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

Beautiful run with MR on the bike.  Sunshine and short sleeves! 4 dead opossum and 1 dead kitten....poor kitten :-(

Happy Veterans Day to all our Veterans and  Thank You!!

Let's start today with a photo of what I wore today.  Sometimes the shirt/bottoms vary, but the light, jacket/vest, and leg bands are always the same.  

Photo in the light:

Since it's always dark in the morning when I go running, this is what I'd look like if you approached me with a low powered flash light:

So I am totally clueless as to how a person driving a F150 pickup truck with both headlights on and no other lights (or approaching cars) in the area FAILS to see me running on the 3.5 inches of shoulder on the road. 

That being said, I realize I am terribly blessed/lucky that it was only her side view mirror that hit my ribcage and not the whole front end of the truck.  My ribcage is bruised, and where the ribs attach at the sternum and vertebra I am sore, but nothing is broken. 

EMS asked, "Could you be any MORE reflective?"  and that was before she saw the leg reflectors.  I really don't know what else I can do to keep myself safe and seen.  Maybe a flashing blue light like a police car?  (Who by the way, after 35 minutes, never even showed up to the scene of the accident.... 3 fire trucks, ems, and no law enforcement).

Suggestions are welcome as long as they don't include telling me not to run in the dark.  And whatever you do, don't tell my Mother!

I'm just bummed I didn't get to finish my run.  It's taper week anyway.... I'm cleared to run the 1/2 on Saturday and I'll be a monkey's pirate if I'm going to let dumb people keep my afraid and in my house.

30 minute elliptical (using one arm most of the time) and then did some stretching, which actually made me feel 100% better

Trial run to see how things would go with my ribs/lungs. I ran easy and had no problems.  So glad!  Saturday should be fine.

Another easy run to wake myself up and check out the breathing.  Good all around.  Excited to see Terri tonight :-)

Super awesome run with Terri.  It was cold, it was hilly, there wasn't enough water, and it was still awesome.

I was glad the run started at 9:00 so we didn't have to wake up crazy early.  We got there at 8 and picked up our packets, then went back to sit in the car and stay warm until the race started.  Saw friends from work and church there- nice to know others who are running.

There was a new starting point for the race this year, and rumor had it the course was changed and flatter than previous years. Thing about rumors are they aren't usually true, and that was certainly the case here.  Except for the first and last half mile, the course was exactly the same with same as every other year.  I felt like yelling in my best Frau voice, "LIES!  ALL LIES!"

So the course was all hills, all the way.  My legs were tired after mile 1.5 and I'm not 100% sure why since I'd cut back my weekday miles by 30 miles for the week.    But boy were they tired and felt as if I were at mile 21 in a marathon.  I'd been waking up all week with my leg muscles contracted and cramping so maybe it was due to that, I guess I'll never know for sure.

We talked and talked and talked some more.  Then we finished the run and went to Panera for hot soup.  I wished I was small enough to crawl in the soup bowl and swim in the warm soup while I was eating it.

Perfect Day!