Bye Bye Birdie

This is what I said to the poor little, teeny-tiny new bird/chick that was smashed on the greenway as I passed over it on my fourth lap.

I had an eight mile run to do this past Saturday. I also had a lot to get done before the 3PM birthday party we were hosting for my Mi-Mi.

Since last Saturday's run was awful and I have decided it has more to do with the cursed route that I took (and not my actual physical state ;-)). So Saturday's run was going to steer clear of Shelley Lake, Lynn Road, and even Millbrook. Instead, I decided to stick with my comfort zone and ran four loops around the 2+ mile Lake Lynn loop.

It didn't start out too hot. My legs felt tired. And I was dreading the number of miles I had to pack into these loops.

I started going my usual way: counter-clockwise (CC). During that loop, I paid close attention -- or at least my legs reminded me -- to the fact that I was going UP more than down.

I like the CC route because there are a few big hills that I run DOWN. But I decided that the big hills I could take if overall, I would be running more down. So I changed to clockwise after the first loop and truthfully, it did feel better...mainly on one side of the 'clock'.

But that's when I saw the baby bird. And every time I passed it, I felt sad. But I saw something that made me happy, like the very old man who walked the greenway with bad legs: he was old enough to be *my* grandfather and had a thing on his knee, a cane and very white legs. I thought he was awesome to walk around in a very crippling condition. I saw him during my last two loops and I wish that I had said something to him.

The other thing I saw that tickled me was a baby croc shoe in the middle of the path. Well ahead was a lady pushing a baby stroller with a toddler and a baby. The toddler was pointing to the shoe (he was facing me, which the baby faced the other way) and was grunting to the mom about the shoe. I understood completely but mommy did not. As I passed her I asked if she was missing a red shoe and she turned around and was like: oh yeah!! And then I saw the baby holding her foot where the red croc used to be...very cute!!

It was around mile five that I got my second wind, although, I don't feel like I ever had my first wind. I was flying for a good mile or so and then it was back to my tired feeling.

I kept it up though and of course, worry about what I'm going to do with this coming Saturday's 10 miler.