Turtles and Taper

Today was an eleven mile run on the Towpath with Joy.  I didn't tell her we were doing eleven miles until we reached the turnaround at 5.5 because I'm sneaky that way.

Despite the fact that I am enormously suffering from seasonal allergies, I am really enjoying this weather.  Normally April in Ohio blows. . .usually literally.  It is so nice to run in capris and a tshirt and soak up some vitamin D.

This is what we saw while running on the Towpath:

Hello, leetle friend!

If you look closely at the brown blob in the middle of the green sludge, you will see that it is a beaver.  This was about a quarter of a mile away from the Beaver Marsh, where they hang out, but it is right next to one of the many beaver dams on the Towpath. (A quick digression--This week I was teaching my students about Oscar Wilde's use of the pun as a satirical device, and I had to share this example with you, Peeps:  Two fish swim into a wall.  One turns to the other and says, "Dam!")  The family next to us on the Towpath told us that this is in fact a river otter, but I don't think so.  I'm going with beaver.

Bale of turtles

I always know that warm, beautiful weather is coming when I see turtles sunning themselves on logs in the river.  It just makes me so happy to see the sun shining off their silver backs.  We must have seen at least fifteen today, and that was without really looking.

The last two miles of this run were particularly difficult, and I realized why when I checked the Garmin and saw that Joy had pushed us to doing our fastest miles in the last two.  She is a tricky one.  This officially starts our taper.  Joy and I are both running the Canton Gold Jacket 5k on Saturday, and we are each running a 10k leg on our relay team for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Marathon, Half Marathon, and Relay on Sunday.  This will be my first time running a relay, and I'm excited.  By the way, Peeps, keep your eyes peeled for a Gold Jacket 5k giveaway on this blog.  It's coming up soon.  For information about the Gold Jacket 5k and/or the Pro Football Hall of Fame Races, check my other blog, From the Sideline.

I haven't run a 5k since September 2014, so I will be interested to see how I do in this one.  No matter what, Joy and I are going to have lots of fun, especially with our team, Beast Mode 5.  Does our name intimidate you?  NO????

This will be a great way to test my legs for the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon.

Until next Sunday, run happy, Peeps!

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