Gravy Season Is Serious Bidness

Gravy season is less than two weeks away, and I’m trying to do a kind of reverse pre-hibernation thing. I want to be as light as I possibly can be so I can go gangsta on some gravy. I got up early today and ran with this goal in mind. I ran long and easy. I wasn’t trying to get better. I was trying to keep my heart rate up and burn as many calories as possible. It was a beautiful morning, but I ran in to some typical running issues, at least typical for me. When I stepped out my back door it was forty-seven degrees. I ran for about an hour and a half. When I got back it was sixty-seven degrees. My oven doesn’t heat up that fast. This was one of the things that made the run out easier than the run back. Now I know how a frog feels when he’s getting cooked. I ran the boring and ugly Avondale and Ortega route, which took me over the Ortega Bridge, like I said, I was burning calories. The other thing that bugged me about today’s run – and every run I’ve ever gone on – is that I lost about two hundred yards on the way back. I don’t understand how the trip back is always shorter than the trip out. I ran the exact same route – the exact same route – out and back. I crossed the streets at the same places and everything. Yet somewhere in the mix I came out about a tenth of a mile short. Why does my Garmin always rob me? I honestly can’t remember a single time where I ended my run thinking, “Wow that was farther than I thought!” I just want that to happen once. I want to run four miles out and run four point two back following the same route. I don’t think it would bother me so much if it wasn’t a ridiculous amount like a tenth of a mile, and it’s not just the display because my watch displays hundredths of a mile. I also love how I’ll be thirty feet above where I started. The run wasn’t all bad. My feet held up. I cruised and I burned almost 1600 calories. That’s an extra couple of pounds of stuffing ten days from now. That’s what I’m thankful for.