Tuesday evening, you would have found me at my desk on FB putting out a pitiful plea for somebody/anybody willing to run all or part of a 20 miler with me the next morning.
I really didn’t expect a response. I was basically just whining about running. I was tired and knew that 20 the next day was going to be difficult.
Imagine my surprise when two of my Mississippi running buddies jumped at the opportunity to run with me! Two people, who I consider to be amazing runners, ran 12 of my 20 with me yesterday. This was my last run of 2014.
Normally, I run a little bit here and then a little bit there. I go all over the place near our home. I needed a change of scenery. With some company, I felt comfortable heading a bit further away from the house. So…
I left my house and ran all the way to a 4 lane divided highway. Highway 45 south. When I arrived at 45S, I crossed the highway and started heading north on the west side of the highway. After 5 miles, I met up with my friends at a Chevron station by the frontage road
This frontage road runs parallel to Highway 82.
The three of us ran 6 miles on this road~all the way the the exit for the local airport. Once we reach the top of the exit, we turned around and retraced our steps heading back to the Chevron station. 12 miles.
I left my friends at the Chevron station and crossed 45S again, this time running on the east side of the highway heading south back towards home.
Now, the frontage road didn’t have much traffic on it at all. It’s just a frontage road. 45S, however, that was an entirely different story. Wowza!
On my way to the Chevron station, I soon discovered that they weren’t too generous with the asphalt when they made the highway. There was enough asphalt for the two lanes and the rumble strips. That was it. I had to run on the gravely/grassy shoulder of the road the entire way.
There is a lot of logging traffic on this road. Well, there is a lot of traffic, period, but a LOT of logging trucks. Those guys don’t watch for runners (Duh) and don’t make any concessions for the runner either.
When I am running in heavy traffic, well, first of all, I wear very high visibility clothing. You can see me coming a mile away my clothing is so bright. Secondly, I wave and every car heading towards me. This tends to snap them out of their highway hypnosis and makes them pay a bit more attention to what is going on around them.
Those logging trucks, though, man~they could care less.
I was only a half mile into running on 45S when the first logging truck blew by me. The next thing I knew, I was being blown backwards by the truck. It is a 55 mph speed zone here but that guy was going a lot faster than 55. That’s when I realized that my visor was gone.
Rats!
I looked around and there was my visor being blown merrily down a hill. Boo. I was faced with a dilemma. I had my friends who were going to be waiting for me at the Chevron station but doggone it! That visor cost me $30.00! I ended up chasing my visor. #IamCheap
After that, whenever a truck came along, I held onto that visor. One chase was enough for me.
Looking at things along the side of a highway was interesting! I saw lots and lots of broken glass. There was still a lot of cotton along the side of the road that had blown off the trucks and it was being taken to the cotton gins. I saw a baby receiving blanket in the middle of the highway! That was interesting. Lots of roadkill, too. I tried to step around that. Icky.
And of course, there were lots of smaller logs and branches that had fallen off those logging trucks.
45S has one large bridge. Up. Up. Up. Up and then finally, Down. Down. Down. Down.
I got to do that coming and going. Whee!
My training program called for 20 miles yesterday. When I reached 20 miles on my Garmin yesterday, I stopped. I wasn’t home yet but I stopped.
I am tired. I don’t want to risk injury. I called home and told there where I was and walked until my ride came and picked me up.
Running with my two friends made what could have been the run from hell a lot of fun! The 12 miles with them in the middle was perfect! Having to stay on my toes on 45S made the rest of it pretty easy, too! What an awesome run!!!
My monthly running total for December was 216 miles.
My yearly mileage total for 2014 was 1657.58 miles.
Goal for 2015 is 2015 miles. Got started on that this morning with a nice 6 miler with MFH (My Favorite Husband). Rest day tomorrow and then Saturday, right back at it!
Happy New Year, all!!!