Random Update

What an amazing run I had this morning! It was fifty-seven degrees when I got up, and it was just too good to pass up. I got in a quick four miles before it was time to come back and get ready for church. It was the first time I've been back on the left leg since the seventeen-miler, and it felt strong with no soreness whatsoever. What a relief - no damage done. Even better, I didn't see any skunks out and about this morning.

For the past few weeks, Brian and I have had several encounters with these little creatures. The first one was a while ago, when we were walking around our block late in the evening. We walked past our back yard onto the street. I noticed something dark moving in the grass, and I thought it was probably a neighborhood cat. As it came closer, I thought it was odd that the cat seemed to be walking towards us backwards. Brian grabbed my arm, and I saw the white stripe up the tail at the same time. Let me tell you, our neighbors have never seen someone running as fast up the street as I was that night. I was booking it, and Brian wasn't far behind me. Turns out, I can run 8-minute miles after all, if I have the proper motivation.

The following morning, we got up for a 1-hour run at 5:30. It was still dark, so we were using flashlights as we ran. We ran near a low-hanging tree, and I got tangled in a large spider web. I was jumping around, freaking out, because I.Hate.Spiders. And, obviously this was a big one, as the web went all of the way around my waist. I made Brian check several times that I didn't have some sort of large, ferocious monster spider on me.

We kept going down our running path, much slower, using the flashlights to watch for more webs. About a quarter mile ahead, our lights shone on yet another very large web stretched across the trail. In the middle of it was a huge spider. I started to step around it when we shone the light down onto the trail to see a skunk slowly crossing, seemingly unware that we were there. Even when we shone our lights on it, he didn't move from the path. Thank goodness we saw the spider web and stopped. Or we would have been smelling funky for a while. After that, we decided to bag the running path and we ran the city streets instead. Skunks and spiders at 5:30 in the morning are a little much for me.

In other news, my babies are back in school now. Yes, I call them my babies even though they are 7 and 9 now. Here they are on their first day:



















*Sob*

I really hate it when school starts back up again. I love our days together in the summer, and I miss them a lot when they go back to school. But, I guess they have to learn to, like, read and stuff.

Bonnie gives me all of the updates, detail by detail, every evening. I know who said what to whom, and everything else that goes on in a 3rd grade classroom. But, Clyde? When I ask him about his day, he tells me what he had for lunch. Boys.

Have an amazing Sunday!

Posted in: Family Life, running