I met up with Marty just before the 1.5 mile mark and we ran my normal 5 mile route at Volunteer Landing. The only exception is that at the regular turn around point, we went on to the end of the James White Greenway which added about an extra 0.7 mile. So all in all I ran 5.7 miles, sweet!

I was breaking in a new brand of running shoe that I plan on using at the 5k this weekend. I'll talk more about them later once they are broken in and I can truly evaluate their performance.

So, Here is how it breaks down:

I got a call just a while ago that Beer Boy thinks he might have some yuckiness with his lungs. He was wondering what my symptoms that I had when I had pneumonia earlier this year. Hope all goes well!

I got a call from Beer Boy at 5 saying that he was late leaving work because of some brewing issues and wanted to know if we wanted to change locations to someplace else as it wouldn't be until 6:00 to make it to Cherokee. We decided to meet at the Alcoa/Maryville Greenway, a nice 6 mile greenway that runs through the two towns. This is when things really started to fall apart. As I was traveling Alcoa Highway, traffic backed up and right at that time the SportsTalk show went to a traffic report. An accident on the southbound side of Aloca Highway (Oh, great) between a Tractor Trailer and a Horse Trailer (uh, oh) had happened at Topside Road (crap, I am 2 miles away from there) and Alcoa was backed up for a good distance. I called Beer Boy back and we decided that we'd meet at Volunteer Landing, because he wouldn't be affected much by the accident if he travelled North on Alcoa but if he went South, he would be stuck like I was.

So I turned around and made my way to Volunteer Landing, would take me 7 minutes… if I had taken the right route. I should have taken the Neyland Dr exit, but like a dummy, took the interstate, got stuck in traffic, got off on the Henley Street Exit only to get caught up in downtown traffic. Then was a victim of the one-way streets and had to pass right in front of Volunteer Landing, go to the campus and turn around. It was about 5:25 when I parked at Volunteer Landing. Ugh.

I figured that Beer Boy would be around in 20 minutes, so I decided to run a mile to get it under my belt. I was were I run during my Lunchtime runs, so I was familiar with the area. I ran a mile, not keeping time, and came back to wait. I decided to take advantage of the time to take pictures of Volunteer Landing, which was a nice break. When it was close to 6 and no Beer Boy, I decided to run another mile, just in case everything fell through, which at this point wasn't totally unbelievable. So I ran another mile, out and back and still no Beer Boy. I decided to run an additional mile to bring the count to 3, that way, if I had to abandon, it would not be all for naught. I run my 3rd mile and get back, at about 6:30, I get a call saying that he is about to Volunteer Landing (sigh) and would be there in about 10-15 minutes. So, I struck out for another mile and finished before he arrived.

Beer Boy finally showed up around 6:45 and we headed out for an out and back course that I mapped this morning to be 2.75 miles. I was late getting home because I still needed diapers, but all in all it was a good run. 6.75 miles, I am not complaining! Here are a few pictures that I took while waiting for Beer Boy, some will be queue for | P | L | A | N | E | T | 3 | R | R | Y |.

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As for today's workout, it was rather “good” given the conditions. I had to stop twice, the first time I didn;t stop my watch, the second time I did. I couldn't figure out why my return split was so hard, I attributed it to the heat. And yes, the heat was the variable, but look at the times.

So, I burned myself out on my exploration, but not that bad though. I may try to run tomorrow morning in the neighborhood, but only if I get up early, else it won't be until Monday.