Day 36: Who Designed This Bleepin' Road!!

I'm gonna keep it short and sweet, mostly because I am beyond worn out. Well, climbing out of the Salt River Canyon was as long and as miserable as I expected it would be. With no energy and no leg strength, it was extra fun. But here I am typing this blog, so obviously I survived, and finished the run today. I was reminded of my earlier thoughts on running uphill at high elevation, it sucks. Climbed to right around 6,300 feet the first 12 miles today, and I could feel every second of it. It was as if I was carrying all 262 lbs again, with a shortness of breath problem thrown in for fun. I have found that running uphill at high elevation isn't something I particularly enjoy, but in the interest of getting home, is something I am willing to tolerate for a little while. That didn't stop me from wildly cursing the designer of this current roadway I am so happily treading through. I felt kind of bad cussing someone who's been dead and gone for almost 100 years, and for all I know the man was a wonderful human being. I mean he'd have to be, right? To design a road that would anger even Lance Armstrong. I wish I could bring him back just long enough to ask him what the hell he was thinking!! My sincere apologies to any descendant of Mr. Gustav Becker if any of you are reading this blog, although highly unlikely, haha. Today's run had a lot of the usual, uphill, falling rocks, angry motorists, and more vultures. I swear those things must have email and facebook to be following me this much. There were also many breathtaking, pardon the pun, views of the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation I was running through. I stopped more often during the run today to take some photos, and I'll post them here on my day off. The evening 8 miles was such a welcome change from the last few running days. I had just 2 more miles uphill before I made it to the summit this afternoon. The next 6 miles was a wonderful, and mostly flat, run through beautiful high desert country that often resembled good old West Virginia itself. I ran beside some beautiful ranches, and even had a running partner for about a mile this afternoon. A young calf had apparently gotten loose on the road side of the fence. He was obviously distressed, and I didn't help matters any. I felt so bad for the little guy because when he heard me, he got spooked and started running down the fenceline, looking for a place to get back in. He'd run ahead of me a while, and then I'd catch up, and he'd run away again. This went on for nearly a mile before he found a nice, thick tree to hide behind. I'll have to admit, I did enjoy the company, even if he wasn't much for conversation. Anyway, the afternoon 8 miles actually gave me a chance to slightly recover while running, which I sorely needed. I felt better at the end of the day than I did at the start, and that is very good news. I finished about 28 miles west of Show Low, AZ, so we drove into town again tonight. Still bunked up at the beautiful, spacious Chateau Le' Walmart. It's apparently Friday, which I didn't realize 'til about an hour ago, because we've had some great entertainment watching a dude get arrested, a car get repo'ed, and the normal teenage highjinx that accompanies weekends at Walmart. The road for the next 2 days looks much more relaxing, and I am once again looking forward to making progress towards New Mexico. I guess that wasn't as short as I had originally intended, but it was still pretty sweet. Especially the part about the cow, right? Goodnight.