It's the dog days of summer ...

Whew. It's another hot, sticky, day. I think I'm staying inside for the rest of the day. To rest my weary legs ...

At 7:00 am when I went for my long run, it was 100% humidity (lots of fog). I still didn't have a particular route in mind. Headed down to the west 52 frontage road thinking I'd head to Silver Lake/Parkwood Hills but at the last minute decided to head north to 2nd St SW and then left and out to County 22 and then head north for about 8 more miles, turn around and run home (I wanted to get 18 miles in for the 30K in 2 weeks). Stopped to pick a couple of black raspberries and took a photo of the wild parsnip (stay away from it ... the oil, when it gets on your skin and gets exposed to sun, causes a blistering rash). No sooner had I done that than I brushed up against some with my right elbow. Oh, sugar. So I headed to the bp to wash it off with soap and water. Snapped a photo of the toilet in the rest room. I think they need a new flush kit, not??

Headed north on 22 and at the top of the hill saw two runners coming toward me. It was Tabitha Beck and Donna Mitchell. Asked then where they were going (they'd just started out) and they were running down to Running Room and then back via the end of the Med-City half marathon route, for 10 miles. I asked if I could join them and they said sure. At the bottom of the hill, Carlo Biondolillo ran by us. He was headed toward St. Mary's. He's training for a marathon in Venice, Italy this fall. Lucky duck.

Don't recall any more sightings until we got to Running Room. The 8:30 group was gathering. Judy Weller had another cute pink skirt on. She surely is queen of the running skirts! They look good on her. After our water and Sport Beans we stepped outside and there in the parking lot were Tom O'Leary and Tom Woo (they'd run 16 miles) and Peg Arnold with this way cool car--a BMW Z4. Wally's 49th birthday present. I can't imagine what he's getting for his 50th! A leer jet perhaps??!! Peg had driven it down and made Wally run in (from Byron). Ha! We encountered Wally as we were retracing our way back to Tabitha's house. Told him his new car was cute. ;-)

We made it back to Tabitha's without incident. I decided to head north on County 22 and got to the 19th St NW and Lynn and Daryl Saari pulled up and asked if I wanted a ride. I probably looked like what the cat might drag in. Or worse. 'Twas still pretty sticky and I was literally dripping. I told them I was fine and had just 4 miles left. Then I discovered I still had Donna's Luna bites in my pack so headed back to Tabitha's to drop them off. Continued east on 7th St NW and made my way around the neighborhood by the lake then up County 22 and finally up Fox Valley Drive SW. My legs were shot after having run the 4-mile yesterday. But I was happy to have gotten 18.36 miles in. Inhaled a bowl of oatmeal, took a quick shower and made it to church in the park by 11:00. I just went out and picked some more wonderful black raspberries--the biggest and best they've been this season, so I'll be jammin' again this afternoon. After a nap!

"If people were possessed by reason, running marathons would not work. But we are not creatures of reason. We are creatures of passion." --Noel Carroll, Irish middle-distance star in the mid-1060's

Live your passion!