97 days

It's been one week so far of training for the Women's Running half marathon and I'm feelin lean and strong...strrrong like bull. 

Actually not quite - my so called "runs" have been primarily glorified fast walking sessions. I'm that poor soul you see trudging down the road hunched over and panting. I'd like to blame a lot of it on the heat - because none of this can me my fault. Even my boyfriend, Charlie, says the Florida sun makes it unbearable to run in. He says "it feels like you are being chased by a pitbull in a convection oven". I’d have to agree, you try so hard to keep running because if you stop - you may have a stroke. 

     This was the case on Saturday when I went for a nice jog. I got distracted watching the food network and I didn't make it out for my 2 mile run until noon. As everyone knows, noon is the hottest part of the day but that didn't matter to me. I thought I could run circles around this town I was feelin so good.     

Yeah, I didn't make it 10 minutes. I became delirious and I ended up stumbling around a neighborhood somewhere in South Tampa. I thought that my solid 10 minute walk/jog was good enough and I was ready to join my cat for an afternoon snooze on the couch. During the blurry jog home I remember being stopped by a high school football player dressed in his green and yellow jersey. I instantly thought “oh shit he wants something”. He either wanted to club me over the head and steal my ipod or he was selling some sort of magazine subscription. I wasn't falling for any of his afternoon scams so I thought up a plan - operation "crazy eyes".

    He flagged me down from across the street and started walking my way. This kid wasn't getting anything from me, doesn't he know there is a universal law stating that you don't stop runners to chit chat or hit them up for cash? This poor kid didn’t realize he was the one walking into a sketchy situation. I instantly greeted him with the “crazy eyes". For those who don’t practice the crazy eyes often it’s when your eyes get really big and wild and to put it quite frankly – you look just bat shit crazy.

     So sure enough he started asking for a donation but trailed off once I unleashed the crazy eyes on him. I didn't slow up my already slow jog and I just kept going. I'd recommend this tactic to anyone who comes across a solicitor - the crazy eyes works like a charm and can get you out of an awkward situation.