With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed that little commercial sleeping in break brought to you and sponsored by my mattress and pillow, but this morning, we are going to resume our regulary scheduled program.......

It was 4:40 by the time I got warmed up & out the door.  The temps were a glorious 54 degrees, with little clouds in the sky, a beautiful slice of a waning crescent moon, and more stars that I can shake a stick at.  Perfect fall running weather!

I ran slow.  I wasn't in a hurry, I was just enjoying the run (except the small little section that goes by the swamp and doesn't have any lights....and then I hurried toward the lights).

The dog that chased me off the road when I was riding my bike a few weeks ago showed up again this morning running out into the road and barking/chasing after me.  A little spray in his general direction sent him back to his own yard to bark at me from a distance.  I yelled at him before I sprayed him, but he didn't understand what "GO HOME" meant.  I guess he doesn't speak english. 

My tempo increased as I ran, turned into a great progressive run.  Avg pace was 9:22.

SHRUB day might turn into a SHRU day because I don't think I'll be biking this afternoon.  Bigger fish to fry with a birthday dinner for my son.  I'm pretty sure we'll be hogging it up at the Red Lobster's shrimp feast.  Can't wait.

I did the Shred video, and ran 2 miles early so I could get ready and make a run to Walmart for birthday cupcakes & some bojangles boberry biscuits for breakfast.  The cupcakes were for seminary..always good to load them up with sugar & fats at 6:30 in the morning.  Then we came home & ate the biscuits.  This is going to be a bad day for my "eating like an athelete" goal.  But hey, it's probably his last birthday with us before he goes off to big, scary world of college & real life.  So I'm going to enjoy it.  Biscuits, Shrimp, Cupcakes & all!

tempo run. 45 degrees (I loved it!!!) 4:30..no moon. I was seriously worried about how all that butter I ate last night was going to affect my run. It seemed to help- huh. Who knew? The secret to running strong is eating a pound of butter the night before :-)

avg pace 8:52. splits were: 10:11, 8:47, 8:57, 8:52, 8:56, 8:44, 8:47, 8:47, 8:52, 8:30, 7:15(last .5).

new batteries in the headlamp this morning- WOW it was bright!

I guess it's just a GA run.  9 miles.  4:40 am.  No moon, 50 degrees, but it felt colder than yesterday when it was 46.  Maybe my shorts were just shorter...

9:25 avg pace

Just had to sleep this morning.  Weeks like this where I'm running 9-10 miles in the morning require more than 6 hours of sleep a night.  I was SO unproductive yesterday because I was too tired to focus on anything except not falling asleep.  Need to re-asses bed time.

Thank goodness for cooler weather.  We got to sleep in and didn't have to start at 6 am to beat the heat.  [We met at 7 to start instead :-) ]. Avg pace 9:52. 

We ran some of Wyatt's running area and some of mine too.  On our recon drive to drop off some h2o on the side of the road, we noticed that the Baptist church was having a fall harvest festival- so we packed a couple of dollars hoping for a bake sale treat on our run.

We got there around mile 10 and I went to see what they had.  It was a bbq plate dinner sale, and the desserts came with a meal.  I explained that we couldn't really buy a meal just then because we were running.  So they offered to let me just take dessert.  I left a donation for the biggest brownie they had.  It was delicious and great fuel for the rest of the run.  We shared it, and it was plenty.  One lady there asked me if I needed something to drink and I told her no, I had my water bottle.  She said, "do you need any more?" to which I answered, "No thank you, we've only got 5 miles left."   As I was walking away with my prize winning brownie, Wyatt overheard her telling the others "They ONLY have 5 miles left!!"  It made us smile.  The nice lady tried to hug me too- bad idea on her part because I sweat like a pig.  Sorry about the sweaty hug- and thanks for the brownie.

And if the run couldn't have gotten any better, we ran by the house that has 2 old hearses in their yard.  Year round, there are little tombstones in front of one of them, but it's in the back of the side yard and I couldn't get it in the picture.  However, in the front of their house, they have probably 8-10 ghosts up on wooden posts along the road.  We HAD to stop and get some pictures.  My favorite is of Death with the nosy horse in the back ground.  He was over on the other side of their pen, but when I went to get the pix, he had to follow me & get in the photo too.  You can see one of the hearses behind the blue car in the first pix.  I love this yard!

Skeletor, scarecrow & pumpkin man.

"death" with the horse.

ghost angels.