Hello to all the Flash Fans out there.  I’m sorry I’ve been silent for so long.  I have been running although not as much as I should be.  I’ve been dealing with struggles in my professional life which pretty much causes me to be in a bad mood around the clock.  It’s hard to write positive sounding posts when I feel so lousy at the end of the day.  Add to that, a lopsided face (dental issues) and a tooth that’s been throbbing since Tuesday.  At least there’s an end in sight for that tooth, I have a root canal scheduled for tomorrow.

Last week-end was impossible for a long run because we had a cross country meet for Blake on Saturday and a triathlon for Paul and Blake on Sunday in Lafayette.  Between those times, I took Camren to a Baton Rouge Playmakers play, went grocery shopping, made a trip to Sam’s and spent 4 hours at church with Blake and his confirmation group working on a service project.

Monday I was able to get three good miles in and I felt great about that.  Tuesday is when the tooth ache started.  Thursday I finally made it to the dentist and explained the problem.  She gave me a few numbing shots to last several hours so I could get a run in and eat something.   

Yesterday, I sat at a cross country meet for 6 hours.  Yes, that’s 6 hours and in the rain at that.  As I watched those young people come in to cross the finish line, I felt the running inspiration come back to me which is something I’ve forgotten over the last few weeks.  Several of them were crying, some were grunting and growling and some were just yelling in pain.  I know exactly how that feels and I don’t run nearly as fast as most of them do.  If you’ve never witnessed a cross country meet, you really should one day.  Just leave early enough to get a parking spot because most areas of land that are big enough to have 2 to 3 mile loop for a run like this have very inadequate parking!

This morning, Paul and I got up at 6:00 a.m. to run, I was nervous about the tooth but I took the prescribed pain meds and hoped it would get me through at least 12 to 13 miles.  At 6:30, on the way out the door, Paul decided to look at the radar.  Great idea.  It showed rain on its way and approaching quickly.  We decided to wait it out for 20 minutes or so and we just laid down on the couch and chairs in the living room.  And wouldn’t you know, 10 minutes later the sky opened up and the rain came pouring in.  It rained like that for 3 hours and we now have Lake McCullough in our back yard.  Perhaps we should cross train today and switch to open water swimming instead.  We may try to get our run in later in the day if the weather holds out but as least I finally got to sleep late!

This is Flash and I’m running on faith that my running will get back on track!