 8:39, 8:51, 8:43, 8:46, 5:50 for 0.67 (8:41 pace)

Oprah got me out of bed this morning.  That tramp.  Felt like a good morning for double digits.  It was a balmy 40 degrees.  Shorts and T-shirt, baby.

Time - 1:36:55 (avg. pace 8:48)

Splits - 8:40, 8:46, 8:52, 8:53, 8:51, 8:47, 8:41, 8:43, 8:48, 8:49, 8:55

This morning was a recovery run, just 4 laps around the block.  There's a small turkey trot tomorrow at the church stake center.

Time - 20:07 (avg. pace 8:52)

Splits - 8:59, 8:45, 2:24 for 0.27 (8:50 pace)

This morning was the Kimball Stake annual Turkey Trot.  This would be my first year doing it.  The last three  years I've run the Turkey Trot in the Alta Mesa Stake.  I figured I should support my own stake this year. 

They don't tell you how far you have to run.  They show you a map and you guess your time.  No watches allowed.  That way, everyone has a shot of winning.  You know what they say.  In the Mormon Church, everyone's a winner.  Looking at the map I could see that we have to run from Southern to Baseline.  That there's two miles.  The rest didn't look like it was much more than half a mile.  So I guessed my time would be 18 minutes and 45 seconds.  Since it was 3.03 miles, I was way off.

At the starting line everyone packed in including the cyclists and the kids.  I heard three young guys behind me talking.  One of them said he's only ran one timed mile and it was like a 4:40 something.  I almost let him take my spot at the front of the starting line, but I didn't.  The race started and the three young guys quickly passed me.  We ran out of the church parking lot and made an immediate right at the next block.  We ran to the end of the street and turned left.  I knew we had to take a right at the end of the next block to head over to the canal.  However, the leaders turned left.  They had cones at every turn, but there wasn't one here.  I slowed down and some guys on bikes asked which way to go.  I said, "Left.  I think those guys went the wrong way."  So I turned left and hoped I wasn't going to lead everyone in the church the wrong way.  That's how the Fundamentalist Church got started.

When I got to the canal I saw another cone, so my apostate fears had subsided.  I ran down to Baseline and looked to see how close people were behind me.  There was one guy hot on my tail and a couple of other people not too far back.  We turned on to 32nd Street and I saw a former Ragnar teammate.  Actually she saw me.  She was just out running and didn't realize the Turkey Trot was going on.  I also saw the three young guys coming the opposite direction.  I chose to state the obvious and told them they went the wrong way.  They knew.  They knew.

When I turned on Jerome I got passed by a guy that looked to be about 10 years my elder.  He was running strong.  Shortly after that the first young guy passed me, then the other two.  I wondered how close I'd be to my guestimated time.  Then we came to the only "hill" as we went over the bridge crossing the US60.  I knew there was only about three quarters of a mile left.  My legs were pretty shot from my 11 mile run Tuesday, so I had no chance at catching up.  We ran up to Southern and turned around.  When my older rival ran by me I put my hand out to give him five.  I was letting him know that I was okay with him passing me.  Today, he was the better man.

Here's a picture of my daughter and me before the race.  She's my only kid that ran with me.

Recovery.  Down the canal with the family.  Emily got to pet a horse for the first time.