Saturday, May 19, 2007

Killer cat

Just the thought that I "might" have a half-marathon in August inspired me for a good run today.

There are so many routes to take out of my front door - Ansley Park, Piedmont Park, Downtown, MLK Center, Freedom Parkway, Va. Highlands, Little 5 Points - but I've been running from here for so long that there are not many streets in this area that I haven't run on yet. I couldn't decide on a route today, so I just winged it, going where-ever the mood took me. I found a couple of new streets in between some good standards. Made a mental note that Little Five points is having an art festival today - maybe will check it out later. [Later, after some googling, I discovered that Little Five Points is having this art festival on the third saturday of each month during the summer.] There's some kind of middle eastern food festival going on at a church on Ponce. Probably won't make it back for that, though it sounds interesting.

In the front yard of a house on one tree-lined shady street, I watched an innocent-looking all white house cat with a pink collar stalk and chase a squirrel around in crazy circles until it caught it and released it again. I don't know if the cat just didn't have the claws to kill it, was just playing with it, or if I startled it.

I ran for about 7 1/2 miles I guess. Perfect running weather today - not warm, not cold, sunny, low humidity.

MOB had a plan to run up to Fernbank and back but his directions didn't work out. Sometimes during the week, we'll run together. An easy run for him and speed training for me. But on Saturdays we each have our own runs to do. We set off together and meet back at the end. No arguments over who gets to shower first because I'm the type that likes to immediately jump into the shower, and his preference is to cool down, drink some water, eat, and shower only when he's ready to. I can't stand to let the sweat dry on me, and as I find myself explaining over and over again, it's not vanity - it's because it really causes issues for my skin. Whenever I do races, I always pack some stridex pads in my bag for after the run. I have been teased about my after-exercise personal hygiene habits going back to when I was playing on a co-ed soccer league. Nothing will ever change there I guess!

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