#38 Off to the Gulf coast

Hello Digletts!

#38 Off to the Gulf coast

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The delay in posting this entry could be blamed on multiple things, but I'm going to go ahead and blame Watson for chewing through my laptop charger. I could have replaced the charger sooner and not have gone several days laptopless, but I always drag my feet with things like that. Before I dip into my running tales over the last week let me disappoint you by saying there is no Watsonian Weekly this week. Turns out he was busy being a music video star. In place of that segment will be this music video starring Watson:

Pretty neat video, huh? All in a Saturday morning's work.

Writing this up late at night because it is the time of year where what I want to watch happens to be very late in this wretched time zone. The Australian Open. My final four may get a huge break tonight if Federer goes down. I have Wawrinka beating Nadal in the finals. Dimitrov over Murray and Federer on one side of the bracket and Raonic taking down Djoker in the other side to complete my unlikely final four. I feel like Nadal and Federer are on their way down and I don't care for Murray, hate Djoker... So I'm not sure who will be my favorite moving forward. I like Berdych and Wawrinka. Anyways, to running!
 

Last week was very solid going into the weekend where I had planned a 14 mile trail run on saturday, 16 mile run sunday. It's always easier to write a plan down than to actually do it. 14 miles out at Cooper's Rock with Adam initially was boring because of the crowd. The parking lot was full because it was the only nice day of the week and also a Saturday. I hate people. That's why I like trail running, you rarely see anyone. It's a beautiful thing. We ended up parking across the highway down at the pond and running 1.5 miles up to Cooper's so technically only 11 miles on trail, 3 on road to commute. We started down Scott's Run and I anticipated a very muddy stretch there, but it was actually pretty calm. We bombed a couple hills and eventually made our way to Raven Rock. That was our first contact with ordinary people. Minimal props to them for spending a Saturday walking six miles to see a nice view. With the front gate locked, walking to either overlook is 3 miles. And walking is the only mode that most around here can comprehend. I'm still not sure why so many cars were out there. Not one person running though. If so, that would have been neat. When we made it close to Rattlesnake trail I led us the wrong way and we ended up flying through Eagle trail. That is where my Sunday run was ruined. Adam jumped down from a rock and I for some reason leaped up even though it was a solid four foot drop without jumping up. In my memory it was a ten story building I jumped off of. It wasn't too haggard of a landing, but it was far from graceful. I for some reason landed leaning back and made a noise I never made as my back bent back like at the end of Paranormal Activity 3. I stopped soon after and said that it didn't hurt but would definitely hurt the next day. And that it did.

We finished out the six or seven miles back to the car and that was that. The next day I pretty much worked maintenance and logged 8 miles. So far this week I have 36 miles through four days. The race Sunday is now at a doubtful status. For no particular reason. Though I am calling out to all to recommend a mid Feb trail race for me to do. I'd like to get a race in next month. My back is 100% and everything is going really well. My first workout of the season will occur in Florida next week and training is finally picking up. May is still pretty distant, but things are getting more fun and more importantly I am getting more excited. Mentally I haven't been in better shape for a good five-six years. So hop on, I'm getting ready to entertain again. That's always been my main goal when I get fit. Anyone can run fast, but I like trying to make memories via entertainment. Back off of running. Let's go to my night in Pittsburgh last Monday!

7-2 Pens Win, great night to be a Pens fan!!! Sadly, I am a Minnesota Wild fan every night. Josh, Adam, Hunter, and I waltzed up to these great seats for a quarter of the price and luckily the real owners never came. Now I've seat hopped, usually in baseball games and with only one person. The four of us were initially as high as one can get in Consol Energy Center, but after eying section 110 from above we noticed an entire row empty all first period; 3 rows from the top. So during the first intermission we decided to upgrade our seats. First of all anytime Josh and I go anywhere, try anything, it both fails miserably and is hilarious. This attempt wasn't off to a hot start as the four of us paced down the ramp into section 110. The usher yelled "you can't go down there" at us and we all froze wondering how he knew we had upper seats. Turns out he was referencing the handicrap ramp. I took the lead and walked by the usher like we owned the place and counted three rows. The row was now completely full. Shit. Staying calm, on the outside, I kept walking toward the ice with the intention of going to the glass, snapping a selfie with my dead phone, and casually walking back from where we came from. Four seats happened to be opened about twelve rows from the ice and I decided to sit down. The crew followed.

The lady to my left instantly hopped on her phone and as my mates began getting comfortable I got paranoid. I assumed she was texting her husband and his three macho friends that four runners were in their seats and to come annihilate us. Preferring to not kill two men and ultimately die in defense of my friends, I asked her if anyone was sitting in the four seats. She said no one was there and that we were in the clear. Soon after the second started Jonas Brodin cut the Pens lead in half right in front of us. That was enough for me that night. I love every, almost every, player on the team and can't get more happy than watching them play up close. Well I've been happier when they win in front of me. It has been a bad season so far for Minnesota, especially in my two viewed games in St. Paul and Pittsburgh. 11-2 out scored in those games. I still hold hopes of playoffs, but expect the worst. That's the best philosophy with sports. Hope for the best, Expect the worst. I'm a quite fan and do not like haters like the Wild fans behind me. Yelling stuff like fire Yeo (head coach) and trashing the team. I just like to sit and take in the most entertaining sport in the world. Though if I could be a professional athlete in any sport it would be tennis. Travel the world, wear fly clothes, and maybe cross paths with Caroline Wozniaki? That'd be amazing. She now doubles as my third favorite female runner. And favorite tennis player. She's gonna win a grand slam this year! I hope. I expect her to keep losing. See what I did there?

The disgusting, unforgivable things I would do to stand beside coach Yeo for a game.

Here is a little rant to close out this entry. At the Pens game we got yelled at for going down the handicap ramp. That kind of pissed me off. We didn't impede anyone going down or up the ramp, and I thought you'd have the freedom to choose the ramp or stairs unless a handicapped soul was around. None were, so fair game. The ushers should be more concerned with making sure no wheelchairs attempt the stairs. And the Van Voorhis rail trail parking lot makes me so mad/confused. Two out of the four parking spots on the rail trail are handicap, 50%! You know how many times I've run by that parking lot? More than zero times. Which is how many times I've seen one of those spots being used. Why would you put a handicap spot on a rail trail? I'm in no way taking a run at handicapped people, on average they are far more active than the normal sacks of shit. Just perplexed as to why Morgantown does some of the things they do. Or don't do. Yet again it's another winter involving snowfall, something no one here knows how to deal with. There was eight inches overnight in St. Paul when I was there. I walked around on clear side walks. Roads cleared. Which isn't that impressive because it's been snowing forever! Everyone should know how to remove it. You know what else had been around forever? The upper arboretum, but Morgantown had no problem removing that quickly. I think that's all of the irritants I've had recently. Watson has terrible gas. I don't like it.

 It's been a long time since I've been sad to see a show end. That's a lie. I am devastated that White Collar is over, but it was absolutely amazing. Every episode of that show kicked ass. Weeds was top notch though. Recommended to me by Patrick years ago, I don't know why I waited to watch it considering every single recommendation by him has been golden. He knows what I like better than I do. Weeds didn't die down as much as I thought it did. I have a few spoilers in my take on the end of the show. Loved Andy and Silas's endings, Doug's ending was Doug, was okay with Shane and Nancy's ending. I hated that Peter's son was welcomed in with open arms and not killed by Shane. Lame. And Cilia never dies!!! She goes away, but that's not good enough. It's a fictional character, off with her head. Taking into account every season, here is my top five characters of the five characters from least favorite to favorite. 5- Nancy, 4-Doug, 3-Silas, 2-Shane, 1-ANDY! The night I finished the show I watched a Tom Cruise written movie where Andy(Justin Kirk) acted in. It was about some Mexican lady and Italian writer treating each other like shit and falling in love. That's the most common way to fall in love I guess. To Weeds, a deliciously real show.

Listening to Rilo Kiley. Smiley emoticon.

 

NEXT ON TAP:

•  FLORIDA!
• Potential Race on Sunday
• Going to Universal!
• No beaches
• New Watson segment
• First workout of the season. 
• Maybe another moostache picture. 

ONE LOVE!!!