Despite being plugged in all night, Dave's phone died about a half mile into my run today.  GRRR.  It's an older version of a smartphone and apparently as they age have problems holding a charge.  There's a parallel to my own version of aging bouncing around in my head but it's not making enough sense to make worth writing.  Can you hear me now?!  Anyway - I surprised myself today.  I ran the same route w/Mo on his bike again, so even w/o the phone it was pretty easy to compare this run to the last.  I felt sooooo tired and the thought of staying in bed crossed my mind.  But I love fall and this is a beautiful fall morning!  Wind is blowing, leaves are starting to wisp down, everything is wet w/dew and the temps are just under 60*.  I was sore and I thought I would be plodding along and just getting frustrated w/my slowness, but my body felt comfortable enough to pass the first marker w/o stopping.  Weird...so I kept going!  I ran almost all the way!  Must have been the $5 pizza from the Hut last night....BLECH!!!  I am not as fast as Mo (I doubt I ever will be!) but I was not nearly as far behind today!  One of the perks to having no music was that I got to hear my sweet son loudly singing hymns as he fartlekked at each block.  (It's a real word, click the link look it up!  Although I'm not sure you can just add an -ed for the past tense, but it is a real word!  I strongly encourage you to scroll to the bottom where it talks about the origins of the word.  From now on I will be proud to be gaseous in Sweden!)  So here I sit w/my runner's high, feeling like I can accomplish much...thinking about all the cool stuff I get to see as I run.  I passed a house where Hmong people live and they were having an egg roll making party (at 7am!).  More than one family was involved and all ages of people were busy.  (Maybe they were stocking up for the Farmer's Market or a party...?)  It's good to see people/families working together =).  I run past my church, too.  No one was up and around yet, but I pray as I pass the place.  Later today there will be many cars there...many people who have baggage and hang ups and sin and struggles...I pretend I'm laying a blanket of prayer over the whole place!  Mo and I also encountered a guy walking his dog.  Mo said 'excuse me' as he passed and I was so far behind that they didn't need to worry about me.  Later Mo waited at the corner and the guy said 'Hi again'!  This fartlekking happened more than once...the dog was overjoyed to play the little game =)  I also got to see the sun get higher in the sky, long shadows getting shorter...Happy Saturday!  I hope yours is off to as enjoyable of a start as mine is!