Rush, rush, rush

The unexpected layover Tuesday put me waaaay behind on getting back home for Saturday. If everything had gone right I would've been home Friday morning but it wasn't to be. Thursday I also had an unexpected delay but it was James' truck this time and not mine (whew). He blew a radiator hose out when he was headed north and fortunately I was where I could stop at an auto parts store to get the parts for him. If I had been south of him he was looking at a 4-5 hour wait on the side of the road before somebody could have gotten out to him and replaced the hose plus would have cost the company approx. $250. Instead, it was only a couple of hours and we did it for $60.

Yes, I actually helped replace the hose, I wasn't just standing there handing him tools, LOL! It blew out in a very hard to get area so my smaller hands and arms came in useful. What did frustrate me was that even though we were on a 4 lane stretch of road only about 40% of the traffic moved over into the fast lane while we were doing the repairs even when there would be no reason for them not to move over. It wasn't just 4-wheelers that weren't giving us room, there were a number of big trucks crowding us too. Please people, if you see somebody broke down on the side of the road, move over to the other lane if it's at all safe to do so. We were well off onto the shoulder but it's just common courtesy. Plus you never know when somebody is not paying attention and might step out close to the lane of traffic while they're working on their vehicle. And if you've ever been on the shoulder, you know how it rocks your cars when somebody blows by you at 65+mph. Just think about what that's doing to a person who weighs much less than the car.

Anyway, I didn't get to N. Little Rock until Saturday morning. James came and picked me up at our drop yard and we drove to Ward for the 5k at 0800. A friend was the race director and it was excellent! Very nice course, the best raffic control, awesome goodie bags, and from what I hear great prizes! I finished 7th overall (male and female) which surprised the heck out of me. Not much sleep and I wasn't feeling good until I started running. Once I got moving though, I just cruised. Had no plans to kill myself on this 5k for a pr, just wanted a decent finishing time and the only time I pushed hard was sprinting for the finish line, wanted to get past the woman just in front of me, LOL. Garmin is showing 3.2 miles in 25:12 but I don't know what the actual finish time is because like always forgot to turn it off right away. Won my age group so think I was probably 4th woman across the line. No results posted yet and we weren't able to stay for the awards because of needing to get back down to the Little Rock area for the alzheimer's walk that started at 1000.

Another friend was director or co-director of the Little Rock Alzheimer's Memory Walk. I have some busy friends, LOL, I feel lazy next to them! This was another awesome event, we walked across the Big Dam Bridge and back. Elsie was happy because she was finally getting to get out and move with us (it was overcast and I didn't want to get in the middle of the 5k, have it thunder then have to carry her all the way!). Elsie also got to make friends with a 9 month old Great Dane--absolutely gorgeous dog, but HUGE!

Visited with friends afterwards for about 30 minutes then it was off to Russellville to my sister's house for Mike's birthday cake at 1300. I was absolutely starting to reek at this point so the second thing I did once we got there was shower. First thing was hug the niece and nephew (duh!). I had been craving a burger all week so was glad I hadn't stopped Friday for a Whataburger before leaving Texas because I got to eat a very delicious turkey burger at my sis's (with avocado, mmmmm). Also had fries and german chocolate cake so it was a heckuva diet cheat day :-). Finally got home about 1630 and was flat out exhausted. I even had fallen asleep in the pickup leaning against the door with Elsie's duck as a pillow between Atkins and Conway.

Unfortunately I have a Monday appt this week so will have to leave out later today but if everything works out right I should get home early. Hoping this coming weekend will be nice, I'd love to get some cycling miles in on the road.