Headlamp Schmedlamp

Dave and I watched the movie "The Kingdom" with Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner on Thursday night. It is about FBI agents who go to Saudi Arabia to find a mass murderer. Then Friday night, Dave was in a poker tournament at Cherokee, so I stayed home to hand out Wendy's frosty coupons to the trick-or-treaters and watch my BFF-recommend movie "Volver" with Penelope Cruz, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role. It is a chick flick and so, so good. It has subtitles which I think adds to its uniqueness. (Yes, these movies are old, but I refuse to pay full price for a movie, so I wait until they come on TV and DVR them.) Highly recommend them both.


It was nice sleeping in for an 8 a.m. instead of 5:45 a.m. run. The mock 1/2 was on Sat, and I finished with a time of 2:29:52, eight seconds less than the 2:30:00 I wanted to beat. Now if I can only do that at the real thing, I will be a happy camper.


It was a great morning for a run. I started with a jacket but ended up taking it off. I ate an Access bar rather than my normal piece of toast. I got the bar through Kendal. He swears by them, and GE likes them too, so I decided to try one. It didn't upset my stomach and I didn't feel hungry or weak through the run. (Thanks, Kendal!) Ate some Stingers on the way too and, of course, had my prerun Spark.


Once again, the Riverside out-and-back beast is part of the course, from 11th to 51st, then back to 31st. Ugg! I hope to have a better reaction to it during the 1/2 than I did at the Run. (Think happy thoughts.)


The water stop on Woodward as you turn left off of 31st was a site for sore eyes. The oranges and water were so good, but we stopped too long b/c my legs were really tight and sore once we started again. The Woodward Park hill from Peoria was just as bad as I thought it was going to be, and Terwilliger was worse than I imagined. Seeing the intersection at 21st and Utica, I could hear Heaven's angels playing "Halleluja" on their harps because I knew the rest of the route (can you say a backwards Tulsa Run?) was very doable. The Cherry Street downhill was soooo nice.


I saw my friend Elaine whom I met at my first 5K, the Scrub Run, back in the spring. She got lost on the course and ended up running 17 or so miles. She was only wanting to do 13!! I hope she wasn't kidding when she said she will probably end up doing the full now.

I hung around watching more halvers and fulls come in. A runner (I don't know who) on the course heard a sound from a Dumpster, looked in, and saw an abandoned Chihuahua puppy between four to six weeks old. He was so cute!! The finder brought it to the tent where everyone babied it. Chiropractor Zoellner drove to QT and bought a hot dog and milk, so we fed it tiny pieces of wienee and gave it milk through a coffee stirrer straw. It was walking funny, like sideways. Luckily, we have a vet in our group, Suzanne. After a few looks, touches, and field tests, she thought he was probably blind. Beginner 1/2 leader Mike is a foster parent with PAWS, so he took it home and was going to contact them. I hope the poor baby gets a good home. What kind of heartless monster would put a live puppy in a Dumpster?!?! I believe in what goes around comes around, so watch out, sicko!


My quads and calves were sore all day Sat, and today they aren't feeling much better. I need to remember to begin taking ibuprofin a couple of days before the 1/2 so I don't feel so much pain.


Maddie and I are planning to do McNellie's fun run this Sat. I have signed us up, so she better not change her mind; otherwise, I will be the oldest person out there running without a child!


I dread the 5 p.m. darkness now. It will make the week's running hard. Do I need to get a headlamp now?

P.S. Pictures from the Tulsa Run are available. Go here http://www.asiorders.com/go.asp?41793351 to see them. If this link does not work, you may access it by visiting www.asiorders.com and entering in your bib number on the home page for the event.