A few months ago I joined up with a small group of guys who do an easy 4-mile run every Wednesday morning. During the summer we start out at 6 am and then once school starts it's moved to 5:45 am so a couple of the guys can help prep the kids for school when they get home. I run from the house to get an early warmup and run back after we're done, so I get 4.71 miles for my efforts according to the map I worked out at MapMyRun.com. It's a nice time to spend with the other fellas...there's four others besides me: Matt, who owns Sportspectrum, the place to go if you want the right sports gear and real live personal service; Rex, an accountant (I think); Mike, a financial officer for one of the hospitals here and lost about 30 pounds to prepare for a 1/2 Ironman triathlon this year; and Jeff, who I believe is an enviromental engineer and the group's enviromentalist. That means Mike and I make fun of him, but Jeff can hold his own.
In fact, Mike and Jeff couldn't be more opposite on the political spectrum and have had a few interesting discussions/debates during some of the runs. But there's no doubt that each would help the other in an instant if they had to. Basically, we've all known each other for at least 10 or more years, however these runs have allowed me to hear them talk about what else they do in their lives. I can tell you that I've learned more about Shreveport politics as well as youth soccer leagues than I ever thought I'd want to know! This morning Rex wasn't there as he's been battling a knee problem and has missed the last 3-4 weeks. We were dressed for the cooler temps except that Matt was bare-legged and bare-eared...this guy has a store with all the stuff he needs and he isn't wearing any of it! Anyways, we did the usual pace, about a 9:30/mile which allows us to talk and still work up a bit of a sweat. My pace when I'm running by myself is around an 8-minute mile and around 7:20 in a race.
I learn all the current stuff...like our mayor is known as "Heavy G" and that the two major youth soccer leagues in town don't like each other. We keep up with Matt's plans on building a new store so he can move out of the old location. Mike and I are the relative new-comers to the group. I think 5 or 6 runners is as big as it'll get since the size allows everyone to talk, listen, and make smart-ass remarks at the appropriate times.
In the meantime, we now have two full days left to prepare for Oz and it'll get done. Look for a rush of activity Friday night! I'm finishing up my free-lance art jobs and will be in a video for Johnny Cobb's new website on Thursday. I'll let you know how that turns out. I made a rush out to the old house in Bossier City to trim the bushes which I've been meaning to do for the last month or so...did it all, trimmed and bagged, in about 25 minutes...a new record! I don't think I'm going to get much else done here at the new house. The place is covered with leaves and I'm not making much headway. I overloaded five bag-fulls of leaves yesterday and you can't see where I made a dent. I also want to finish the gutters before we go...good luck with that...maybe it'll happen?
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