The biggest nemesis impeding me from my early runs and weekly miles is staying up too late. Sunday night I stayed up watching the late sports news shows. There wasn't even anything interesting on them. Preseason football? Really? I stayed up for that? Anyway, an 11:30 bedtime is bad for a 4:30 wake up call, so I skipped Monday's run. I want 4 runs this week so I should be able to get them all in. I saw a skunk this morning. It was dark so I didn't get a good look at him but it loped across the trail instead of dart like a cat would. It also looked like he had his tail up. Scary. So I turned around and went the other way. I so some runners this morning. A group of 4 all with headlamps. (I hate wearing those things so I just run in the dark. I've run on the trail enough to trust it. I can't even blame last week's fall on the dark. It was at the end of my run and was light by then.) Where was I? They were headed for the skunk when I saw them the first time. I saw them again on my way back and it seems like they must have turned around somewhere near where I saw the skunk. My speed was better. I didn't feel all that strong but my average pace was the best it has been since I started again. And that included a break to see what the skunk was going to do. So I'm coming along but still have a long way to go. I hope I can get in decent shape by the time the Utah half comes along. I should get a PR because I've never actually raced a half before. Weird huh. | 