Slo Jo: Four Slow Horrible Miles.

Distance: 4 miles
Attitude: Very poor
Number of poops (by dog): 1

Apparently I have decided "taper" means "never run again." After my successful 19 on Sunday, I did not run on Tuesday. I thought, that's okay, body is tired, I'll run on Wednesday. I made plans to run with Coach, got dressed, had coffee, and got a text from him canceling. Did I go by myself? NOPE. I happily went and showered and got ready for work. "I'll run later," I reasoned.

Guess what happened later? Happy hour! I may be running more now, but I am not known for passing up happy hour to go run. I can't think of a single time that has happened, in fact. It was great fun. There was a couple there on a fix-up date, and the woman had a couple of martinis and basically had to be carried out by her blind date. How do you top that for date #2?

Okay, putting aside other people's love lives, it is now Thursday, and NO RUNS. I text TST for support. She chirps back, "I just ran a fast four!" This doesn't help. Whatever, you and your fast four. If I can run a slow quarter mile, I'm putting a checkmark in the "W" column. W for WINS. Not for WINE. That W always has checkmarks by it.

I saddle up Clancy, who, unlike his mama, is super excited to go for a run, and off we go. I start a new audiobook based on TST's recommendation, Sycamore Row. It starts with a hanging, so that's all good. I like a little drama. And we get a lot of gruesome details. But then it starts getting into the business of being a lawyer, and I start having work anxiety. Running is supposed to take me away from work anxiety. I may have to switch books. Maybe something with zombies or aliens. I am unlikely to have zombie anxiety (although I do have a zombie game plan involving going to the George & Dragon, which I derived from Sean of the Dead. But I digress).

My last post, which talked about how I ran faster to music than I had to finishing up Doctor Sleep, inspired some interesting Facebook commentary. One friend mentioned how she had run to an audiobook during her last 5K and enjoyed the experience until she realized her race time was her "personal worst." That made me laugh. Another said music definitely pumped her up and made her run faster. The Facebook consensus seems to be audiobooks: good for distracting you, not so good for pace. But it is going to take me more than five hours to get through the marathon. Five hours! That seems like a long time to be alone with my thoughts and the musings of Pitbull. I will have to decide when I get there.

Anyway, Clancy and I ran slowly around the neighborhood. We stopped a lot. We let cars go by. We (meaning Clancy) had a nice poop on the sidewalk. We admired a super cute and fat French bulldog that barked at us. We forced ourselves to finish four miles even though we (meaning I) really felt like two miles was a sufficient distance. My knees hurt. My legs hurt. I guess I am still tired from the 19.

BUT--at least I did it. Checkmark in the W column! And tomorrow is another day.