Expletive Retracted

I'm glad I didn't write up Saturday's long run right away.  The Squirrel captured the day as it was.  In fact, her account, if I could write as well, was almost exactly what mine would have been.  I am amazed at how in sync our shitty runs were.  Mindy first said she wasn't feeling it when I asked if I was going too slow.  I was definitely not feeling it.  The left side of Brad was never cruel before (the O during the Bruiser?  a laugh).  We were trying to get in 16ish before heading across to the mountain side to get in the rest on a stretch of the BBU.  We knew we didn't want to run the O.  I figured to run as much of the trails as they came trying not to rerun much.  I thought it would be fun and make things go faster to just run...Not so much.  I think it contributed to making it feel like we'd never finish.  Certain locations mean certain miles, but this time they didn't.

I don't know how many times the, normally, steady Squirrel needed to catch herself from falling.  When we finally, FINALLY, crossed over to the mountain side, bailing after 14.5ish, she really nearly took a digger on one of the stupid things (waterbars) that seem more like hurdles on the Northern Loop.  I said, "Wow, it'd be embarrassing to fall on one of those!"  Was it the very next one that I did just that?  So.  Not only did I fall over it onto my probably-never-gonna-be-totally-right right knee, but I stubbed my already sore toes very hard.  I swore loudly, repeatedly.  We walked just a bit.  Not even 1/4 mile later, I fell on the Ski trail.  At least this one I was able to do a bit of a roll-out (my Sensei would be embarrassed by my falls).  I did take some time to regroup.  I wanted so bad to say I was done.  I felt like I was done.  Somehow, I think we both knew if either of us said it, even half kidding, we were outta there.  Onward.

Along the Connector, we started realizing that we were complaining, not just commenting on our state of being.  Complaining, maybe whining.  Well, we were gonna do it right.

Mindy must have had her Squirrel senses working; not long after she said she had Nathan on her radar, Nathan appeared.  It was very good timing.  It was good to see a smiling face.  Even better to see a smiling face that said it was going to join in on our run. I'm pretty sure we warned him it was the run from hell and that we were all about vocalizing about how shitty it was.  Did he say at least it wasn't hot?  Well, that's when it got hot.

Still able to appreciated the beauty

On the dirt road, we asked Nathan if he wanted to see Wiccahenge.  We joked that if we crossed through the stone arch, my knee would be healed.  We passed the stone circle, heading towards the barn, but were stopped this time by barking dogs.  One came down to greet(?) us.  The young golden retriever's body seemed to welcome us whole-heartedly.  He was wagging from tail to his neck.  Yikes!  How could he be showing his teeth like that.  It was the oddest contradiction.  We were sure he was some animal spirit.  The sound of mower from the barn made us move off.  The golden sat and watch us go.

Mindy asked about our mileage.  What would we have when we got back to the parking lot?  I did some rough calculations and figured we'd be about two miles short.  She proposed running a mile up the power lines.  Hmmmmm....I didn't really want to be out in the sun.  The I thought about being at the summit and just be able to be done when we reached the car.  The Squirrel said, "Let's make that happen."  Smart, smart Squirrel.  The power lines were actually pretty nice.  We were more exposed to the direct sun, but the footing was kind.

Waiting for the bus

"Mindy, you don't have to point; we all know you're a TM!"*

Starting to believe

As you can tell from the pics, we could still have fun. I'm not even sure where, but Mindy did tell Nathan a couple of times that he could leave us if he wanted to.  But he never did.  I think it was around two miles to go that the Squirrel started picking up her pace.  It may have been the fastest of the day.  She pulled me  home.

All done

For the second time that day, the Squirrel's super-senses were right; Edna and Lucy's had TBLTs waiting to restore us.

Sunday, Rick and I headed to Brad to meet up with Mindy.  I still felt pretty tired.  I had a good amount of shoulder and back tightness as a result of my falls.  Oh, I forgot to even mention the 3rd fall of Saturday's run.  I don't even know where it was, now.  Somewhere after the power lines I'd guess.  My sore knee was stiff, but only a little swollen.  It used to swell that much just from running.

The weather was pretty dreary.  It was in the low 40s with a drizzle.  I tried to think of where we would get in our 10 miles.  Nothing sounded appealing.  I did tell Rick to put his road shoes in the car in case we ended up on the Animal Loop.

Mindy was in the lot waiting for us.  She didn't seem to have any particular route in mind.  Would it be best to just do the AL and call it a day.  I almost voted for that till I noticed how windy it was.  On the roads we'd be more exposed.  OK, how about getting back on the horse?  Should we run the east side?  We all agreed on the backwards, O-less Bruiser.

Brad does still love us.  We both felt good.  In fact, we felt better with the miles.  One nice thing about the mist, it helped make the little stumps stand out from the leaves.  I don't think we even thought of stumbling.  The conversation flowed.  We analyzed the run from the day before.  We decided there was a reason for it.  It was our mental test and we'd passed.  I stopped hating Saturday's run.  Maybe, just maybe, I kinda liked it.  Scout and Squirrel, ready as they'll ever be.

After the run, at E&Ls, of course, we all felt it was one of the best runs in a while.

 * Nathan's clever way of pointing out Mindy's pointing :)