LOST

One piece of advice if you are going out for a run:  get directions!  I started out on the Greenbelt Trail in Clive on Saturday and thought I had an idea of where I was going and how I would get back.  Taking the trail West, it ends somewhere in rich upscale suburban hell!  All of these mansions were surrounding a "private" country club lake and though I was apprehensive, I decided I could figure it out by just taking every left I could to go around in a circle and get back to the trail.  As I was running, I went to take a left onto a street that ended in -circle.  Any reasonable and smart person, which I feel I am, would not take this road as the name in and of itself tells me I will end up where I started.  I passed up this option and continued to run.  The next left was a -drive.  Maybe this was me just being skeptical but I did not take this one either.  Something about it told me that I would be ticked off taking this road.  Sure enough, after continuing to run straight, out came the same stinking road that I am super glad I did not go down.  I ended up all the way down on University out by Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, KinderCare and Panera.  To those of you unaware of Des Moines, this is very much WEST of the interstate, somewhere around 140th-ish.  While running East on University, I came across the main entrance into the country club but chose not to stay lost in the maze and continued on University, hoping to run into 128th and an "on ramp" to the trail.  Turning down 128th I thought it wouldn't be much farther until I was back on the shaded, very flat trail.  I was very wrong.  It is quite a distance and I thought I was going to have to run through the on ramp intersection to 35/80 on Hickman.  Thank God, just before I started to have a panic attack, I saw the connection point from the road to the trail.  Just in time!  I took the last mile back to the car at a pretty sloooooowww pace but I did finish, only walking for 15-20 minutes up the evil University hill.  I ended up running 6.33 miles and now have very sore calves and feet.  Good thing it's too hot out to run so I get a much needed day off!  

Case in point:  know where you are going before you get lost on a run!

Running...

So my long run on Saturday went extremely well.  I was so excited after the first 3 1/2 miles at a 14 1/2 minute pace I went on to run two more!  I ended up running 5 1/2 miles in an hour and twenty minutes, just shy of my 90 minute goal.  I didn't care, I was sooooo ecstatic to have run FIVE AND A HALF MILES!!!  Three weeks ago, this would have been a dream but now I am actually almost half way to my total mileage of 13.1 for the half marathon.  I was sitting at my parents house today and realized that I actually have to run this thing in two months!  Yikes!  But if things continue the way they have, I have no worries that I will be able to finish the race, which is my only goal.  I don't care about time or if I run the whole thing.  I just want to finish the race.  

In other news, after coming home from a weekend at my parent's house, Ziggy, the cat, was very......hmmmmm.....excited?  This is the only way I can think of to describe his erratic running around the house.  After taking the suitcase upstairs and unpacking it, Ziggy practically flew into the bedroom and onto the bed...but forgot to put on the brakes.  He proceeded to fly/bounce off the bed and straight into the wall, giving himself a fat and bloody lip in the process.  Needless to say, he calmed down a bit after that.  Not sure what got into him but I'm taking it as he really missed us!  

Also, I have my application in for graduate school at Buena Vista, UNI and Drake and am hopeful for someone to think I am worthy of their program.  I am really banking on getting into Drake, as it is close and would make taking classes extremely easy and less stressful, not to mention I would again be a Bulldog.  Ok, I don't really care about the part but it is a really great school and is comparable on cost per credit hour.  Wish me luck on admittance into any one of these programs for Spring!