Go, you chicken fat, go away!

Have you ever seen that movie The Rookie?  It's the one with Dennis Quaid who is coaching a high school baseball team and realizes he can still throw the ball real hard, so he joins the majors.  Well, in one scene, if memory serves, he stops along side the road where there is a police radar that shows what speed you're driving.  Then he throws some baseballs in the direction of the radar and they get clocked at and around 100 mph.  Not knowing how those things work, I wondered whether or not they could actually pick up the speed of a tiny ball if they're designed to measure the speed of a much larger vehicle in comparison.  I even wondered if they could capture the speed of a person running.  So I decided to test the theory out about the runner this morning because there was one set up half a mile away from my house.  I got out in the bike lane and nothing.  Then I moved over into the street, and it registered me at 7 mph.  I'm probably the only one who thinks that's cool.

There's a couple I often see walking their dogs when I'm running.  I haven't named them yet because the only thing I can come up with is Poor-Lady-With-Big-Dog and Fat-Slob-With-Tiny-Dog.  But that just seems too long.  I think I've trained them well because Poor-Lady-With-Big-Dog said good morning at the same time I did.

Last week I only ran 14 miles.  I convinced myself that it was okay because I need to rest some after the marathon.  The problem is, it was my birthday week, and I've been eating a lot of junk food.  So when I jumped on the scale this morning I was at 205.  But after I ran I was at 199.  Not too bad, I guess.

Time - 47:38 (8:30 avg.)

Splits - 8:26, 8:24, 8:22, 8:31, 8:48, 5:07 for 0.61 (8:24 avg.)

Everybody knows I'm a good guy, right?  I mean, just before my little "incident" occurred this morning I had picked up somebody's garbage can that had blown over in last night's storm.  Such a guy.  But then I come up to the intersection, and I'm in it before the car that comes along, but do they stop?  No.  They roll right through and almost hit me.  Being the concerned citizen/punk that I am, I need to make sure he/she knows that I'm there, so I take both hands and slap the side of the vehicle.  I guess that didn't make the driver too  happy.  Here's what went down.  The dude slows down, rolls down his passenger window and says, "I apologize for not seeing you, but you didn't have to hit my car."  Stop.  Let's analyze that.  Are you really sorry?  If your apology is so heart-felt, do you need to add the "but" in there?  That kind of rubbed me the wrong way, so I said, "Well watch where you're going."  Then he pulls up again and says, "I told you I'm sorry, but you didn't have to hit my car."  "You're lucky I didn't scratch it."  Oh boy, them's fighting words.  That's when he stops, gets out and says something to me that I couldn't quite make out, but I did hear the grand daddy of all cuss words in there.  I was still running, but I turned around and yelled, "Get back in your car!  I didn't hit it that hard!"  So he gets back in and pulls up alongside of me and says, "Again I apologize.  Have a good day."  I say, "You too, buddy."  Not sure if he heard me.  "I'm trying to apologize here", he says.  "I said 'you too'.  What did you think I said??"  So then he does the right thing and pulls up and says, "Hey.  I want to make this right.  Come over here and shake my hand."  And I knew he was right so I had to do it.  Don't you think we should hug it out though, biscuit?  I shook his hand, and he said, "I don't want to get my day started out like this, and I don't want your day to start out like this either.  I'm a runner myself."  "Well, I appreciate that.  I just didn't think you saw me, and I wanted you to know that I was here, I'm queer, and I'm going to kick your rear."  Except I didn't say the last two parts there nor are they true.  The amazing part was how calm I was during the whole "altercation".  Generally if something like this happens to me, my heart starts to pound  through my chest, but I was like Mr. Cool.  Clearly I've watched too much UFC, and I've lost all touch with reality.  Please don't think less of me.

Time - 46:26 (avg. pace 8:18)

Splits - 8:10, 8:10, 8:19, 8:23, 8:28, 4:57 for 0.60 (8:14 avg.)

BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS

Today I decided to post some of my pictures that I've found of fellow bloggers before I knew they were bloggers.  Featured are JamesW and Kerry.

This was the 2008 London's Run Half Marathon in Queen Creek.  I wasn't even a blogger yet.  But James has been a blogger since 2006.  I now live in Queen Creek, but back then I lived in Mesa.

In this picture is new blogger Kerry Herbine.  I haven't ever met him, and this was as close to him in the race as I was.  This was the 2009 KRMC Route 66 Race for Hospice 10k in Kingman, and he beat me by almost four minutes.

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Today's run was uneventful.  I went slow because my legs felt kind of tight.

Time - 26:24 (avg. pace 8:48)

Splits - 8:52, 8:45, 8:47

Temp - 43 (BRRRR!!!!)  Just kidding!

Oh what a run!  (Said in the voice of the late Michael Hegstrand, aka Hawk.)

This is one of my favorite runs.  I wish I could do it more often.  My friend Glen, who has run on my Ragnar team the last two year and will be again in Feb., and I went out to Usery Pass.  This used to be part of the Ragnar course until they changed it last year.  I love the challenge of the uphill and the reward of the downhill.

Mile 1 - 8:34 - There is a 179 foot elevation gain.  We were pushing it pretty hard.

Mile 2 - 9:13 - 248 foot elevation gain (4.7%.)  This is the steepest mile, and we were still pushing it.

Mile 3 - 9:23 - 185 foot elevation gain - We slowed down a little.

Mile 4 - 8:44 - We reached the top at 3.67, another 85 feet, but the steep part was behind us so we were able to speed back up some.  Almost a 700 foot climb.  I don't think I've ever run up it that fast before.  The last 0.33 miles was 31 foot drop.

Mile 5 - 8:37 - The turn around was at 4.56, a drop of 56 feet, so we had one last climb ahead of us once we turned around.  Glen took off and got to the turn around about 30 seconds before me, then waited for me.  I had to stop near the shooting range to take a small rock out of my shoe that had been there the whole time.  The shooting range always makes me nervous.

Mile 6 - 8:45 - Glen and I were running together until we got to the steeper downhill portion, which I was really looking forward to.

Mile 7 - 7:40 - A lot of people like to ride their bikes up and down this hill.  It was kind of nice to show off that we were doing it on foot.  This mile felt great, but I thought I was running a little faster.

Mile 8 - 7:39 - Glen was starting to pull away from me.  I clocked him about 45 seconds ahead of me.

Mile 9 - 7:48 - I'm not sure if I've ever run a sub 8 on a 9th mile before.  Gotta love downhills.

Last 0.12 - 0:58 (7:40 pace) - Glen had finished about a minute before me but kept going down the road a little way then turned around and came back.  After catching our breath we drank a little Amino Vital.  I got a free sample from the internet.  It's supposed to be a good recovery drink.  It tasted all right, but it left me thirsty for water.

Oh, and I met RUN2DAY today.  He's a real nice guy, but then I already knew that.  His name is Bruce.  Henceforth he shall be known as Bruce RUN2DAY.  He invited me to join the East Valley Runners.  I'll have to check it out.