All by myself

Less than 24 hours after declaring ourselves morning runners, I find myself outside running at 4:45pm tonight. To top it off I was alone, never fun. Joe has been sidelined with a bad case of poison ivy and Sue ditched me this morning for a court date. I could have gone this morning, in fact I was awake, unfortunately I read too much news and scared myself out of going. It's creepy out on the roads at 5am, and that's with others never mind alone and Mia has retired for the summer.

So here I am, Lincoln Woods, it's hot and I'm determined. Off I go, at first a little creaky from last night's track workout, but before long I loose myself in the hills. Lincoln Woods is a 2.5 mile paved loop with very little traffic, it's all rolling hills. Nothing too bad, but bad enough to make it a work out. The first part of my run was focused on getting away from the car, I had to get far enough away I wouldn't turn around. Once that happened I was quickly focused on getting back to the car and talking myself out of walking there! After cresting the third hill there is maybe a quarter mile to the car and during that time I faced a big decision, to stop for water or keep going. I wanted water, it was hot, but I wasn't sure if I would keep going. There were pros and cons, once I passed the track I just kept going. I couldn't trust myself, it was too tempting.

Now all I had was three uphills and 2.5 miles till water. This loop I focused on who else was dumb enough to be out there. There was the walking woman in the black shorts, I passed her three times out there, she never met my eyes, never a hello. Then the man in the red shirt, he was running in the opposite direction with a water hydration pack on his back. Looked like he was going my pace, almost switched directions to run with him but decided he could have been a weirdo and kept going. We did say hello at every pass (2). Then there was the man I wanted to be, the man I envied for the whole run, the man on the yellow shirt on the bike. He passed me 7 times, each time whizzing by on his bike. It seemed like it was timed, every-time I was plugging up a hill with all my might he came flying by with the breeze in his face. Once I thought he seemed like a frosty glass of water, god to switch places with him. Did he know how jealous I was? I don't know who you are, but I wanted to be you in the worst way, you became my obsession. The biker in the yellow shirt got me through my summer evening run, thanks dude!

Days till NYC: 72
Miles trained today: 5