A slightly soggy six

Canada Day here in Michigan was a cloudy, fall-like day.  Nonetheless, I donned my red shirt and celebrated Canada Day in my own way … by going to work.

Until the annual chalk-art warnings of a Canadian invasion of the US come true, it will never be a holiday on this side of the border.  I wonder if that still happens every year on the Alabama campus.  Seriously, every year I was in school at UA, there was an annual blitz of chalk art warning whoever read it of the looming Canadian invasion of the United States.

Despite the slow going on the network this morning, I managed to get a lot done.  I worked on TIP and STIP amendments in the morning, and worked on CMAQ applications in the afternoon.

Sometimes, my life really is full of acronyms.

After work, I headed out to join the Wednesday running crew for our midweek long run.  As the Summer Safari program progresses, the Saturday long runs get really long, which I totally expected long before I signed up for the program.  What I didn’t realise, though, is that there would be a long midweek run, too.  The first couple of weeks, the program asked only five miles of me on Wednesday.  That number started its trend upward tonight, though.  Six miles were on tonight’s docket.  By the end of the month, the Wednesday run will be nine miles, and it will make it to double digits before I finish the program.  All of that is in the future, though; tonight, Gayle, Sandy, Wendy, and I ran six.  We ran the early part of our run in a little bit of rain, but it wasn’t too heavy at any point.  I picked up a little bit of extra mileage during the water stop; I really like to keep moving while taking my water.  It’s not a machismo-type thing; rather, my running style is very dependent upon rhythm.  Once I get into a rhythm, I really like to maintain it.  All in all, it was a pleasant run in pleasant temperatures with very pleasant company.  I’m not really sure it could have been much better.

6.41 miles, 1:01:46, 9:38.1/mile