If you're thinking 'bout bein' my running partner it don't matter if you're hot or cold...

Ha ha, little ode to MJ there. But what I mean to say by that title is that Danna and I are very different in some ways, but even so we make great running partners. I am always cold, she is always hot. This makes choosing the time of day for our Saturday runs a tricky process. I could seriously live all summer without A/C and never complain. Danna could do winter without a heater, easy. I hate carrying my jacket, but freeze for the first mile or 2 if I don't bring it. Danna has been running in shorts and no jacket since March. BUT, we both like to sleep in! Danna likes to run at night, I prefer to get it done in the morning. She says "Lava (rhymes with java) Hot Springs," I say "Lava (like the "la" in "lamp") Hot Springs" which is, by the way Danna, how the locals say it as we have discussed.

We have created a code with which we can discuss any spot along the parkway. If she called me mid-run and I said "I'm at garbage can," she would know exactly where I was. It's kinda fun. Thanks to her GPS watch we have also clocked out every 1/2 mile along the parkway. Some of the locations we speak of frequently are pretty funny-sounding. Here are some of my favorite examples:

House 6334
The horseshoe tar (there is a bit of tar painted into a horseshoe shape)
The arrows (arrows painted on the road)
The quad (Go Aggies!)
The last Russian Olive
Stinky truck stop
The spot with the prettiest view
Duck pond
(and Danna, I bet you would know what I was referring to if I said: Graffiti underpass, mosquito bog, huge slug spot, starting line, tree...)

There is a man who runs on the parkway with his wife. He runs at a slow limping-type pace. He runs barefoot! We refer to him as "Barefoot Man." During one of my cool downs he passed me and I summoned my courage to ask "Sooo, why do you run barefoot?" He explained to me that a shoe is like a cast, and that it is better for the foots range of motion and general mobility to go shoeless. I mean, often times he runs on the rocky gravel and it seriously looks painful. Foot ROM? What about arch support?? Well, I didn't feel he was very happy with my asking, so even though Danna and Suzie were very excited and had more questions, I feel I have overstepped my bounds with Barefoot Man.

Matt modeled for me what we imagine happening to Barefoot man:

We have cool "Runner's Logs" that we write in every day. They are pretty fun and motivating. here's an example from one of my pages:



One thing Danna forgot to mention in her last post was that this Saturday an amazing event occurred- WE PASSED OTHER RUNNERS on the Parkway! This was a first for us, but we passed 2 other runners who were training for a half-marathon! That was definitely one for the log book. Very special.



I would like to celebrate by sharing an amazing picture I took. An aerial view of my shorts and shoes.


A bonus video of one random morning last week: