Blast Furnace by Night - Texas version

I really hoped to do a lot of running in Dallas while I was teaching there.  But the heat was incredible and the options for running not great.  I did get out one night around 10 PM to try the White Rock Lake trails.  But they are poorly lit, poorly marked and my toe was killing me.  I love Dallas, but it's not a great place to run.

4.76 miles

1:02:29

Blast Furnace by Morning - Oklahoma Version

Staying with my cousin in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  They've got a great new trail system running through the city along old rail lines.  Of course it was also 100 degrees at 6 am when I went running, headed for a high of 106.  Blast furnace conditions.  My cousin left me a strategically placed water bottle along the route, bless her heart.  Limped back to her house.  Toe issues still showing up with the komodos - beginning to wonder about the sizing of those shoes.

Really liked seeing the city this way, though.  Feels like I really went there.

5.34 miles
1:09:50

Summer Run

A long run.  A good one.

6.27 miles
1:05:59

Holly Grove by Starlight

There's some magic to the tomato fields by starlight.  There's got to be some pesticides, too, but we'll concentrate on the magic.  The Holly Grove route takes me right through the fields, first on a dirt road and then on a trail along the fields.  I think this was the night I made the run in real darkness.  Just me and the moon.  And hordes of bats.  And pesticides.

4.37 miles
47:38

Lumbering into Summer

I'm catching up on entries here so I'm trying to recreate what was going on from my running records.  This was another day at the beach, only the foot issues were getting really troublesome.  It was also getting pretty hot.  Who knew?

Assateague
4.76 miles
1:05:24
ouch!

Coast to Coast

A vicious run. You remember the old commercial when a guy sticks his arm into a clear container filled with mosquitoes to prove how effective his repellent was? Yeah, that was me. Except it wasn't just my arm an I didn't have on any repellent.

Tomorrow is the day my official training regimen for the marathon is supposed to begin. So this evening I went out under threatening skies and did the coast to coast run (Franktown to Brownsville and back). The Nature Conservancy trail in Brownsville is a mosquito mosh pit. I was surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses and they were sucking the life out of me. So I ran with perseverance the race set before me. I just wish I'd've also run with Deet.

Good news - I got 8.25 miles in.
Bad news - my index toe on the right foot was acting up pretty badly, forcing me to walk about 2 miles of that. Can't figure out what's going on there. It didn't start until about 4 miles in and when I let it rest for a minute it seem to be ok, I was wearing the Komodo's.

8.25 miles
1:43

Beachgoers have no peripheral vision

Out on Assateague for a short jaunt. Despite threatening skies it was filled with vacationers. I started at the south end of the parking lots and ran south but quickly found that the whole island south of the lots has now been roped off. So I ran north, dodging seagoers who can only travel east-west and who are oblivious to north-south traffic. Once I got north of the lots it was a nice run with a receding tide.

4.04 miles
43:26

Toe woe on the Milton Ames

The index toe on my right foot is starting to flare up on distance runs. Today it was the Milton Ames. Halfway down Milyton Ames my toe started to hurt. I mixed walking and running the rest of th way.

Yes, I had on the Komodo's.

6 miles
1:14

Closing Out Beach Week

Last run at the beach.  Difficult.  Starting to lose my focus.

4.14 miles
54:20