Near Miss (Just Call Me Grace!)

I had two near-misses this morning. I came *this* close to sleeping in, and skipping a run today- which is really the first time that the temptation has been there since I switched over to morning runs. But we are heading out to go camping this weekend, and I probably won't be doing any running on Friday or Saturday (crap- when will I have my long run?), so I told myself I had to at least do something today. It wasn't really that big of a temptation, but I considered it for a second.

My other near miss this morning was on my run, when my toe hit something (a sidewalk crack, or maybe an invisible animal?) and I tripped, but luckily was able to keep my balance. I almost went crashing down and skidding on my knees, but thanks to my cat-like reflexes (yeah right) I was able to flail about for a second until I was upright and running again. I don't think too many people saw, and luckily I didn't fall to the ground- or I probably would have cried just from the embarrassment (never mind the road rash).

I ended up cranking out just over 5 miles, even though I've been trying to take it easy because of my knee. I'm still having a little bit of pain with it, off and on, and I'm nervous that it's going to come back full-blown. Plus, my right arch has been hurting a lot, too. I think it's definitely time to look into new shoes, even though I really don't have the cash right now. I have to save my "allowance", because the Hubs' birthday is next month, but maybe I can find a good deal for around $80. But can you really put a price on good running shoes?

Anyway, yesterday was a quick 3.5 miles in just under 35 min, up at the park. However, I woke up 30 min earlier than usual (at 5:30), because I had to take the Hubs to work. No we haven't decided to try and carpool (he works downtown, and I work on the west side). He had an eye appointment in the afternoon, and after having his eyes dilated, he wouldn't be able to see to drive home. So I had to pick him up and bring him home, too. After a trip to the Wal-Mart (while the Hubs got a haircut), I went home and made a lovely dinner of bowtie pasta with (light) alfredo sauce, garlic sauteed shrimp, and artichokes. Mmmmm. Plus, we had some jello that was leftover from Sunday's family feast.

Speaking of which, the family dinner turned out okay, but we ended up going to the park to have our BBQ. After all our hard work in the yard on Saturday, we decided that we had too many wasps and didn't want to chance it. The park is not far away, and there was the playground for the kids (my niece and nephew are 7 and 2.5), and the big kids (my siblings) started a baseball game of wiffle-ball (sp?). Afterward, we came back to the house and had homemade (not by me) banana cream or apple pie. That's because it's my brother and my sister-in-law's favorite. I can't believe they're already leaving this Saturday! Moving to the big city of Denver. Luckily my SIL said she's going to start a blog so we can keep up with everything that's going on with them.

Oh, one other thing from yesterday- I received an email notifying me of a new race in my town. When I registered for the 5k on July 4th, they were asking who would be interested in a 10k trail run in the fall. Apparently, there was a lot of response, so they're going to start one. Only problem is, it's the same day (Sep 13) as the other 10k I was planning to do. So now I have to decide if I want to do a regular race in my old (kind-of) hometown, or a trail race (inaugural!) in my current/adopted hometown. The thing is, I've never really done any running on a trail, so I'm not sure what it would be like, or if I would even like it. I've done plenty of hiking, but I realize that's different.  I'm certainly open to the idea, but I'm not sure if I want to pay $25 to try it out and then have it be a complete disaster (refer to above tripping on sidewalk cracks). Any input would be greatly appreciated. Any readers that are into trail running, or have done a race- how is/was it? I do have a couple of weeks until the pre-registration deadline, so maybe one of my long (or short, I guess) runs could be a test run on the trail (but I'm kind of afraid I'll get lost without race markers). Anyway, I'll be thinking about it and deciding before Aug 29.

And finally, I'm sorry about not posting any replies to your comments lately. I promise I read them all, and appreciate you taking the time to write. I have now added my reply to comments from Saturday's post, if you care to check back. I'll try to do better, but lately I haven't had much computer time, especially at work (things have been a little hectic). Oh, and since we're heading up the mountain Thursday afternoon, I'll try to post the Random Photo tomorrow. It probably won't be anything super-exciting or humorous, though, because most of our photos are saved on the Hubs' office computer. I really need to take some time and burn them onto CDs and bring them home (now that we have a decent machine to put them on). Although I do have plenty of honeymoon photos...