Well That's One Way to Get the Miles in.

Ok, I have to start this post by mentiong that in most cases I have an absurdly good sense of direction. I always know which direction I came from and how to get home if we just went for a meandering run. Apparently that is not true in Texas.

Jason and I had a 5 mile at pace run planned for today but the only time we could find in our schedule to get out and run was at noon. Yes, I know it's hot in Dallas at noon. Yes, I also know that there would be no water along the way. I also know that I ran in the Florida noon heat at this conference last year when it was in Tampa. So I am smart and decide to just go for a 45-50 minute run at whatever pace we fall into and that should be fine. Won't get hurt, won't get overheated etc. etc.

So we get out there and it's not too bad, but my shins start screaming...

***side question for those of you that know things about shins/shoes : I just got a new pair of shoes and before I got them I was having no pain at all (the pain is always on the outer part of my shin), then with the new pair (same exact model) the pain comes roaring back. Is it because the new shoes are not broken in that this could happen? Maybe they are too stiff? Thanks***

and we stop and stretch and go a little farther, and stop and stretch and get to a bus turn around point and I just figure that at this point we'll just run around it and head back the same way that we came. Well, apparently we were completely turned around and we ran for about 20-25 minutes in completely the wrong direction.

We are staying at hotel that has this huge tower with a ball on top; I think there is a restaurant in the ball part. The Ball Tower is freakin' huge and we figured that we would be able to see said tower from whatever part of town we were in. Hence, just run in that direction. Because of this I was probably paying less attention than I should have as to where we were going. I kept figuring that once we got to the next block we would be able to see it.

Oh no. There was no fucking tower. So finally finally we realize that we aren't in any kind of vicinity to downtown and so we stop for directions at a Wells Fargo bank. When we told them where we needed to go, they all looked at each other like, "oh shit they really are lost....hope they don't die getting back" They tell us to head back the way we came and we would eventually see it. We run for about 15 mintues and WOOT there's the tower. Then we realize what is usually a big huge tower looks like a baseball in the sky. We are still really far away.

Sigh. oh well.

So, if Jason gave us a nice driving tour of Dallas yesterday then I guess I gave us a nice running tour today. (Jason says: small victory for Jason!) We ended up being out there for about 1:05 which with all the stopping and stretching and walking and asking dirctions was I am guessing somewhere between 5-6 miles.

More meetings today and tomorrow morning/afternoon then it's 11 miles in the eveningish. I am REALLY excited to meet Runner Susan as she is one of the first running blogs I started following. Stay tuned for stories and pictures.