Co-Blogger Ange is Going to Kill Me

I know, I know I've been MIA for weeks.  But it's time to let you guys know.  I'm in a relationship.  With the Sun.

At first it was just a fling.  He would come hang out for a few hours, I would soak it up for a bit, start to get comfortable, maybe take my coat off and then he would disappear for days.  No calls, no texts, nothing.  I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up.  I'd been burned all winter long.  But the past two weeks - they've been different.  He's sticking around this time.  And I have seriously never been more content with such an excess of Vitamin D.

In all seriousness, I literally have done nothing but spend as much time outside as possible.  Whereas a few weeks ago I was patting myself on the back if I could make it outside for 2 runs a week, now I'm devastated if I can't squeeze in a 2 mile jog at least every other day.  Walk every day at lunch?  Of course!  Walk home from work? Don't mind if I do!  Create excuses to walk around the neighborhood after work?  And how!

I'm still training for the Pittsburgh half (May 2nd eek) and the official goal is 2:00 or under.  I can hit the necessary pace (9:10) for 4-5 miles, so I'm hoping as I up my mileage I can maintain this and keep building.  

Ok now the reason for the title of this post.  Yesterday I went on my longest weekday run in months - 6.5 miles.  Thanks to daylight saving's time (which is kicking my ass, but that's another post for another time), I decided it was more than safe to add my additional loop around the stadiums...which I had avoided for months since it's not as heavily populated as other areas, and add in nightfall, and you've got a recipe for RFYL.  

Necessary background information: since I had put my left contact lens in that morning, it had felt a little funny, but not worth messing with.  Once I started running, it started to acquire dust and felt downright miserable.  Oh and co-blogger Ange hates eyes.  Everything about them, everything related to them - Ange: scroll to the bottom.

So I start to make my loop around the stadiums, and my left eye is tearing up so badly I'm forced to stop at a crosswalk and try to rub it out in an effort to fix it (TWSS).  No luck.  Whatever, the light changes, I figure it will be fine if I leave it alone.  No such luck.  By the time I make it to the home plate entrance of PNC Park I'm ready to rip it out and discard it on a commerative brick.  So I did what any sensible person would do and took it out, which is when I realized it had been in my eye inside out all day.  No wonder I was practically crying for the first half of my run.  Once that problem was fixed, the rest of the run was much smoother.

Ange - it's safe to read.

So that's my life.  Running, celebrating my newfound love with Mr. Sun and preparing to journey to Syracuse next week for the East regionals of the NCAA tournament.  Ange and I will be reunited, and there mayyyyy be a running photoshoot in the works.  It depends on a number of factors, particularly our level of intoxication/hungoverness the whole weekend.  Which might make for a far more entertaining series of photographs.