Seven Hundred Ninety-Two

March 28, 2018
5.91 Miles in 1:00:23
Mood: Getting some Pokemon goals accomplished, like a boss.
Soundtrack: The Walking Dead 'Cast / Passenger "All the Little Lights"

I had slightly less time than normal this morning to get my run in, and I chose to begin it by running the overly hilly path towards the Splodey Nova! Pokegym. My goal was to get myself on the gym and achieve gold status on it. (Which I accomplished.) Then I spent the rest of my run heading back towards Southglenn and then circling in order to fill my bag up with supplies. The result was a run that was kinda slow, kinda short, but oh so productive in a Pokemon sense. Plus I got this cool photo of a branch with mountains in the background. So, while I didn't come close to my seven mile usual, I had a wonderful time.

Seven Hundred Ninety-One

March 25, 2018
7.24 Miles in 1:09:42
Mood: Coming Home to Wash Park
Soundtrack: The Walking Dead 'Cast / Ben Folds Five "The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind"

It had been a few weeks since I did my Sunday run at Wash Park, and I missed it. Wash Park feels like home on an early Sunday morning, so I enjoyed my homecoming. There was a Bulbasaur event happening later on in Pokemon Go, and I was legit excited for it. This run felt like the preliminaries, as I was busy pressing the button on my Go Plus and loading up for later in the day. I do that on all my runs, and yet today it felt preparatory.  The actual run itself wasn't terribly noteworthy, but it felt like getting back into a familiar pattern, and that felt good.

Seven Hundred Ninety

March 23, 2018
7.04 Miles (Plus almost another half mile non-tracked) in 1:09:04
Mood: Cat Pride
Soundtrack: The Killers "Hot Fuss" and "Sam's Town"

After watching K-State's basketball team reach the Elite Eight last night by beating Kentucky, I knew where I had to go and what the picture would look like for today's run. I was pumped for the Cats' unexpected run through the NCAA tournament, and I know of exactly one K-State flag in the Denver metro area, so I directed my run to go directly towards said flag.

It was a beautiful morning, and I had basketball enthusiasm running through my veins, about the only annoying thing on the run is that I ran one section of my run without restarting my running tracker, so I missed out on around a half a mile of distance towards my monthly goal. I'll still make it to 100 this month, but I always get annoyed when I run but don't get credit towards my goal because of my own mistake.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Nine

March 22, 2018
7.85 Miles in 1:18:38
Mood: Monitoring what feels like unnecessary construction.
Soundtrack: Mumford & Sons "Wilder Mind"

This large open meadow is very beautiful and provides a great view of the mountains and some pretty trees. Over the last two months, there has been an ongoing construction project to allow me to step ten yards further into the meadow and look at it from a pedestal. I am flabbergasted that it takes multiples of months to build this little overlook, but here we are. Construction began in January, and as you can see from this morning's photo, there is still a good ways to go before it will be open to the public. I am actually eager to look once this is all finished to see if that extra ten yards was worth it.  At least it's given me something to monitor the progress on. Perhaps in a few more months when they are actually finished, I can post a photo of the finished product.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Eight

March 20, 2018
4.63 Miles in 48:22
Mood: Funky morning
Soundtrack: Grouplove "Spreading Rumors" / Jack Garratt "Phase"

After a rough night where I had to keep eating sugary items just to raise my blood sugar to decent levels, I awoke in a bit of a funk. I was hoping that a good run would ease the funkiness of the morning, but this run smelled of funk from beginning to end. I never really got in a groove, so I ended up finishing shy of 5 miles total, which is pretty sad.

I did have some experiences on this run, including running on the entirely empty South Suburban Golf Course and feeling weird about it, as I always seem to feel whenever I run on a golf course. I also got today's photo of the very excellent awning at Monster Mini Golf, and I finished up by having to call in my wife to come pick me up because I had a potty emergency a half mile from home, and I would much rather have her come out for a mission of mercy than to not make it to a toilet in time. (Even with her assistance, it was the closest of close calls.)

So to summarize: Bad run, but good morning. It was, as always, good to be alive and out in the world this morning, even if my body did not cooperate as well as I would like it to.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Seven

March 18, 2018
7.40 Miles in 1:12:31
Mood: Confused
Soundtrack: Middle Brother "Middle Brother" / Matt Nathanson "Some Made Hope" / The Milk Carton Kids "Prologue"

I don't know what Gamma and Graves at Colfax is. It appeared to be an empty lot. And I have to say, this a some seriously weird style. I don't know what was going on at all, but I had to take a picture because I'd never seen this particular display before in my life, and how could I NOT take a photo of this? It would be irresponsible.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Six

March 15, 2018
8.06 Miles in 1:22:18
Mood: Splodey Nova!
Soundtrack: The Lone Bellow "Then Came the Morning" / The Local Strangers "Left For Better" / Eminem "Curtain Call"

I have become obsessed with this statue. Mostly because it's a Pokemon Go Gym, and I am trying to earn a Gold Badge for it because it's name in Pokemon Go never ceases to amuse me. They call it "Splodey Nova!" and that name is excellent. It may or may not be the actual name of the art, but I don't care. It is what I shall forever refer to it as. I think it's the word "Splodey" but don't underestimate that exclamation point. I found myself running to the South Suburban Golf Course despite the fact that it's not a super great run there simply to earn points toward mastering this gym. I will have gold. Oh yes. It will be mine.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Five

March 13, 2018
7.14 Miles in 1:12:48
Mood: BREAKING NEWS, apparently.
Soundtrack: Waterdeep "Heart Attack Time Machine" and "Pink and Blue"

You know what is weird? When you're up extra early, and running through the Streets at Southglenn before 6 O'Clock in the morning, and you turn a corner and you see a channel 4 news report standing ALL BY HERSELF with lights on her like she's getting ready to do a live spot. I don't have any idea what possible news could have been breaking at a deserted shopping center at 6AM, but News 4 was live on the scene. I took a picture because of just how surreal the whole scene was. I also didn't see a camera man, which makes me wonder do the reports just film themselves now? Totally possible with today's technology, but I was unaware that was a thing.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Four

March 11, 2018
7.42 Miles in 1:13:08
Mood: A glorious morning with one quick scary moment.
Soundtrack: The Avett Brothers "Emotionalism" and "The Gleam"

I started out at Wash Park, but I decided I wanted a change of pace, so as I got to the north end of the Park, I just kept running north, and ended up on the Cherry Creek Trail. It had been quite awhile since I had run on that particular path, and in that time, a bunch of new art has gone up on the walls. It made for a nice period of discovering cool art on a trail that while I am familiar with, haven't run upon for some time. It was actually an awesome run interspersed with just one brief moment of terror as a homeless man was walking down the trail in this giant ratty cloak under a bridge and he looked so dark and foreboding that he could have easily stepped onstage and played the living embodiment of death. That moment was not so great, but apart from that, everything else about this morning was pretty sweet.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Three

March 9, 2018
6.59 Miles in 1:04:10
Mood: Annoyed at my faulty pancreas.
Soundtrack: Carly Rae Jepsen "Kiss"

I really hate being diabetic sometimes. I was moving great for the first part of this run, and then low blood sugar hit me, and suddenly I was a mess. I had my emergency sugar, so I was fine, but once that happens, it takes a bit before I am able to run again. I went from having a nice strong run to having to walk most of the rest of the way home and end up a little short of the distance that I wanted. Not a huge deal, but it can be aggravating sometimes.

Seven Hundred Eighty-Two

March 8, 2018
7.09 Miles in 1:11:31
Mood: Anti-golf, but enjoying the beauty of the course anyway.
Soundtrack: TV on the Radio "Dear Science"

I think this picture looks like a portal opening to another dimension. Really, it's just a statue on the fringe of a golf course. I despise golf, partly because I'm terrible at it, but also because it takes some of the prettiest places on earth and walls them off so that they can only be enjoyed by elite old men in ugly pants. Seriously, though, the views of this little municipal golf course were pretty spectacular this morning. I was glad I ran past it.

Seven Hundred Eighty-One

March 6, 2018
7.11 Miles in 1:09:49
Mood: Diggin' on the Carly Rae
Soundtrack: The Walking Dead 'Cast / Carly Rae Jepsen "Kiss"

Occasionally I learn new and surprising things about myself, but rarely are they more surprising to me than what I learned this morning. Today I learned that I like Carly Rae Jepsen. I'm not usually much for pop music, but as I was listening to The Walking Deadcast, they played a clip from "Call Me Maybe". I have always kind of liked that song, so I decided to put Carly Rae on the old Spotify. After that song ended, I was in a bit of a running groove, so I just let her keep singing. After about six or seven songs, I realized that I really liked her music. Like, a lot. I would have never guessed that possible, but it's true.

Seven Hundred Eighty

March 4, 2018
8.20 Miles in 1:18:40
Mood: Depending upon the good will of friendly janitors.
Soundtrack: Keane "Hopes and Fears" / Trampled by Turtles "Stars and Satellites"

This is no laxative on earth more powerful than running. I ran half a mile to start out my morning, when I realized suddenly and urgently that a toilet needed to be in my immediate future...or else. Luckily, I was right next to the Wash Park Boathouse, so I headed towards their well maintained facilities in a bit of a rush.

As I arrived, the cleaning lady was walking out of the mens' room. When the situation is desperate, you don't worry to much about social niceties, so I headed straight to the stall, and noticed that there was not a square of toilet paper. I walked back to the janitor's closet that is stationed in between the mens' and ladies' rooms and meekly asked if she had any toilet paper.

She replied with a friendly, but business like, "Actually, the restrooms are closed when we're cleaning."

I gave her my most desperate face and honestly said, "I completely understand that. HOWEVER, I have to poop very badly."

To which she ironically said, "Oh $#*t!"

Without missing a beat I said, "Exactly."

She brought me the toilet paper. Also, she is my hero.

Seven Hundred Seventy-Nine

March 2, 2018
7.07 Miles in 1:13:04
Mood: Woah, Stinky!
Soundtrack: The Rural Alberta Advantage "Departing"

The theme for this morning was "stink". I ran south on the Dry Creek Trail, which takes me past our local duck pond. For the past few months, I would describe the general smell of the duck pond area as odoriferous. To put it bluntly, it smells like we are only days away from finding several severely decomposed corpses have been dumped in the pond. It is foul to be downwind of this body of water. I blame geese, because geese are devil birds. We have lived in this same area since 2002, and this is the first time ever that this pond has become rancid, but I find myself praying that the wind blows to the south and keeps the stench away from my house.

I ran past the pond, and it was pretty awful. The wind was blowing north, so it stunk near my house, but almost the instant that I went south of the pond, the smell evaporated. I then ran all the way to the South Suburban Golf Course without having to hold my breath. The stink returned the instant I went a tiny bit north of the pond, and when I arrived at home, both my son and my wife commented that much like the pond, I also stunk. (Hopefully not as badly, but I do know I tend to get a little ripe after a run. Thankfully, unlike the duck pond, I can shower.)

Seven Hundred Seventy-Eight

March 1, 2018
7.73 Miles in 1:16:08
Mood: Rested and ready.
Soundtrack: The Walking Dead 'Cast / Bright Eyes "I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning"

I skipped out on my Tuesday run to give my body a little bit of a rest, so by the time Thursday rolled around, I was rested but also dying to get in some miles. I had just watched the Walking Dead premiere the night before, so it was with a fresh body and fresh zombie show thoughts running in my head that I ran while listening to a podcast about said zombie show.

The episode was actually pretty good, and so was this run. I kept to the Highline Canal for almost the entire trip. After four days of rest, It felt amazing to hit up one of my favorite stretches of trail.