Bradbury and Then Bradbury

Saturday, I met up with Mindy early to get in a long run at the Brad.  I was slightly late getting there cause the old kitty I was looking in on required more attention than I had allotted time for.  Fortunately, she followed the rules and didn't die on my watch!

I thought one of Rick's work buddies was gonna show up at 8 and Mindy didn't mind cutting the first loop short to get back for then.  Well, Steve didn't show, but the parking lot was full of runners, Blaine, Erin, Christine, Julia, David, Martin, and Brent to name a few.  They were planning to run the Scuffle and were waiting on us.  Though we appreciated being waited for, we sent them on their way; we were gonna take some refueling time and didn't want to run the Scuffle.

Not that it was ever mentioned, but I think Mindy and I both planned on running the 18 using 3 loops.  Since our first one was cut short, Mindy suggested running the next one a little long so we had less on our last loop.  So we did the Bruiser minus Island and O.  I'm surprised with all our chatter we can still be startled by wild life...Not that we can be startled, but that any stay around to startle us!  We had lots of squirrel/chipmonk run-ins, but the biggest reaction came from me when I nearly stepped on the littlest, tiniest snake.  It was on one of the bridges and quickly disappeared between the slats.

It wasn't a very hot day, but the humidity was building in the entire run.  I was feeling thirsty even though I had two Fuel Belt bottles with me and drank fluids on the first loop and at the car.  Both of us started to catch toes on small obstacles, but no real falls.

Setting out on the last loop, I realized I was pretty badly chafed.  Both the seems from sleeves down to the sports bra had rubbed the skin raw.  Nothing to do about it right then, but complain.  Turns out it is way worse than even the chafing from the 50 miler, perhaps the skin hadn't totally healed.

My frequent (um...obsessive?) running of Bradbury allowed me to pick a course that got us exactly our 18.  After which, we felt totally justified and deserving of our visit to E & L's.

Today, Rick and I headed back there to run the Scuffle.  We didn't expect to be the only runners there.  The humidity was evident immediately.  Even though I'd covered some of my rubbed spots with gauze, I still ended up running half the miles with my hands akimbo to stop any more irritation.  I felt like I was one of the Riverdance.  Still, we had a great run.