Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Last night we went to my wife's best friend's house for dinner.  There was a lot of people there and I didn't want to use the bathroom so I held it in the whole time.  When we got home I immediately took Herbie on a walk.  I couldn't hold it any longer so I went on the side of the trail.  This morning I could still see the stain.

I wore my trail shoes today because I packed my regular running shoes.  We're going to Utah today and will spend the rest of the week at my sister's house in Enoch.  It's always a good time, but there's going to be a lot of snow this year, so I'm worried.

So today I turned north on the Floodway path and saw a coyote in the Floodway.  I kept running and I saw another close to it.  Then I thought I saw another, but I quickly noticed it was a dog.  I was too far away to see the owner.  I got closer and recognized that it was Gordon.  The coyotes were cautiously keeping their distance as was Gordon, but neither were running away.  I then saw Gordon's owner.  He was trying to call Gordon back to him.  But Gordon doesn't always listen to him.  So when I got close enough I called him.  He came darting toward me.  It was cool.  Then his owner struggled to get his leash on him because his hands were so cold and he couldn't push the metal clip open.  He finally got it and we talked about coyotes for a minute.  Then I took back off and as I was getting close to Brown, I saw a Flood Control truck coming down the path.  I flagged them down and told them about the coyotes.  They probably thought I was weird.  I then continued running my loop and when I got to the other side I stopped to take a picture of the coyotes.  They ran to other side of the Floodway.  Not sure if the workers saw them or not, but they probably did if they were looking.  When I got to Adobe I had caught up to the workers even though they were on the other side of the Floodway.  They have to stop and unlock each gate as they drive down and then lock them back up again.  I passed the RWCD well which is the half way point between Adobe and University when they passed me again.  I caught back up to them at University and was running back over towards them.  The kid that was locking up the gates had to zig and zag because I almost ran into him.  Ha! 

Jeff wasn't there today.  I hope he's gone to a shelter.  It's getting too cold to be sleeping outside.

Like every year for the last few years, we rented an RV and went up to my sister's house in Enoch, UT for the week of Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving Day was the first run I did.  It was snowing.  I headed east from her house out to the main road that parallels the I-15 Freeway.  I realized that if I headed north I would have snow blowing in my face.  But it was either snow blowing in my face now or later, so I chose now.  I ran another half mile up the main road and stopped when I saw that Strava was at 1.0 miles.  Then I looked over to the Freeway and saw an undercrossing.  I decided to run there.  I took a couple of pictures and headed back.  I felt better on the way back because there was no snow blowing in my face and it was downhill.  But when I turned on my sister's street that snow was in my face again.  All I had on was my regular running clothes, a pair of sweat pants, and a hoodie.  And one time I stopped on the way out and my glassed immediately fogged up, so I had to put them in my pocket.  Maybe snow running would be fun if I had the proper gear.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

My second and last run in Utah.  We celebrate Christmas with my side of the family right after Thanksgiving.  My family likes to call it Thanksmas, but I say it should be called Christgiving, because why take Christ out of Christmas?  Anyway, we all went to IHOP in the morning.  All 28 of us.  Then I had a small window to go running while everyone else wrapped presents. 

It was no longer snowing, but snow was all over the ground.  I decided to run to the culvert underpass again.  I wanted to get more miles than Thursday.  I took a back road to get out to the main road.  It's almost a straight shot to the culvert, so it shaves some distance off from how I ran it Thursday, but it was covered in snow, so I had to run slower.  I got to the underpass and ran to the opposite side of the freeway.  I then ran on a dirt (but mostly snow) road north parallel with the I-15 Freeway.  So if anyone was heading north and saw a guy running in a black hoodie and dark blue sweats just north of Cedar City, that was me.  I ran until I got tired of running and then turned around.  When I crossed under the freeway again I decided to run along the main road instead of taking the short cut.  I ran against traffic, but luckily there were only a few cars.  I stopped when I got to my sister's street to make sure the traffic was clear.  That's when I saw two fast runners, one boy and one girl, behind me.  I waved at them as I crossed the street.  Then I finished up and enjoyed the rest of Christgiving with my family.

We're home now.  It's 1 in the morning on Dec. 2nd.  I drove all day Sunday.  Now I think I'll go to bed.