I am not going to say where I ran this evening all I will say is that I picked the route and drove it knowing that 2 blocks of it were going to be considered in my book "sketchy." I thought sketchy might make us jog faster.
I carefully routed out this 3 mile run, and along with way added a few extra turns and loops in the hopes to bump it up to 4 miles. Kati was meeting me to run, and I knew I couldn't tell her we were going to do 4 miles or she would have strangled me. So, I told her I had 3 miles planned out and that two blocks of it were going to be interesting.
It was SO nice outside and other than one shoe tied too tight, I was feeling great. So, as we turned onto the sketchy street I crossed my fingers and waved at her and smiled, I really assumed it would be uneventful..... and it's really not THAT bad, just not somewhere I would want to be hanging out after dark. So we turn onto the street and I look to my right and there are 8-10 people in the front yard with shields and what I thought were hockey sticks (or golf clubs) covered in ducktape and some type of foam rubber or cushioning. The age ranges in the group were from kids to what appeared to be atleast a 50-60 year old man...and they were RAGING WAR on each other. I could hear the "whap, whap, hahahaha, whap, whap" over the music on my ipod. I was pretty much laughing out loud at this point, not b/c it was all that funny (more alarming) but because I just knew Kati was about to fall over behind me. I also knew that if I looked at her the run would be over, because I would be DOUBLED UP laughing in the middle of the street. So I just kept running and watching people hit each other with sticks out of the corner of my eye. So, I look on down the street and I see a yard FULL of junk, and about 15-20 people standing amongst the junk holding sticks and shields and looking down the street at the yard that was in the middle of a full on war.....it looked like they had drug everything out of their condo, layed it in the front yard and created weapons out of it. (padded weapons atleast) Every INCH of their yard was covered in junk. And I swear, at that VERY moment a police car pulled onto the street. I nearly fell out. I still NEVER looked at Kati. I couldn't because I would have fallen out laughing. It's the kind of laugh I knew I wouldnt' be able to stop for quite some time. Pretty much like when something is funny at church or in a meeting and you know you can't laugh....it's SO much more funny then. I love it.
Anyway, Kati did figure out my trickery, and she said some ugly things to me.....and then kept on running. Trooper.
Anyway, I am proud of our 4.3 miles...and I seriously wish I would have had my camera with me tonight. It was funny stuff.
PS Maybe having war with padded weapons is like their family time/therapy. Whatever works for them.
Madi, Lindsey and Lisa
