Nighttime run

Yesterday was hot, but I didn’t have any outdoor workouts scheduled.  Still, I had a lot of meetings around town and I ended up doing a lot of walking around in the heat.  The rest of family was out for the evening doing various things, so I had the place to myself.  After running many errands in the heat, I decided that a nice cold rum punch sounded pretty good.  So, I picked up a bottle of Appleton White Jamaican rum.

At home, I tunneled to the back of the cabinet and dug out the big souvenir glass I got from T-Rex after the Disney half marathon.  I filled it with ice, grabbed my shaker and mixed my favorite citrus rum punch:

1 & 1/3 oz Jamaican rum

2/3 oz triple sec

1 & 2/3 oz orange juice

2/3 oz lime juice

I shook the mixture, poured it into the glass and then topped it off with 7-up.  It was cold and refreshing.

Now, I normally do most of the cooking in the house, but when nobody’s around I find it difficult to go through the trouble of making a real meal.  So, I popped 40 pizza rolls in the oven and relaxed with my rum punch.  I ate all 40 pizza rolls (1470 calories if you believe the package) and then made myself another rum punch.  I now had a full belly and was feeling pretty good really buzzed.  I relaxed for a while, read a few blogs, wrote a blog post of my own and then decided to settle down with Again to Carthage by John L. Parker Jr.

It was 10:30 PM.  The sugar and the alcohol were playing conflicting games in my bloodstream.  Before I even opened the book, I was off the couch.  I was dying to try out my new racing shoes.  Foregoing a shirt in the dark night, I threw on some running shorts and my lightest running socks.  I laced up the new racing shoes and headed out the door with a very specific two mile route in mind.  I walked quickly through the dark, soupy humidity like a man on a mission.

When I arrived at the route’s starting point, I quickly went from walk to brisk run.  My legs were fresh and unencumbered by the weight of my trainers.  I charged through the first quarter mile feeling like a high speed hovercraft floating over the pavement.  I couldn’t see my Garmin.  I had no idea how fast I was going, but I knew I was moving at a pretty good clip and I felt like I wasn’t putting any effort into it at all.  I came to a point where uneven pavers make the sidewalk treacherous.  In the dark, I couldn’t pick my through like I normally do in the daylight.  I didn’t slow down.  I just high stepped my way through that block so I wouldn’t trip.

When I arrived at the park – the one mile mark and the site of so many painful interval sessions – I stopped briefly  to turn around.  I was dripping with sweat from the humid evening, but I didn’t feel one ounce of tired.  I looked over the moonlit lake and started to laugh.  I don’t know why.  I couldn’t stop.  I was a shirtless guy with bright orange shoes standing alone and laughing on a street corner in the middle of the night.  I looked at my Garmin only to find the battery drained.  Somehow, this made the whole thing even more humorous.

I decided I better get moving before people started calling the cops to come remove this crazy man from their neighborhood.  Fortunately, I was feeling fast.  I zipped home again with that incredible floating feeling in my legs.  I returned to my starting point with a huge grin on my face.  I was in love.

I don’t know exactly how fast I went but it wasn’t all out.  The Garmin died at 0.94 miles and registered an average pace of 6:50 min/mile up to that point.  I didn’t slow down after that, so I figure I was sub 14 minutes for the two miles.  It’s not lightning quick, but considering I finished feeling almost as fresh as when I started, I was giddy with the possibilities.  I think there’s a good chance I’ll be running that midnight 5K on the 4th of July.