another long weekend - part 1

well the easy part is done, the ten on saturday.

ran the old shoes and they felt great. so i now know that i have two sets i can count on. ( somehow this makes me think of resa... hmm... ) well. anyway nice to know i can swap back and forth.

so... about the 10 yesterday. again i ran on the sidewalk between the golf course and town. its 5 miles long so a ten round trip. i put water at about 1.25 miles from each end. so about 2.5 between water breaks. running out i went into the sun and the wind. the wind you know about, it was a bit breezy and comes in small gusts so you are always guessing when you have to lean a bit. kinda annoying. :-) but the sun for me is worse. it was getting later in the day and the sun was right in front of me. the trees are what make it tricky. the path is between a lot of trees and the sun comes in and out of them the whole way so its like those horror house places with the flash strobe bulb and people seem to jump around weird. so i spent most of the time looking down as i ran. didn't see any glass or dog poop on the trail either.

i get my drinks and run along. the first 2 miles again are the hardest. this is getting kinda weird - and i am going to try to pay special attention to starting a bit slow from now on - its not fun to be out of breath about 300 yards from the start. and then 2 hours later running faster and not be breathing hard. really strange. so that's today's plan. but today... 18 or so should be lots of fun. and gads who knows what i will get.

so anyway i run all the way to the end and its in a bit of an open spot and now the sun is my friend as it is just sitting there and i am taking a break and eating a chocolate cliff bar.

ah. was all in all a good if not great first half. i am really looking forward to running back with the wind and the sun pushing me along. so i start back. the first water is gone! and after my big chocolate goopy sticky bar i was really hoping to wash it down. 3 kids are playing with the bottle splashing gatorade all over the trail. great. thought about asking them where my drink went but they would have just stared or lied to me. so i ran on. what point i guess. never see them again anyway, just kids of renters. ah, well, so now i am in not such a good mood. next an old lady is walking her dog towards me at about mile 7. i work up some happy and smile and wave to her. but she ignores me, probably i am one of those jogging molesters that you hear about. so i shrug and plod on thinking for sure my other bottle is going to be gone now too. probably the kids will steal a car and race ahead and empty that on the trail too. and i almost step in the ladies dog's shit. big pile of dog shit and pee right in the middle of the sidewalk. wtf? the area runs through woods. and she has the dog dump right in the middle. big pile of steaming crap. and i was the one annoying her by waving about 3 minutes earlier. sometimes i hate people. so i almost walk from there. just kinda lost my happy run thing. but i get mad and run because she couldnt. so ha. run to the first water stop - and its there. finally i get to swallow the big chunk of chocolate goop in my throat! :-)

after this i have only a bit more than a mile to go and i run on, usually the last mile is hard, regardless of the distance, sorta like the first. i hate 3 mile runs its all first and last miles! but i am running, coming into town and pretty happy and two teenagers run past me all laughing. ah, well, things are better. but they are all happy because they found a bunch of glass and smashed it all over the sidewalk for about half a mile. glass in piles all over. i smile anyway. whatever.

just got back from staging my water for an 18 mile run... should be a lot more boring, which today is just fine!