Garage Sale Run

Ok, first of all did you see Britney's performance on the MTV awards tonight?? UGH - Horrible!! I told Brent it looked like me dancing out there. Not fat, by any means, but certainly NOT toned or ripped, and certainly she didn't need to be wearing what she was wearing. She seemed so AWKWARD. Truly horrible. If you're going to have a "big comeback", put some effort in it! In general the whole show sucks. The awards are done so quickly you can't even read who is nominated, they're a total afterthought. In general MTV is just over, or maybe I'm just old.

Regardless, it's been a really nice weekend around here. Friday night we went to the gym (we are so happening, right?) We figured it would be pretty empty, and we were surprised at how many people were actually there. We were both able to get our own lanes though, and there was always an open lane or two. For some reason we were both so out of it, and my HR was off the charts. I was glad to get a few clean laps and made a lot of progress with my breastroke. I have some freaky arm movements and basically I'm trying to make it more difficult than it is. Afterwards I really wanted Thai and we drove around forever in massive Vandy traffic looking for a place that ended up being a sushi place, then we called a very hip and in the know friend who told us where to go, and we finally ended up at Royal Thai Express over near 21st and West End. It was good, but fairly pricey. I was really hoping for more of a "dive" with cheap but delish food.

Saturday my plan was to run 12 miles since I have a half coming up in 2 weeks. Pippin woke me up at 6:00 to go out (uuugggh), and I decided I really didn't want to run so I turned my alarm off and said I'd do it later or Sunday. Well, our next door neighbor had other plans for us - aka A Yard Sale. Promptly at 6:30 I was woken back up by him dragging things around to his front porch and all the early bird shoppers chitter chattering it up. I just can't sleep through stuff like that so I decided to eat my Cliff Bar and wake my bike support crew up. I headed out a little bit after 8:15 and it wasn't bad out. It was around 82, fairly humid, totally overcast and a light breeze. It was for sure humid, but after all the 105-107s we've had lately I have no weather complaints!! I headed towards downtown with Brent behind me on his bike. He's so cute, when I'm running up a hill he'll yell out for me to push it, or that my form is good. It's so hilarious, I guess it's the closest I'll ever get to all the support the elites get. My Garmin was off from the beginning, I guess due to the clouds so my plan was to run from our house to Centennial Park, do the one mile loop twice and head back. Easy breezy.

As soon as we hit downtown there were SO many people out! As we got closer to the arena I realized there was a very large women's Baptist convention going on. I got a lot of looks of "you should be going to our convention and not be out here sweating". Ha! If only they knew how spiritual distance running was.....I pushed up the hills through downtown and once I made it to the West End/Broad split my stomach wanted to go one way, and not the way I was heading. Spicy Indian and Mexican always work great as pre-run foods for me, but I guess Thai doesn't fall in that category. I hoped maybe I could walk for a minute and regain my "composure", but that was not happening. It was time for a bathroom and FAST. There was a BP nearby, just across the street. That may not seem far but 7 lanes of traffic separated us. And traffic was insane - as I was 4 or 5 blocks from Vandy and the Vandy vs Alabama game was about to start. Not good. I waited until I could bolt across the road, ran into BP and immediately saw the bathroom. And the line. Of homeless people. I am SO not kidding. I said "Are you guys in line for the bathroom" and they just nodded. I turned around and the cashier just shrugged her shoulders. Ok, there was NO time to wait so I ran out and told Brent and I kept hustling up the street to Ms Winners until I saw Atlanta Bread Company. So much better than BP. I ran in, did my business, and decided I'd give it another go. Thankfully all the demons were gone and I was feeling good!

As we got close to the park (which is right across the street from Vandy) the level of college football insanity was clear. People in red ('Bama colors) were EVERYWHERE. Alabama themed motor homes were rolling in and I swear I thought I was IN Alabama. One cheery fan gave me a "you go girl" as we passed by. Since we don't like football this is something we really never see. So, we decided to explore it the only way we know how - on foot and bike. We cut back across the street and decided to run (and bike) through it. I'd call out that we were passing on the left and sort of "clear" a path for us as best I could. For the most part people did move, but Brent still clipped a few (totally deserved). Right as we were coming through the police started yelling that the team buses were coming through, so we stopped to wave to all the players and cheerleaders. It was all very exciting and made us (almost) want to watch the game. (But we didn't. =) ). We ran through and looked at all the tailgaters and excitement and then headed back towards home. It definitely made the miles go by more quickly. As we headed back through all the game-goers I'd yell out "Go Vandy!" to the rude ones and "Enjoy your day!" to the nice ones. It was fun. Then a homeless guy called me SweetPea and stepped right in front of me to ask for money. I was like "SERIOUSLY, there are like 50,000 people 6 blocks up with pockets loaded with money to blow at this football game and you are bothering ME!!" Geez.

Anyway, the rest of the run home was pretty dull, but I did it! Something like 12-13 miles, so that's good! My watch was so messed up from the clouds and crowds that I haven't even looked at my splits. I know I can run 13 in 2 weeks, so that's all that matters. It won't be my fastest, but who cares?

Today was super rainy here, which is great for our dry, dry yard, so no complaints. I did want to ride my bike but there was never a dry enough looking time period to head out. I wanted to swim but was feeling pretty lazy about that TOO, but got a big boost of motivation when we were sitting out on our porch swing and caught a friend out running. She was out logging miles and after catching up on all the local running goings-ons I felt like I needed to get some workouts in myself! We headed to the pool, shared a lane, and got some painful (looking) laps in. Actually, I had a really good swim and I think I may be close to not being so painful looking.

Anyway, I hope you all have a GREAT week!! I still need to sort through vacation pics, so maybe I will get a chance to do that this week while Brent is hanging for his next art show - coming up this weekend! More details to come on that, too!

Rae

WIDTW-
Sat - 4.5 mile trail run, lots of vacation walking, 45 minutes in the pool
Sun - lots of vacation walking, 1.3 mile walk around the lake
Mon - 4 mile run, ocean time, vacation walking
Tues - Vacation walking, ocean
Wed - Sitting in a car for 10 hours
Thurs - 4.2 miles, 40 mins toning
Fri - 4.2 miles, 500m swimming
Sat - 12 miles
Sun - 500m swimming, 40 mins toning