The Park Point 5 Miler

Yesterday I ran the Park Point 5 miler, and actually had a decent time despite the fact that it was almost 90 degrees with air humid enough to drink. The race started at 6:30pm. The whole day I was worried it would be cancelled because it was so hot. I kept obsessively checking my e-mail to see if the race directors had sent out an e-mail to say the race was cancelled. It wasn't! Yay! Five miles doesn't really meet my quota of exercise for the day, so I went to the gym and worked out for a half an hour right when I got done with work.

 Now I know this sounds a bit obsessive, but the day before I didn't get to work out because I got a call saying I could pick up my car! And I had to do this before 5:00 when the car fixer upper place closed, so there just wasn't  a whole lot time for exercise. Now before you all get all judgmental about my driving and everything, I would just like to say that this had nothing to do with my driving skills. We had a flood here last month, and the garage we rent has a flat roof where apparently, a bunch of water started collecting. Needless to say, the roof caved in...on top of my pretty blue car. The repairs took about two weeks, so I had to drive a crappy rental car for that period of time, so I was really excited when I got my own car back. I therefore decided to do some extra exercise on Friday to  make up for the missed exercise on Thursday. Normally I do six or more miles of exercise in a day anyway, so it wasn't like I did more than my body could handle. If I had been able to work out Thursday, I would have been content just to have the race be my exercise for the day. Here is a somewhat blurry, picture of what it looked like.

Anyways, it was really hot for the race. We got there early like I said in order to pick up my packet, and then we found a nice shady place to sit until the race started. There was a really strong breeze that kinda kept things tolerable. The director announced almost as soon as we got there that because of the heat and humidity, the race was only going to be a "fun run." They weren't going to give out awards or anything in hopes of keeping people from going full tilt in order to win their divisions. This really had no effect on me because I'm not good enough to win a race or a division for that matter, and I had planned on taking it easy because of the heat anyways.To compensate for this, the director said we could all get five dollars off next year's race entry. I'll take it! They had races for little kids before the adults started racing, and those were fun to watch. Some kids were really competitive and others you could tell their parents had made them participate haha.

Once the race started, I pretty much wanted to just stop running and go home. It was a very uncomfortable run. It was an out and back course for the most part, and on the way out we were lucky to be running on the side of the road with the shade. On the way back, the sun was brutal. The breeze did help, but it was so humid that the sweat wasn't really going anywhere despite the wind. Some of the people who live on the point had set up sprinklers or they had their hoses and were spraying runners if they wanted to get wet. Normally I avoid that kind of thing because when my shoes get wet, I get blisters, but I pretty much just said fuck it and ran through all the sprinklers I could.

The course itself is very beautiful. There were a lot of views of the water, which I always think are pretty. It was also flat. As a normal rule, I don't mind some hills, but I was happy not to have to deal with any. A lot of people had pretty gardens that we got to run by too.

My time ended up being 43:47. I was pretty happy with this considering the heat. I will definitely be doing this course again. The race itself was well organized, the views were great, and the lack of hills was fun.

I Heart Weeds

I was on a run earlier this week. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining. There was a nice breeze. It was a little too hot, but I hadn't exercised for a couple of days in a row, so I felt really good despite the heat. The legs were happy to be moving, and it just felt wonderful to be running in general. I was having a great time, and then, I smelled something rather unpleasant. I was running by a beautiful house, well more like a mansion really, with an immaculately maintained lawn. The driveway had zero cracks in it, and there was a gait that opened to let cars onto the perfect cracks-don't-belong-here driveway. My mother refers to this house as Captain I-Don't-Know's house because when we were little we would always ask who lived there. Anyways, as soon as I smelled this, my throat wanted to close up. I took shallow breaths in hopes of getting away from it without breathing too much of the stench into my nostrils. I still managed to cough anyway. The only way I can think of to describe the smell is to say that it is a chemically deranged fresh cut grass smell. I immediately think of grass when I smell it, but not in a pleasant oh look at the pretty green grass kind of way. It's more like a Frankenstein grass smell, trying to be the real thing but turning out to be a grotesque imitation.

Well, needless to say I soon spotted the tell tale little white flags that inform people to keep small children and dogs off of the lawn for x number of days so they don't get POISONED! The Captain I-Don't-Know and his family apparently spray their lawn to eliminate those ugly little weeds that detract from perfection. I don't know about you, but when I run by a lawn that has been treated, I kind of become personally offended. I just absolutely abhor the smell, and of course, the only reason people treat their lawns is to personally offend me. The world revolves around me in case you weren't aware of this previously. On a more serious note though, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of being willing to potentially harm children and small animals simply to have a lawn that to all outward appearances could be carpet. Is it really worth it? Are outward appearances really that important to you? Do other people really care what your lawn looks like? I mean really as long as you don't let the grass grow a foot high, I think most people could care less whether or not you had weeds in your lawn. It just seems like a poor trade off to me. A perfect and pretty lawn, but screw you cute little animals and kids.

Maybe my preference for having a weedy yard just comes from the fact that I grew up in a house where if we were to have gotten rid of the weeds in the front lawn, there would have been no front lawn at all. So, I really do heart weeds. I don't know, but suffice it say, I think treating your lawn is kind of selfish and highly unnecessary. Think of the CHILDREN people!