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

Raking up those black walnuts again....... curse you black walnut trees.  MR cut down one that wanted to grow up to a mighty tree.  It was probably 30 feet + tall, but it won't be raining down walnuts from that tree again.  Now I only have one more to cut down and then just the big one to live with (in the back yard).

My first run out of the neighborhood by myself in the dark since the day that shall not be named.

I was happy with the pace, just wished my breathing and heartrate were on board for longer than 4.5 miles.  I got out of breath the last little bit.  In my defense, it was 32 degrees outside.  I am SO looking forward to a run this afternoon... it'll be mid-sixties :-)

Here's a MR pirate photo for your viewing pleasure! He's wearing his Edward Teach smile :-)

Beautiful afternoon run.  No jacket needed.  Love those runs :-)  A little slower than the morning run, but still a nice pace.

I set my alarm to get up early and get at least 6 miles in, but I woke up with a headache and went back to sleep for 20 minutes.  So 4 it was.  Another good pace morning for me.  I was stretching out on the mailbox post and saw the prettiest dawn.  The sun was just starting to light up the sky, and it was painting the bottom of the clouds pink. 

It's a grainy photo, because it was still dark.  Shopping today after school, so no pm run.  I think I'll get over it- but I may need more headache medicine!

Ran down my "favorite" road this morning.  I got to try out my new flashing red led light that clips on my hat.  I feel llike it worked well.  Everyone gave me space!

Pace wasn't as great as Mon & Tues morning, but it can't be totally awesome every day.

Afternoon run with Wyatt.  We ran around the school so we'd get more time to run and wouldn't be on the busy country roads when it was dark.  I talked her head off, but I was grateful she was there to listen and went out with me even though she was sore from p90x plyo.  

I spent a good portion of the morning trying to decide where to run.  We decided to go on base so we wouldn't have as much traffic to contend with.  We took a different kind of route and took a few detours to try and keep the miles between 10 & 14 miles.  It was a nice relaxing run.  MR was a good waterboy and it was nice to have someone to visit with.

I've signed up for an 18 mile trail run in February with Wyatt.  This year I'm looking for smaller and less expensive runs.  The website for this run is www.runforray.com.  In honor of 80's skateboarding royalty Ray Underhill and to raise money for the Chordoma Cancer Foundation.   Skaters and cancer- both things that have touched my life ;-)