This week – starting with Saturday’s race

First let be begin by apologizing to Mike Crutchley who was hosting the first Narragansett Trail 5K located in North Stonington – unfortunately, I’m not ready to RACE on trails as of yet as I’m recovering for knee surgery (wonder how long I can use this as a excuse - hmmmm).

Saturday - 3.1 Pawcatuck Lions 5K - I’ve been running this race now 4 out of the 5 years it has been hosted (something like that) by a colleague and neighbor, plus it’s just a 5k run from the house. I usually bike down to CC’s but not on this day – too many things going on. This was the hottest that I can remember for this race and with very little shade on the route, I knew this was going to be a tough race – not ready for PR yet. This is my favorite running weather – hotter the better. Not sure why, maybe it’s because everyone else complains it HOT – shut up and run. Went for a warm-up run with senior and junior gazelle. After the gun went off about 100 yards from the start, there was a minor car mishap that we had to maneuver around. The crowd went right, I followed Jeff and went left right in the middle of it. Thought about doing the Hollywood slide on the car hood, that would have been cool but it was hot out and I probably would have stuck to the hood of the car – JULIE thought, now that would have been cool. Ran with junior gazelle for the first mile when at the turn around thought about taking water but ended up just going around the cone and thanking the volunteers for volunteering (I do that at all races). The entire time on the way back all I could think about was that water. Ended up in coming in 5^th, second in age group AGAIN – can’t wait until senior moves up in age group. What’s the life expectancy of a gazelle?

Jana Walker Sports Photography

Sunday – 10.7 + some dancing in the streets / I was not running the BRR (Back Road Ramble) this year as this is a trail race plus the course was not marked very well last year – I would still be out in Burlingame somewhere if it wasn’t for a camper telling me he happened to see a gazelle run this way. So I decided to go for a long run. Started from my house for a run to Barn Island boat launch parking lot. Remember in Forrest Gump when he runs coast to coast and runs up to the light house and turns around. Well I ran to the boat launch onto the dock that they have (thought about jumping in) and turn around. On the way back about 2 miles to go – I was on Pequot Trail ROAD not trail going from South Anguilla to North Anguilla road (about 2 tenths on this very busy road) when I came upon a woodchuck that was 2 feet from me (never seeing it) when he/she decided to hiss at me – well, at this time I decided to do my best Michael Jackson impression dancing in the middle of the road saying the lords name in vain along with other bad words that start with S and F…My heart rate was off the chart as I turn left and headed home. Told Julie the story – she still laughing, why I bother, I don’t know.

Monday – 45 minutes or around 6m / when I woke up it was still raining so I ran the parking garage at work. Around and around and around and around and around (ok I’ll stop) I went.