March 2019 Monthly Running Challenge

@7lenny7 Not only are you NOT the kitten, your story beautifully illustrates both sides of the same point: 1) as a driver, don’t drive into crosswalks or around traffic blindly, and 2) as a runner or biker, never assume drivers see you or that even if they do see you, they will give you the right of way. Act as though all people on the road are intentionally out to murder you with their cars, and you will be much safer.


5 miles on trails at WC Johnson, where hooray hooray the trails were dry for a change! It’s been months since I finished a trail run without having to change out of my muddy shoes before I got back in the car.

When I got dressed today it was uncomfortably warm, so I dug up my summer running shorts, which have been packed away since last autumn. The sun went behind clouds before I reached the park, and I was worried I would wind up underdressed, but nope, temperature in the mid 70s. With a nice stiff breeze and overcast sky it was pleasant.

Spent all yesterday in the Apple store getting my mom set up with a new phone and watch that auto detects falls and irregular heart rate and alerts 911 and her contact list if something happens and she doesn’t cancel the alert. So far my mom is active and healthy, knock wood, but she’s in her 80s and works with horses every morning, alone, on a farm miles from civilization. She is rightly nervous that something might happen, and this gives her a layer of reassurance. Anyway as a result of running errands with her, no workout for me yesterday, which is just as well since my legs today feel beat up. I needed the extra rest day.

Nice easy run today, with a sprint at the end. We finished our sprint right as another runner was trundling down the boardwalk in front of us, so we ended up barreling past him at top speed shouting “On your left!” I believe he thought we were out of our tiny minds.

Aaaaaaand I'm home again. 7 long, slow, heavenly kilometres. Longest I've run since before xmas and injury. The 2 min run/30 sec walk intervals mostly worked great, except I think I zoned out watching the waves crash and listening to my music somewhere in there and missed a couple of walks :-D
I may well hurt tomorrow, though, legs were still a little tender from the physio's ministrations on Thursday and they feel tight now. Must remember to stretch as much as I can today.
Goal for March was 40km, today put me at 50km. Yay! Time to start planning April's goal, will be a small one though as we're off for a 10 day hiking holiday over the Easter break and as I'll be walking around 20km a day I won't be running!

@amirahdaboss wow, I'm glad you're okay, and hope you're really okay, if that makes sense.
@7lenny7 Good job being dramatic!

I was riding my bike today, was exactly where I was supposed to be, visibility was good and I had my bright-green backpack on, was at a decent speed going downhill, but apparently someone came up on me and changed lanes suddenly to pass me, without realizing there were already other cars in that lane. Screeching tires, but they avoided a collision and I get to live another day.

I took the sidewalk through that spot on the way home. I'd rather risk paying a fine than risk my life going up that busy hill in traffic at my cycling speed.

@amirahdaboss Wow, that looks like quite an accident. Is that your car? I hope you and everyone involved are okay. I also hope that kid learned a lesson since nobody was seriously hurt.

This morning's run...ugh! The run part was not terrible, it's what transpired afterwards that made it a terrible start to my day. I met my run group at 7:30 at a shopping plaza that we run from on occasion because the area is less hilly than our normal routes and it's easy to get more miles in. The marathon group is training for the Flying Pig and they were doing their first 20, which was 2 loops of a 10 mile route. Since I am in my taper and only wanted 13-14, I did most of the first loop with them, but shot off at around mile 9 to do a loop around a lake in a park and then head back to the start in the opposite direction. It was raining lightly for most of the run, but around mile 9 it began to pour. I had waffled back and forth on clothing and finally opted for shorts and a short sleeve shirt and gloves, which appeared to be a good choice until this point. I was running into the rain and it was cold and stinging my arms and legs. I was working on another loop around the lake when I realized that I had left my keys in the key drop bag and the keeper of the keys was heading out for lap number two and I had no idea where the keys were. I would have to head back and hopefully run into them or I was screwed. I did run into the group heading out for their second loop and Paul the key keeper told me they were in his car and the spare key was in the rear wheel well (at least that's what I heard). I got back to the parking lot about a mile short of my plan and was really tempted to stop given the miserable rain, but decided that would leave me feeling regretful, so I continued on for about 14 total miles.

I was so glad to get back to my car. I wanted to get my towel and dry shirt and get home to a nice hot shower. Except I went to get the key for Paul's car and it was not there. I couldn't believe it. I spent at least 10 minutes looking in all four wheel wells and under the car and everywhere I could think of and I could not find the key. At this point, I was soaking wet and shivering like crazy. this was going to be a disaster as I had at least an hour or more to wait for their return. I finally remembered that I had a 20 stashed in my hand held, so I went across the parking lot to Panera, dried off with some paper towels and ordered a latte. I was shaking so badly that I couldn't even drink it. So I decided to walk about a half mile over to Target and see if I could find a shirt for the $15 that I had left. I was luckily able to find a nice fleece sweatshirt on clearance for $10, so I bought it, then went to the bathroom and removed my wet shirt and bra and put on the dry shirt. However, I was worried that I would miss the group if I didn't head back, so I had to head back out into the rain (now steady, but not as hard). I went back over to the parking lot and stood against the building with an overhang that helped to shield me a bit from the rain. I waited about 40 minutes before they got back because they decided to make a little stop for shelter. I was shivering so badly that my back is aching like crazy from shaking. When they returned, Paul said that the key was under his rear tire. What? Turns out it was not a legit car key like one would expect, but a flat old school kind of key, which happened to be black. I would have never found it. I didn't hang around very long to congratulate everyone on knocking out their 20 miles in such crappy weather because I was irritated ( not sure if at him or myself) and just ready to get home. That hot shower felt so good, but dang is my back hurting!

Oh, and to top it all off, I'm not sure, how, when or where it happened, but there is goose poop on the top of my shoe! Tomorrow's run will be a good one