Tired

did I mention that I also hate mornings? Well, I do The fact that I have chosen to run in the mornings, compounds my spite.

This morning I was extra tired and extra angry at the alarm clock. Mandy had a rough night and must have been up every hour and a half dealing with the pains and agonies of being huge with twins.

Today the run started out immediately with knee pain.  For reasons I can't explain, they subsided.  The stampeding cows were gone this morning.  My thought is that the herd had a discussion after I passed by on Monday that went something like:

"Geez, did you see that guy?  I think there must be a faux leather shortage.  People can't build recliners and fake leather car seats any more.  No car seats, no cars!  That's the only explanation I have for that guy to be out here running.  He doesn't have a car to drive or a recliner to lounge in.  With no other options, he has to run as a means of transportation!"

Another cow cleared her throat, breaking the silence and voiced what the others were thinking "Come on girls, let's do the right thing.  We need to turn ourselves into the processing plant and have our hides turned to leather.  Besides, he looks like he could have used a burger.  Let's go girls"

No, it was not cows this morning, but cats and horses.  a couple blocks from the house a cat darted across the street and stopped in the middle of the road, next to where I was running and stood there with a confused look on its face.  His head shook back and forth like it was searching the scenery in front of me and behind me trying to figure out what I was running to get to or trying to figure out what I was running from.  Either that, or it was a head shake of pity. 

I ran by a pasture that had some horses.  One of them ran up to the fence as close as it could get to me and stood there, ears standing tall and directed at me and its eyes sending a glaring gaze.  To me, it seemed that he was trying to say "Pssst!  Hey!  Yo!  Hey man, whatever was chasing you is gone!  Look!  Hey!  Trust me man, you can stop running now!  Really! What are you deaf?  Lookie here Ed, this man is deaf!" One of the horses looked up from a tuft of grass that it was munching on.  "That there is a real shame" He said. 

At least today I ran 90% of the time and walked only a few hundred feet at a time.  The overall run was about 20% easier.  That is not to say I enjoyed it 20% more.  That just means it sucked 20% less. There's a huge difference there. 

When I returned home I discovered I had shaved a whopping 5 minutes off from my previous run.  a WHOLE 1 minute off of every mile.  5 miles in 70 minutes.  Whoopee!  I seriously think I can walk faster than that.  Not only is running a whole lot more painful than running, in the long run, it isn't all that much faster.  

And then the chaffing this morning!  the shirt I wore this morning felt like sandpaper on the ol' nips. When I got in the shower, I had to check because it felt like someone had shaved them off with a razor and poured salt on the wounds.  Isn't running fun?

I'm 1/20th the way there.  Only 38 more runs to go.