Patience; the new endurance sport.

Right out the door, a bee got caught in my ponytail and stung my finger when I tried to free it.  So I ran while my index finger grew to be the size of my thumb.   It didn't really hurt and I was mostly distracted by the amount of water in the river.  I've been sleeping with the windows open recently to hear it, and it has risen with each passing day.  It's a lot of rushing water.  My dog who loves to jump in got a really swift surprise when she couldn't swim back to the bank very easily.  The lake too has risen by a number of feet and the water is the color of mint ice cream.  There must be so much water flowing into it from the river it has stirred up the silty bottom.  It was an indredible shade of light green.  Then the cattle, who were all grazing alongside the trail decided my dog s were a threat to the 6-8 calves in the pasture, so several jerseys with heavy udders began to charge the fence.  I wish I had my Garmin when stuff like that happens, because I got at least one really fast mile in there.  Cows are big when they are right next to you. When I arrived at home, I realized I'd locked myself out.  So I had to walk over to the neighbors to get my spare key and when she opened the door, all she said was "what's wrong with your finger?"   And that's pretty much how the rest of my day went.

9:13/9:04/8:57/9:18/9:25 

I had a nice easy run watching how big the river's getting.  Today was the smiling senior phenomenon.  Usually they all hate me because of the dogs.  People with nothing but time on their hands are really fond of socially enforcing traffic rules...all of them.  And they will yell at you at 6:00 a.m.-- when there is no one else on the trail but you and them-- in loud voices for you to read the trail sign if you are not on the right side of the trail, come upon them too quickly from behind, fail to warn them you when are passing, or if your dogs are unleashed (even when they are somewhat obedient to heal).  I've even had them ask out loud where my kid's helment is while riding by.  Why do they all yell at me?  I don't know.  But today, they were all sweet and smiling.  Which is such a relief, because I do so hate having to yell at them to go back to their nursing homes. :)

8:46/8:49/9:03/9:20/9:19

I ran at lunch time and have been used to sub 50 degrees.  Wow.  What a difference a day can make, that plus there are no trees on this end of river trail.  I started by running a trail by my office, and thought my time would be so slow from running on gravel, but I was wrong.  Those were my faster miles. Then I had to run 2 miles uphill to get back to my office, against the wind, in the sun, at about 70 degrees.  I wasn't ready for that.  But man, it was GREAT to be outside in the sun.  No cows today, only cars.  But yesterday, I took my kids down by the lake to show them the 8 new calves and colt.  While we were on our byciles on the side of the road, all 8 calves came right up to the fence, and looked at us with their shiny black eyes and moist noses.  They were all calm and curious.  So my son says "Mama, they have no idea how mean we are to them.  They should run away from us."  I noted that they'd already been branded and tagged so they already had some idea.  So then he gets off his bike, goes over to pet one through the fence for a second and they all began to crowd around him.  If I haven't mentioned it before, we call him "Dr. Doolittle" and "The Cat Whisperer" because he loves animals, and they all love him back.  Anyway, they crowded toward him to smell and lick his hand while me and my daughter stood a few feet away. Then looked up the embankement toward me and said "Let's not eat any more cow ever again."  Why do they have to say things like that to me?  No one loves a good steak like I do.  So I suggested maybe we keep our own cow and I kill it myself, only in a nice way.  He didn't like that idea either. 

I ran 6.4 with Josse and Brune.  My wittle woo-woo gotta owie in her wittle paw (that's grown woman doggie-talking).  So I had to leave her behind. We ran into Matt down by lake, and he turned around to run with us a bit.  He had a great Boston Marathon experience and is thinking of grand slamming Utah--starting with Ogden next week.   Everyone's so pumped for Ogden, and I am still kicking myself for missing the deadline.  But I was still mortally wounded at the sign up time, and really unsure if I could get back to the high mileage by Spring.  I signed up for the Utah Valley Marathon to make up for it.  I hope it's a good experience.  I just need to get 26.2 under my belt again no matter how long it takes me.  But I will miss Ogden, I love the scenery there.  Matt slowed us down for bit (lol), but we managed an 8:40 average (Josse says 8:36, mine said 8:43 so I compromised).  Anyway, then I came home, fixed breakfast, scooted kids out the door and went back for another 2+. What a gorgeous day......Happy Spring!

9:26/9:00/9:02/9:05/9:17/9:24/9:20 --ran with the dogs, passed Jeff warming up down by the lake, put the dogs away got a drink, ran to the race at the trail head.  I ran in to MaryAnn on the trail headed toward the race too and so I  introduced myself and we ran about 200 meters while I joked that I was totally going to nail the Athena class, or maybe even the masters.  She's sweet and actually thought she might not win.   

7:57/8:17/8:46/8:43/8:38--Here's my race times.  Jeff, and then Sasha, Ted, MaryAnn, and then the rest of the group (except about 4 others) doubled back and sailed past me before I had even hit the half way mark.  They don't call it the fastrunningblog.com for nothing. I tried to keep Benjamin in my sights hoping I could at least hold his pace, to no avail.  So I was cleanly outrun by every other person (except 4 others) including the 9 year old. But of course, I dare any of you reading this to race the 9 year old. But hey, for miles 7-12 not to bad for me.

8:40/9:23/11:23/10:04/10:34/9:29/9:11/9:30--Here's after the race. I bumped into my neighbor Tamu and a teenager in the neighborhood and forced them to run two miles with me.  All  Tamu's daughters are all on atheltic scholarship so I figured she could take it.  She could, but only 2 miles.  Ran the rest on my own, excpet the last 3.  Josse was down at the bottom of the trail, trying to get in her miles today.  What luck!  So she carried me the last 3 miles and we chatted and laughed for a bit to the end of the trail where she'd parked her car, and then we were done. Then I ran back toward home, and a little beyond to make an even 20 miles. It was a very good morning. And then I went home, drank 2 liters of water, and made my daughter oatmeal on wobbely legs :)  Happy Saturday!