Ducks
I took the header photo in New Buffalo, MI. The three baby mallard ducks had just finished a swim and were taking a snooze with their mom.The early portion of my day hardly exists, given that I woke up with a headache and opted to sleep away a good chunk of my day, it doesn’t merit much mention here. This afternoon, though, I headed out (headache in tow) for a jaunt around a rural block. I headed from my place out to 8th Street and back again. It was a pleasant run; the weather was comfortable because of the decent breeze. It was sunny. It was nice.
5.54 miles, 54:23, 9:49/mile
After my run, I showered and headed down to Paisano’s in Three Rivers, where I met up with friends for dinner.
Mmmm … spaghetti.
I also took the time to review my packet of information for tomorrow night’s planning commission meeting.
Yesterday, I ran in the Kindleberger 5K race in Parchment. The course starts off flat-to-downhill, then goes uphill a bit, and then finishes downhill-to-flat.
I didn’t have quite the run I had hoped. My legs were never particularly excited about racing … or running … or walking … or moving. Still, I showed up, and I raced.
Time: 25 minutes, 22 seconds
Age group: Men 30-34
Rank in age group: 4th out of 8
Overall rank: 81st out of 163
Despite the fact that I improved upon my previous best 5K by 3:26, I feel like I should have done better. I could have done better on the hills, I think.
*sigh* Epic fail.
Since I’m sort of training for a marathon, I also had to worry about my need to cover some distance, so I had to go run after the race. I’m not sure anyone really wants to run 9 miles after racing 3, but a runner has to do what a runner has to do.
9.36 miles, 1:36:59, 10:21.6/mile
I’m not at all bothered by the pace of that run. After all, I had gone all out for a 5K race. On top of that, I did not run an easy course. I started at my car in Parchment and ran south on Riverview to Mount Olivet. There, I did something familiar to those who ran the Borgess half marathon, going up Mount Olivet hill and through Spring Valley Park. Upon exiting the park, I headed east to my turn-around point and went back whence I came. While I got to go down Mount Olivet instead of up, I had to go back through Spring Valley Park. It was rough, but it was a solid run with several steep climbs.
After running and a snack, I headed over to The Studio for the strength assessment included in the Summer Safari program. The trainer who worked on me let me know that she’d do what she could in 15 minutes, but that there were all sorts of things she could fix.
You don’t want to hear that from a trainer. Ever.
She caused me some pain, but it was all in the name of helping me to improve my strength and form. She also gave me homework, most of which seems to require balance.
Ugh. Why does everything require balance?
After that and a trip to Gazelle for more Body Glide, I headed off to Biggby to get caffeinated goodness from Emily, stopped at Meijer, then crashed out at home.
Really? Susan? Hrm.
Your result for The your SEINFELD identity Test…
Susan
You scored 18% Harsh, 38% Kavorka, 26% Sarcastic
Second it measured how much Kavorka you have. Technically Kavorka is the Latvian word for “the lure of the animal.” According to Seinfeld at least. In my test it measured your ability to lure men or women and to a lesser degree how social you are.
Third it measured how sarcastic/cynical you are. Some characters like Jerry are very sarcastic while the Soup Nazi is much less so. It can be difficult to accurately measure sarcasm in a written test.
You scored low in harshness, medium in Kavorka, and low in sarcasm. In other words you are a pretty normal friendly person. You aren’t mean to others, and you have a cheery attitude. You also have a tad of Kavorka in you. You can’t get anybody you want, but you do have some appeal.
I bet you are thinking, why Susan? Well both of you are nice people. And hey, there aren’t a lot of nice people in Seinfeld. You are pretty straightforward and sarcasm is probably not your thing. You probably actually have a little bit more Kavorka than Susan, but she was able to reel in both men and women.
Well there ya go. You may not wish to date bald men (or men at all), and the odds are slim that you will meet your end by licking envelopes, but other then that…you are Susan.
Funerals and birthdays just don’t go together. Certainly, the latter is more pleasant than the former, though the former serves its purpose, too. I ended up attending both today. The funeral came first, as the Hammings laid to rest my friend Jean. For those of you who may not know, Jean was my secretary during my tenure as the village manager of Schoolcraft. She was there when I was hired, and I think she – and a lot of people – thought I’d replace her with someone of my own choosing. I didn’t, though. Local knowledge is a good thing; Jean had it, and I was lacking. Besides, Jean worked hard, was nice to me, and was a lot of fun. We definitely had a lot of fun during my tenure, and we accomplished a lot in the process. I would have taken her with me to MDOT if that had been an option; unfortunately, it wasn’t. Cancer claimed Jean’s life last Sunday.
Dear Jean,
You’ll be missed, but I’ll look forward to seeing you again someday. Thanks for everything.
Sincerely,
Darrell
I spent my evening at O’Duffy’s helping to celebrate Allison’s birthday. It was a good time with friends.
Dear Al,
Hope you had a great birthday!
Sincerely,
Darrell
At the end of the day, I found myself wanting to sleep but not being sleepy, and needing to sleep so that I have a chance of running a decent race tomorrow in the Kindleberger 5K. It’s never quite that simple, though….
When I downloaded my GPS data from Thursday afternoon’s run, I noted that it was very similar to Sunday’s run. I covered the same distance, and did so within a second of Sunday’s time. At least I’m consistent.
5 miles, 49:27, 9:53.3/mile
Sometimes, I’m not quite all I should be. Today was definitely one of those days. As usual, I didn’t sleep well last night, which started my day off poorly. From there, I got through the work day. I never really felt like I was 100%. I gave it what I had, but … well, yeah.
Dear State of Michigan,
I gave you all I had today. I promise.
Sincerely,
Darrell
After work, I went out for my run, and didn’t feel much better. I was completely exhausted by the time I had covered half a mile. Had I not been running with others, I’m not sure I’d have gotten through the entire run. I did have to run the last mile by myself, and ran it at a decent clip, but that only made up for the really slow miles I had in the middle.
7 miles, 1:09:10, 9:52.8/mile
Once home, I tried sooo hard to crash. I should have been out cheering for either of the friends who were singing tonight … but my body just couldn’t do it. Exhaustion is powerful; sadly, it’s cutting into my time with my friends. I should have sucked it up and gone out, but … fail. I should have gotten more done before my Tylenol PM kicked in, but … fail. Bottom line … fail.
This will be the shortest run update to date, because I’m about to go to sleep. Tonight’s work included two 1-mile repeats at roughly short-race pace. I’m tired.
5.84 miles, 52:59, 9:04/mile
This rather recent release contains a rather deep set of lyrics. The video is rather intriguing, too. You may wish to turn off the annotations, as they can be a little distracting. You can do that using the button in the bottom right corner of the video player.
In lieu of running this morning, I went out for an afternoon jaunt. Sure, it was a bit warmer … okay, a lot warmer … but I got the privilege of running alongside Becky on her bicycle, which made it way more fun … even when she pointed out that she had barely broken a sweat during her 5-mile jaunt.
Dear Becky,
Really … I wonder why it wasn’t quite as hard for you. Even still, it was a great time. Thanks for riding alongside me while I ran!
Sincerely,
Darrell
As for my run, I had a decent one. I gradually got into rhythm, held it through the fourth mile, then picked up the pace just a little bit to close out – but stayed within my target pace.
5 miles, 49:27, 9:53.4/mile
After the run, we headed over to grab some Biggby coffee. As an added perk, I got to see Emily in her new gig as barista extraordinaire.
Dear Emily,
The coffee was delicious, and seeing you was great!
Sincerely,
Darrell
After that, I enjoyed dinner in Three Rivers with my friends while working on KAR stuff.
