Sunrise Saturday

Being as how I just recently remembered that I am a runner and a blogger, I deemed it necessary to actually do a Saturday long run. I know, right? Shocking. Plus, I will be at a horse show next weekend and even though I will easily be walking a ton of miles, I know I most likely won't get any running in.

My alarm went off at 4:15 this morning. It was surprisingly...not terrible, temperature-wise, outside. It was about 80 degrees and still dark, but there have been times when I've gotten up at 4 and it was already over 90.

I headed out to meet my friends, Lara and April, at Reach 11 Sports Complex. There's a wide desert trail that looks like it's in the middle of nowhere...until you run under the freeway. Anyway, they are zippier than I am, so I let them take off ahead of me.

Yes, I know. Terrible quality. But I wasn't awake, yet.

The good thing about starting so early (aside from the cooler temps) is getting to watch gorgeous Arizona sunrises. Seriously, Arizona has the most amazing sunrises and sunsets.

Usually, I lose some of the color in pictures,
so just imagine how bright this was in person.

And here's my Instagram version.

I won't lie. This run felt tough. It's not surprising since my training has been somewhat sporadic. The weird thing is that I had a really hard time keeping myself at a slower pace, which sounds awesome, but I ended up walking more than I wanted to. I'm not sure which is better: to run faster and walk more or to keep it slow and steady. Someone once told me that the only way to get faster is to run faster (duh) so I'm hoping it'll work out in the end. Also, dropping a few more pounds couldn't hurt, either. Damn happy hours...

At some point in my run, I got passed by a pack of high school cross country runners. I often see them out running on Saturdays and honestly, they make me feel so old! I admire that they get up so early on the weekends and they are so young.

And WOW, are they fast. Those kids can run.

At this point, I was getting burnt out, sore and bored. I was about 6 or 7 miles into my run and all alone. So, of course, I did what any serious athlete would do: I took a picture of myself! I can not take a good photo of myself to save my life, so I will distract you with colorful stars.

Nerd alert!

By the time I was 9 miles in, my hips had stiffened considerably. I need to break out the Stick and get to work. Stretching would help, too. Need to hit up Master Google for some stretching ideas...

When I was finally close to my car at about 10.5 miles, I could smell breakfast. I was starving and all I could think of was getting some food. The Gu and Sport Beans just weren't cutting it at this point. My stomach was literally growling when I got to my car and I could not figure out where that amazing smell was coming from. Seriously, there's nothing quite like the aroma of cooking bacon.

And then I saw it.

A food truck. In the desert. Shit just got real.

All I wanted to do was scramble over and stuff my face full of eggs and bacon. Honestly, I had burned enough calories (over 1000) to justify a couple of eggs and a few pieces of bacon, but you want to know what stopped me?

The teenage track team that also happened to be stretching in the parking lot. I simply was not going to drag my aching chubby ass over to the food truck in front of those teenagers and their short shorts. Just couldn't do it.

In all of the times I've run at this particular trail over the last few years, I have never seen a food truck waiting for hungry runners. Well played, food truck. (Except for me. I'll shovel food into my face in private, thankyouverymuch.) It would have been way funnier if I wasn't so incredibly hungry.

Oh, and I just discovered that I have Showtime on Dish Network. I've been paying for a premium movie channel for a year and a half and had no idea. Genius at work, folks. Watch out.