All the Signs

This morning I'm suffering from a little something I like to call 'all the signs of a pretty good weekend'. I took the elevator to the fourth floor of the ACME building, instead of my normal course of carrying my bike up the stairs. Oh, and there was no bike to carry either. It's taking the day off to rest. Hopefully it will get some new tires this week so I don't do as much mud spinning the next time I lose my mind and go for a little ride with J-Bomb. Not that it wasn't awesome, it just has a way of making me feel totally un-fit. In fact, I think it warps some theories of physics. How can I run 18 miles on hilly terrain but be unable to pedal my bike in the easiest gear up a hill?

I want every weekend to be like this; I can't even remember what I did Saturday morning. It was so long ago! Oh yeah, I trained Tatonka with J-Bomb, Smokey, and my friend who has not yet shown up for work this morning. Smokey went to Cooper Landing to repair a boat for our friends while I went to work. He was supposed to be back in time Sunday morning for us to do our long run before I went to work at noon.

Now here's where the story gets fun. I puttered around the apartment Sunday morning while I was waiting. I loaded the dishwasher. I washed the dishes. I fed all the furry creatures. Still no Smokey. Hmmm.....guess I will do some sewing. Uh oh, PHC is on NPR, that means there isn't enough time left before work to do a long run. Guess I'll just keep sewing. Hmmm......better take a shower if I'm going to get to work on time. I guess Smokey decided he couldn't get here before I went to work so he's off fishing. Did he take a rod with him? Can't tell if anything's missing, so.....who knows. Phone rings as I step out of the shower. It's the boss: would I be upset or excited to have an unexpected day off? "Um, okay" Hang up. YIPPEEEE!! Must decide plan of action before I call J-Bomb. Let's see: bike ride, boating, or something else? Phone rings. Uh oh, should I answer that? 'Oh hi Smokey. You're where? You did what? Uh huh. I'll be there in a little bit.' You ran out of gas? You walked 8 miles? On a major road? No one picked you up? Wow, that must have sucked.

Sunday ended with the long run. We ran so late that the trails were empty and Tatonka could run off leash. As long as we couldn't see any moose.

So of course there was a SAR callout at 3am. Luckily I just incorporated the phone ringing into my dream and didn't respond until 6am when Smokey got up to go to work. And the mission was still active and they were short on responders. So I went. They guy ended up walking out to the road. It was a classic. And I got some good info beyond what my guidebook says about the hike. Namely that you should plan on an overnight or a really long day. The concerned friends told us how experienced he was. J-Bomb guessed when I told her that he was wearing jeans. She was right. And he didn't even have any matches.

I found it very fitting that we thought we would cap off the weekend with a little bike ride since we didn't want to brave the hordes of drivers to go spend the weekend in Cooper Landing and we ended up braving the hordes at the trail parking lot. Technically that's not quite acurate. We saw the hordes and went to another parking lot. Which was ridiculously close and was empty. Of course it did require some additional uphill riding, but isn't that why you're out there in the first place, to get some exercise in the great outdoors? I will never understand humans.