enough

7 miles at Townlake this morning.  The new boardwalk is super cool.  Looks like I may be walking it a lot.  I think my body may be trying to tell me it's had enough running.  Getting really tired of nursing these nagging aches/ pains/ injuries.  I'll still be aiming for my 20 mile a week goal but with many more walking miles.

friends

My childhood bud Jay and I hiked Ken's in 2hrs Saturday morning.  Even though we just reunited 4yrs ago after 30yrs I consider Jay one of my oldest friends.  His family moved 2 houses from my Grandparents when he was 5 and I was 7.  DD and I spent a lot of time at my Grandparents so therefore Jay and played a lot together.  Mostly front yard football and chasing the ice cream truck.  All very fond memories.  

We moved to the south side of San Antonio the summer before my 7th grade year and my Grandparents moved at the same summer so Jay and I weren't reunited until he was a freshman and I was a junior in high school.  I don't have much recollection of us really being friends again until the next year.  We were both hurdlers and I gave him rides home from school occasionally. 

Flash forward to sometime in '09.  We were hooked up my by old neighborhood pal Chuck Dakin and found out we've lived within 5-6 miles of each other for many years.  We've really hit it off again and become very good friends the last 4 years with many more to come!!

early

Early morning 4 miler today.

car

My car has been in the body shop for almost a month.  We've got a guy painting my car for very cheap on a side job so we're sort of at his mercy.  He first said it should be ready by the end of May, then he said this Thursday.  Now it's been pushed to Saturday or Sunday.  I had been using alternately my boss's 3/4 ton Chevy 4 door truck and his Jeep, both gas hogs.  Yesterday when I found out that my car wouldn't be ready till the weekend I told Misty that I'd really like to get a loaner from her work.  She said I could just take her to work this morning and drive her car and she'd bring home the loaner this evening.

So, as not to put anybody out I decided I'd just run home from work yesterday.  I got on Google Maps and it looked like it was going to be around 8 miles or less.  I went up Balcones Dr/ Mopac access road across Mopac at Farwest and took the sidewalk down to Shoal Creek.  I headed north from there all the way to 183.  I turned left and took the turnaround under 183 and saw a trail that took me parallel to Mopac for a bit and then onto Neils-Thompson the back way.  Then over to Longhorn and on to Burnet Rd north.  Things got a little tight on parts of the south bound side of Burnet but I made it.  Even with my fairly direct short cuts it ended up being a bit over 9 miles in 1:44.  Pretty darn happy with that considering my left knee and left hip were hurting and the neuroma on my right foot was flaring up too!!

cigs

Got in a hung over 5+ at Kens Saturday and a good 7+ at Forest Ridge yesterday in the heat.  Yesterday was the 16th anniversary of no cigs and I also went over 17,000 miles since then.  Pretty darn cool.  I really look forward to this anniversary every year.  It's a nice reminder about me changing my life for the better permanently.  A cool side note is Misty followed suit 3 months later!!

changes

Mark and I had a great 10 miler this morning.  We did it non stop in 1:46!!  Very happy with that even though my left knee is still aching as I type this almost 6hrs later.  That's the 1st non stop 10 mile I've done since Diana and Shan and I did it possibly as long as 2 years ago on a Thursday morning ( If memory serves me correctly we did it that day in 1:41).  Another milestone this morning was only my 2nd nature call in 6 plus years of our Thursday morning run.

Some bad news is that Mark may be bailing out of our Thursday morning runs soon.  His wife is getting a job in San Antonio that she'll be commuting to daily.  That leaves him in charge of taking care of their daughter every morning.  Everything changes in time, nothing stays the same.

laugh

I'm thankful, thankful, thankful to be able to do the running that I do!!  Had a good 7 mile run this morning with Mark L.  I started out pushing a bit too hard and was hurting pretty badly with 3 miles left.   Mark was holding back at the start and was pushing at the end.  I think I'm gonna change my tactics with that.  It definitely makes more sense to hold back a little in the first few miles than do it like I did today.
I got a little reprieve when I spotted our old running pal Mike Riggs.  Thankfully we were able to stop to talk to him for about a minute.  I told him I was never happier to see him than today!!  We all got a laugh out of that!!  Our time of 1:09.40 wasn't that bad after all I guess.