Evidence of improvement

The solstice might be a few weeks away yet, but summer's already peeking around the corner. It wasn't quite as hot as it will be, but it was hazy, and I ran two miles yesterday in a cloud of tangible humidity, with deer flies jumping on my arms--those suckers land on you while you're moving! And they won't go away! They don't bother me quite as much as those damn sand fleas though; at least you can brush the deer flies away, and they're not so small that you can actually inhale them while you're running through a cloud of them. Ick. There was, however, a very nice breeze coming off the water. Nevertheless, it is very clear to me that I should learn to get up early on the weekdays and run in the morning.

I was supposed to run those two miles at a 12:37 pace, but I inadvertently ran a bit faster than that. As I approached the first mile marker, I looked at my watch and realized I had run the first mile in about 8:30. Whoa. I tried to slow it down a bit on the second mile, for fear that I would fizzle out and collapse in a wheezing, twitching heap on the side of the road, but it's hard to slow down when you're already feeling comfortable at a certain pace, and I finished at 17:38--that's roughly nine minutes for the second mile. I don't know that I could have run a full third mile, but I mean if I could, that would be *amazing* for me and the 5K I'm running next Saturday! I didn't think I could run that fast *ever,* and part of me still thinks my watch might be broken. Or maybe it's just the weather.

P.S. -- And oh, I left the Run-O-Cam in the car during running, but have some pictures of a snake Keith found in a tree near the car before we started. I'll post one for you later.