Six Miles in the Desert

I'm in Las Vegas for the International Writing Centers Association conference. I had Wednesday free while my colleagues ran a pre-conference workshop, so I rented a car and went to Red Rock Canyon National Conversation Area. I decided to run the White Rock/La Madre Springs loop--six miles of sandy, rocky, hilly terrain in 80-degree heat-- not to mention that Lansing, MI is at a wonderful 860 feet of elevation, and Red Rock is over 2500.

I did pretty well, for the first 5-1/2 miles. I didn't have to stop and power-hike very much. However, the last half-mile killed me. I had to definitely slow to a crawl because it was all uphill.

Still, it was a great day: Lots of sweet-smelling pinion pine and sage brush, many stellar and pinion jays, some odd-looking bunny and chipmunk things that we're like chipmunk and bunnies back home, some tiny cute lizards, and no snakes. Any trail run without snakes is usually a pretty good trail run.

Oh yeah, and then I go to go see Penn and Teller that night. So, overall, it was a very cool day.

A Great Run with an End that Sucked

I ran over five miles today at Lake Lansing Park. The first four miles were awesome: sunny and 70 degrees with that wonderful smell of autumn!

Then I came back to the parking lot. I was about to head out for another half mile or so and head straight back when I saw my husband who had also came out to trail run. While Bruce stretched, I ran tiny little circles around him. I should have just kept going, but no! We live in the same house and work at the same place, yet I never get to see him; therefore, I run in circles around him, which I'm convinced just dumped a boatload of bad karma on me.

After about a dozen circles, I took off down the trail again. I felt really good, so I decided to run out 7 minutes, turn around and see if I can make it back in 5 minutes.

I ran for awhile, checked my watch, and saw that I'd met my seven-minute goal. MISTAKE! In looking at my watch, I tripped over a root and landed spread eagle on the trail. (Luckily no one saw me but a squirrel.) My groin now hurt, but I was still determined to make it back in 5 minutes.

Two minutes later, a bug flew down my throat. I needed to cough it up, but I couldn't because after an hour or so of running, I really had to go to the bathroom. Coughing and running do not work together when you have to go to the bathroom as badly as I did at that moment. So, I tried to run faster in order to put myself out of my misery sooner.

But NOOOOOOO! I twist my ankle on another root with that darn bug still caught in my throat.

I made it back in 6 minutes, used the facilities, and coughed up a mosquito. Expletives deleted.