Walked: 5 miles
Ran: 2 miles
Biked: 20 minutes
OK. I had a very mean-spirited, uber-bitch moment last night when I was running.
I know it's summer already in Dallas, because for the first time in a few months I've actually seen life on the track (besides ducks). Real human life.
All winter I've had the track to myself because most Dallasites are wusses when it comes to cold weather and exercising late at night. But last night it had warmed up, the cicadas were in full drone, the sky was clear, the evening was pleasant, and two other women were on the track with me.
So I was walking my 5 miles and keeping an eyeball on them the whole time. For one thing, they looked like they were my age. For another thing, they looked pretty skinny. (Skinnier than me.) So I was curious how much they would end up exercising.
It turns out they walked half a mile and then one of the girls ran a quarter of a mile. And as I watched them leave the track I thought, "Ha! How pathetic! I can run their asses into the ground."
And then I immediately felt ashamed. What a bitch I am! There was a time in my life when I could only run a quarter of a mile too. And there are sure as hell a LOT of people who can run MY ass into the ground. Why was I being so mean?
My best guess is that they were skinnier than me, and that's what set off my bitch-alarm. I tell myself that I would rather be larger and athletic than skinny and out of shape, but maybe my mind disagrees.
Does anyone else do that? Size people up when they're running (for leisure, not in a race) and go, "I wonder how much they're capable of?" Or I am just a nosy, competitive, mean-spirited-for-no-reason kind of person?
Yikes.
So lately Dallas has been having torrential rain. This isn't unusual -- we often get pouring rain in the spring thunderstorms that love this part of the country. But to have 3+ days of non-stop torrential rain is weird.
So when I got to the track last night, the rain had stopped but the track was soaked. It was a mucky, disgusting MESS. Reddish mud and nastiness was everywhere.
At first, I was slogging through a couple of miles at a walk, and all of a sudden I noticed that I had company on this miserable track.
There was a large puddle in the football field in the middle of the track. The puddle was maybe ten feet long and two feet wide and surely couldn't have been that deep. But despite the tiny size of the puddle, three fat ducks were swimming peacefully, without a care in the world.
OK, so I'm not used to ducks swimming on a football field, and I'm especially not used to running past ducks swimming on a football field. I felt bad for them because any time I walked or ran past them, they freaked out, swam out of the puddle, and hauled ass across the forty-yard line, trying to put some distance between us. Then when I had passed, they waddled back to the puddle and hopped right back in. This went on over and over, because I did around 12 laps of either walking or running. The damn ducks never figured out that I had zero interest in them. Like clockwork, they waddled away, stopped, turned, and waddled back. Ducks are strange.
Or maybe they were practicing a few plays on the football field? Taking care of some early spring training?
The nasty track conditions were also interesting because they left footprints. I saw people footprints, dog footprints, and of course those adorable V-shaped duck footprints. (But only across one section of the track, where the ducks crossed to get to the puddle. My duck friends apparently weren't interested in circling the track to lose a few inches in the waistline, like me. I guess ducks don't have to deal with the joy and then horror of eating THREE BOXES OF GIRL SCOUT COOKIES. Damn those Thin Mints.)
Duck Wanna-be Football Players + Running = An Interesting Evening at the Track.
Dallas has had a lot of interesting sunsets lately. I don't know if it's because of all the cold fonts and warm fronts mixing together (we've gone from 40 degrees to 80+ degrees several times in the past few months), or if we've just had some pretty cloud formations.
Either way, when I've been able to see them, I've been rushing to get my camera. So I thought I'd post a few of them for you to enjoy. Sorry that a few of them are a little blurry...my camera has been uncooperative lately.
I do apologize for my recent silence -- I'm just kind of in a gloomy stage and trying to figure out what I want out of life. Our whole team nearly lost our jobs last month, and though we're hanging on now, our contract is up for negotiations in May, which means we could be out the door then. I have a huge amount of student debt which, while I'm still in school, has a pretty reasonable interest rate, but I'm really really really terrified of unemployment right now. I feel like a lot of my life right now is playing "the waiting game" -- just waiting for something to happen. It's a weird feeling and I definitely don't like it.
In the meantime, I'm thinking about registering for a 5K in May. I haven't been running more than a mile and a half lately, but I think with 2 months' preparation I'll know whether or not my tendon can handle a 5K.
Anyway, enjoy the pics!
