Me vs. the heat and humidity

"Whine, whine, whine." No, that wasn't a dog, that was me.

Me + heat = Big Wimp.

I honestly did not care one iota that I stopped to walk during my run today. I was a happy wimp.

That is until the runner-out-of-nowhere showed up again. I was really hoping it wasn't one of his run days, or that he had run earlier. Or at least if he did show up, that it would be while I was running and not walking. I did do a lot of running during my run, after all.

I kept checking behind me, but there was no sign of him. Then, just when I thought it was safe and I could walk along happily with no guilt, I heard something. Oh no, don't tell me, I thought and turned around to look. Sure enough, there he was, about 200 yards behind me, this time with his dog. He had caught me. Again. And I'm sure he had a nice little chuckle to himself when he saw me turn around to look, then immediately start running again. I really was planning to run again, I was! Just not right...then.

I could hear him coming and cringed at how quickly he was gaining on me. I tried as discreetly as I could to pick up my pace, but it was no use, next thing I knew he and his Doberman Pincher were whizzing past me. I think I even felt a breeze. He's a guy, and guys can naturally run faster, I told myself. But um, he should have at least felt like it was even the tiniest bit of challenge to overtake me, instead of feeling like he was flying past some inanimate object.

This time I wasn't about to give him an excuse for my walking-until-he-saw-me stunt, because I'm sure he wouldn't have bought it this time. So in response to his, "Good morning," I simply said the same, maybe a little too cheerfully.

All joking aside, one thing is for sure-- I need to start getting up early enough to run before taking my daughter to school, now that it's heating up here in Florida.Then again, Mr. Whiz-Past-Me and his Doberman might miss me. ;-)

By the way, I found out recently about another 5K race that will be on May 19, and this time it will be right down the road from my house! It's at a Golf and Country Club. I drove by there and it looks like it will be a really nice area to run in. I need to find out where the route will be, though, as the link to the map on the website doesn't seem to be working. I'd really like to start practicing on the race route.

Hopefully my motivation will pick up a little more soon, too. I seem to be going through a phase right now where I'm not quite as motivated as I was. Maybe it's because the "newness" of being back to running has worn off a bit now? Today I just didn't care that I had stopped to walk, which is not like me. Hopefully it will pass and I'll be back to my old self soon.