Same distance and route as two weeks ago. I had planned to do it in the morning but my wife had a 4H meeting with my daughter and needed me to help out with the other kids and I would have been too pushed for time so... well, you get the picture...man it's tough sometimes to find a way to squeeze these runs in! So with everything else we had going on I ended up not being able to start my run until about 9pm. It was dark and cold and I was tired and full of food. But I thought hey if smooth can polish stainless steel for half the night and then entertain a house full of primary presidents the next morning and then pop off an 18 miler, if she can do all that, surely I can do this. And so I did. My legs were sluggish and achey (probably had something to do with my bad attitude) after only a few miles. Finally at about mile seven I blurted out loud to myself "tonight you are going to dig down and find out what you've got." And I stuck it out. The last 3 miles were very tough. I tried everything to deal with the fatigue and pain. I counted steps. I sang songs. I quoted verses of scripture I counted telephone poles. I recounted every house my wife and I have ever lived in (total of 10). These things helped a little but not enough. It was just really tough and I'm not sure why when two weeks ago the exact same route was easier. But I made it. I finished by the football stadium. As I limped past the highschool to my truck at nearly midnight a couple of rough looking teenagers walked by in the dark and looked real close at me. I thought "if they attack me, I'm dead. I have zero energy to run away or fight." Thankfully they just kept walking. I went home took a hot bath and fell in to bed at about 1:00 am and then got up for my church meetings at 6:30am. I will sleep good tonight! Outside of all of that personal drama, it was a pretty routine run.
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