This morning it was a little harder for me to wake up! A gentle nudging from Tom helped at least roll me out. Luckily I had a little time to get moving since we had to drive to Salem to run up and down Loafer Mountain! (that's weird, I started that sentence with "luckily", and ended with "mountain" with "run up" in the middle! When did I turn into this crazy running gal?) Anyway, it was up and then it was down! In the second mile I was able to say "I'll make it to the next mailbox" then "I'll make it to the next sign", ect....But soon the mailboxes and signs were gone and I had to say, "I'll make it to that next pothole.", "I'll make it to that next bend." That is when a cute little hummingbird came to help us along. He was so cute, he would fly just ahead of us and wait for us to catch up and then move forward again. He did it several times! He did it until we could see the fence post of the gate we were going to. Once he knew we were going to make it, he went of on his merry way! As he flew in front of us we became animated, the trees and road became animated, colorful flowers bloomed beneath our feet, rainbows appeared above the trees, I was Julie Andrews and Tom was Dick Van Dyke and we looked lovely and dapper and bounced freely to the gate.....Oh wait, I said that outloud didn't I? That was the part that was all in my mind! Actually when we reached the gate I felt like throwing up...even though that lovely little scene had been playing in my little theater in my head! Just for the record, coming down is much easier! Happy July 1st ya' all! I thought I'd better add my times for my first time up and down Loafer Canyon. 3.3 up and 3.3 down 11:47 11:38 11:54 8:37 8:02 8:02 last .60 = 8:18 Fourth mile had about .3 uphill and the rest down.
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