1. Do you remember how I saw a black bear during my long run the weekend before last? It was a large, black animal up in the trees that was scuffling up or down (I didn’t stick around long enough to see which way) a tree next to the trail I was running on. I assumed it was a bear, because what else could it be? Well this past Sunday there was an article in our local paper about an unidentified animal being captured on a trail camera in the next county down from ours:

Seriously, what is that thing? And is it the animal I saw the weekend before last? The article talks about the animal possibly being an unverified “Bigfoot” but I think that’s nonsense. I don’t believe in Bigfoot and I think it’s either some weird looking bear or somebody’s pet monkey that got loose or something. I’m not bringing this up to argue the existence or non-existence of Bigfoot. But I can’t help but wonder if that animal is possibly the same one I saw the two Saturdays ago, since I don’t normally see bears. The best part of the article is when the author says “I think it must be a bear. It has to be a bear, does it not?”

2. I was at one of the pharmacies in town over the weekend to print pictures for our family tree picture frame collection and I saw something crazy. They had their whole Halloween candy display up already. In August. I said something to the girl working at the register about it and she replied “I know, it’s crazy! You want to know something crazier? The last truck we got in had all of our Christmas merchandise and candy.” Crazy indeed. It seems like that stuff shows up earlier and earlier each year.

3. Yesterday’s track workout went really well. I wasn’t sure how this workout was going to go, because I felt exhausted all day long and had a headache when I got home from work. But I ran solid, albeit a little too fast because I was without my trusty pacer. I had 5 miles on my schedule, so I did 800m warm up, 5 x 800m with 400m recovery jogs in between, and 1200m cool down to total five miles. Here are the splits for the 800’s:

1- 4:15
2- 4:25
3- 4:17
4- 4:21
5- 4:13

If you remember from last week, I am supposed to be aiming for 4:30 for each repeat, since my goal for the marathon is 4 hours 30 minutes. I’m sure as I increase the number of 800m repeats my times will slow down a bit. I do most of my runs with my Garmin, but when I’m on the track I prefer my Timex.

Just like last week, I received whistles and cat calls from the JV football team as they made their way from the practice field to the locker rooms. There was also an older man, who I think was waiting for his son to finish football practice, who sat in the stands and watched nearly my whole workout (he showed up just as I finished my warm up). When I finished my cool down he asked me how many times I had gone around the track, and I replied “twenty.” He said “Wow, what is that, about two miles?” and I said “No, it’s five miles.” Then he told me “Way to go!” I left with a smile on my face.

What do you think: black bear, monkey, Bigfoot?? Do you think that could be the same animal I saw the weekend before last?

Any signs of Halloween candy in the stores where you live?

Do you ever get whistled at by high school boys??