AM - slept awful last night, but I felt ready to run when my alarm went off at 7AM. I went out and had a great 9-mile run, averaging 6:38/mile. Weather here is WARM, upper 60s and very high humidity. I was dripping sweat when I finished, even though it was dark when I started out. Indiana is definitely much different than Utah.
Speaking of which, here is today's entertaining Indiana-themed story. Near where my parents live, there is a BIG yearly festival called the Covered Bridge Festival. It is a big deal, tens of thousands of people go. It is essentially a big flea market. People love it. My parents ran into a woman from China this past year, and got to talking with her. They asked her what brought her to the Covered Bridge Festival, and she replied that she was there to "learn about the American Peasant." Hilarious.
PM - I did my own study of the American Peasant this afternoon, and ran through the inner-city shanty-town known as Brazil, IN. Usually I stick to the county roads outside of town because fewer people hurl curses at me, but I decided to chance it. I think one person did tell me to 'slow the ef down', but other than that the language was clean and locals indifferent to my presence. No one threw cans of snuff at my head either, always a bonus. Pace was a little quicker, about 6:20/mile for the run (harder to get hit that way), but I felt absolutely great. About like 6:45/mile effort in Utah. Gotta love the sea level thing.
Other highlights today include going to my old high school to give a talk about geo-sciences and careers to science students, and then to the track and xc teams about running. I'm sure all the runners thought I was nuts for the mileage I do, but if I knew then what I know now, I would have been All-State rather than some 'also-ran'. Also did some Blog diplomacy, and got to talk briefly to Cassandra. Not enough hours in the day to truly catch up with folks though. It was nice to see the old school again, though, as it had been about 8 years since I had last been back.
(Elite: 94 miles)
Oh, here's an interesting article about another Devine Racing mess:
http://www.thefinalsprint.com/2007/11/nearly-one-year-later-las-vegas-marathon-champions-have-not-been-paid/ | 