Gettin' It Done

So, work still interferes with my posting.  This weekend it looked like it was totally gonna screw with running, too.  I told the Squirrel I had to work Saturday, at least the a.m. and then 6 to 6 on Sunday.  Turns out she had training all weekend in Lewiston.  We didn't want to miss a long run.  Hey!  How about we run after Squirrel's training let out.  We'd just shoot for a 3 hour run at Brad.  Then she could sleep over so she'd have a tiny commute.

When we made the plan, we had no clue the temperature was going to be more late-July, early-August-like.  I was dreading it a bit, being a lousy heat and humidity runner.  I ate a pre-run meal of turkey and cheese roll ups, trying to duplicate the Wapack eating.  I even bought us the maple cookies.  Yum. 

So, S&S headed to the Lawrence Rd parking.  We decided to run back to the park, to the east side where we'd stick to the snomo and wider parts of Ginn West (thinking this would be closer to Haliburton running), back and then we'd pick up our headlamps and do the BBU Sweetser Rd loop.  I suggested bug spray.  Normally, I shy away from spraying anything;  I hate putting a poison on me and am super scent-sensitive.  We were both prepared to struggle with the oppressive heat.  Maybe it was because we were so expecting it to be immensely hard, it was not.  Heading into the woods was probably the smartest way to run. 

I was surprised when we ran into two separate other runners.  Brad is drawing more people in.  Mindy had so much interesting stuff to tell me about her training, that I could sit back, listen, and hydrate.  Wow.  We were running on a hugely hot day, after a long day of other shit, and it was good.

Heading back towards Lawrence Rd, I had to pull off to use the woods.  Holy shit.  Bastards!!!  Ow.  Ow.  No way can there be that many mosquitoes instantaneously.  I won't tell you where I was bitten, but I will say that I have to be careful to make sure no one is looking when I scratch.  Shit.  When I caught up with the Squirrel she was running back and forth on the bridge.  Normally she walks till I catch back up, but she was also swarmed.  I recounted my woes.  Shit!  We'll reapply bug spray as well as pick up the headlamps when we get back to the car.

I was happy when the mileage on our garmins confirmed my 9 mile prediction for our course.  It's good to get pleasure from little things.  I liberally applied the repellant, something I never do.  As we were running down Sweetser, I reallized neither of us had grabbed our headlamps.  Rats!  OK, we'd just run out the roads till we hit 1/2 our remaining time, then we'd run back.  Unfortunately, I started building a stitch that would plague me the rest of the run.  Of course, in true Squirrel fashion, Mindy said no problem, we'll just walk till you're ready.    I think it was when she was actually saying that the first time that she was looking at me so missed the fisher that I saw run across the road.  Whoa!  Very cool.  Was it just Wednesday that we ran this same road admiring the beaver swimming in the river?  Oh!  that reminds me, crossing the bridge coming down the snomo trail, we heard the beaver slap his tail hard on his pond.  We imagined he was angry that people hadn't left the park yet.

When we returned to the car, my garmin read just 14 seconds over 3 hours.  Even with my slow downs, we were happy with the run and that we got it done.  I think it was close to 10pm when we got back to my house.  Rick, who also had weekend duty, had waited up.  I put him to bed, but S&S stayed up watching a "My Cat From Hell" marathon.  Really.  I think Mindy finally went to bed near 2.  I stayed up for one more cat.  5 am came way too quick, but I still feel like it was all good training for the 100.