Martin Luther King (Blvd., that is) is not my friend....

Dark, as usual, this morning, as I made my way to the LR Marathon running group meeting place. We were at the Arts Center (downtown), doing the route that passes by the Governor's Mansion and Central High. It was cool, as will probably be the norm for the next, oh, 6 months or so...but seemingly, not as cold as last Saturday morning.

Today was another 7 miler, and I say WAS because I had an interesting and slightly scary experience this morning. I forgot to email Tom and Hobbit and request a 7 mile route, so he had to modify an 8 mile route and adjust the directions for me. I thought it was fairly clear....apparently not. I know you're not supposed to follow the pack in front of you, in case they are doing different mileage, so you don't get stuck doing 20 miles when you meant to do 4....Still, the directions Tom gave me had me bailing from a fairly decent sized group, and I thought .."surely all of these people aren't doing over 8 miles......Well, I screwed up the directions anyway, and headed down martin Luther King Blvd. going the wrong way...

So, there I was, like the idiot that I am...a random white girl, running in the semi-dark in my cute running skirt...through shanty-town...hoping and praying that I would come upon Capitol Rd. so I could get the hell out of there.....I feel so stupid....I just kept going, praying that no one would attack me and I ended up at the damn State Fair Grounds!! Yes, that's right, folks....2.5 DAMN MILES, out of the way....

I finally had the sense to turn around and found my way back to where I should have turned before and after running past the RiverMarket to Commerce St., I cut my route short, headed to 10th St. and went back to the Arts Center early. So.....all that to say...what was SUPPOSED to be 7 miles, ended up being 8.2, even with me cutting about 2 miles off the original route.....Note to self....take the time to email Tom....or stick with the whole group...

One bright spot is that I got to go to Panera Bread for breakfast and got a Pink Ribbon Bagel (with vanilla, nuts, dried cherries, and dried cranberries) and coffee. It was SO good and I needed that reward. I also went to Target and Academy for some retail therapy...got a pink "performance" long sleeve running shirt (of sorts) at Target and some Gu, an awesome pink fleece pull-over, and a black headband with a little pink ribbon on it (they selling alot of pink ribbon stuff, I'm assuming for the Race for the Cure..) at Academy. I skipped weight class this morning, I was so sore anyway and I just didn't feel up to it after my "ordeal". It was bound to happen, I'm a newbie...I guess, now, I have all these "funny" stories to tell to my fellow runners..ha ha.....