I was up late watching TV and ended up sleeping in. That meant I went for bloodwork right at lunch time and then actually headed to lunch at Taco Bell afterward. I needed a couple hours break, so I didn't get out to run until after 3:30 PM. My body never did feel great after the tacos. That is no surprise.
I heard thunderstorms as I was about to run. I looked at the weather map and everything was supposed to be south of here and the weather forecast was for two hours of just clouds. I decided to do something different and have my mom drop me off at my old high school and then I'd just run home. Often I'd do this as a 10 mile out and back. One way would be 5 miles.
The sky was dark as we drove there, but there was no rain. Of course right as we arrived, the rain began. I ran down behind the high school to the new middle school to add a little distance. I had to go to the bathroom, so I stopped briefly to do so.
The rain was already coming down pretty good at this point. Coming out of the high school area and into town is a tough uphill segment. For some reason, my shoes were squeaking on pavement. I quickly moved to the sidewalk to avoid the cars.
Running through town, I got soaked. Luckily, I didn't have to stop for any cars. I was out of the main section of town before I knew it. I was heading toward Gracedale. This portion is a bit tough because it heads downhill twice and uphill twice before the long downhill to the retirement home. I wasn't going hard, but these hills took a lot out of me.
The drop down from town to Gracedale is excellent. It is a fast descent and allows the pace to drop. My paced went down throughout most of the run. I saw a deer again today, but this time he was dead. I had to run on the road to avoid him.
The rain was creating a lot of puddles. I tried running on the concrete road when I could, but the paved shoulder was a better option as it was taking on less water. The big problem was any water running downhill. It created small streams. My feet got soaked while running through a few of them.
I had to watch to make sure cars didn't spray me as well. One car (of teens I presume) yelled at me near Gracedale. It scared the crap out of me. After that, a dump truck drove by as I was running near as sticker bush. I rubbed up against the bush and ended up pulling parts of it off me later on.
I had some trouble crossing Route 248 and I didn't want to stop, so I kept running up the road and crossed where I could. I then turned and went back to where I originally was going to cross. I had to run through a lot of puddles here.
The last couple miles to my house are along Route 946. This nice and flat. They just repaved the shoulder too, so that was a big help. I still had to worry some about cars. I was just glad I didn't twist an ankle while moving around the shoulder of the road. As I passed a house, I thought a dog was barking at me. It was actually just a rooster in the front yard.
I was right around 5 miles at this point. The final two miles of the run were tough for a couple reasons. First, my body was just beat from the hard workout yesterday. My legs didn't have much. Second, the sun finally came out and it was very humid. The heat was brutal and eventually it led to me taking my singlet off.
Rather than going home, I decided to turn into the small industrial park just before there. I knew the road led to some relatively new houses on the other side of the elementary school. I didn't realize that they had built some new townhouses along this road. That was great because I could add some mileage without encountering any traffic. Only a few people had moved into the houses at this point.
I then ran by the slightly newer houses. As I passed one of them, a dog barked at me and chased me. I stopped, started walking and told it to go back home. It was a Golden Retriever so I wasn't too worried that it was going to attack me. I think it really just wanted to run because it kept running when I stopped. I got it to turn around and go home and I was on to running again. Dogs are a big reason I avoid neighborhood running. It is too bad because I could probably put in close to a half marathon distance now with all the interconnecting neighborhoods near me.
The great thing with going this direction is that the course is a net descent. Even though there are some rolling hills, most of it is either downhill or flat. That allows for some fast time. One day, I'd like to run to all the school within the district. That could be fun, but certainly also difficult. Bushkill is pretty far out and there are a lot of big hills there, plus the roads don't have much of a shoulder.
I finished up right behind the elementary school. Some curious girl on a scooter started talking to me. Kids can be so funny. I walked the short distance home.
It was a good workout and I'm glad I missed any real dangerous storms. The rain was quite refreshing. The only problem is that with back to back days of running in the rain, my shoes are quite wet. I need to make sure everything dries out. I couldn't wear my new hat again because it didn't dry in time.
Tomorrow is speedwork Wednesday. I still didn't get my bloodwork done today, so I need to get it done before noon tomorrow. That means an early run tomorrow. I was planning that anyway. I'm hoping to do 4 X 1 mile repeats. We'll see what my body can handle. I haven't talked to Kelley much lately, so I'm not sure if she'll be joining me. Regardless, I'm looking forward to another good day.
7 miles - 59:19 (8:29 pace)
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