With only two weeks until the MetroPCS Dallas Marathon, I had my second to last long run this morning. I think that my timing was perfect. I elected to begin a half hour later knowing I would have to deal with traffic on a Saturday morning, but the extra sleep would be nice. However, to my surprise, it seems that Black Friday shopping turned into my blessing. The roads were pretty sparce.
My goal today was just 12 miles. It seems odd to be using the word ‘just’ along with ’12 miles’, but it’s true. Four years ago, I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) have said something that sounds so weird. In any case, rather than running my regular 12-miles-at-a-go route, I thought I’d just run my 6 mile loop twice. That shouldn’t be hard since I’ve been doing loops all Fall for my long runs.
I took off just after 6 AM. The streets were still dark for about a half hour. I expected the traffic to be low at that time. What I didn’t expect was that after running for more than an hour, the streets were still empty. Even down near the finish of the run at close to 9AM, traffic was still very light. So, I suppose that since so many folks must have worn themselves out shopping on Black Friday, today should have been a boon to most runners. I wonder if any other runners also had a great run with little traffic today?
Also, I thought I’d throw in an update on the BikeIrving.org website. It is getting closer to reality. I have worked with owner’s domain and been able to point it to my server to see how it works. I’ve also gotten WordPress loaded and set up for the pages that won’t have something to do with mapping. It is looking a lot more like a web site now. I’m also down to the last real mapping task and that is to be able to save and recall routes. I have a plan on how to do so and now just need to implement it and make it work.
I guess there are folks out in the real world that can probably put sites out like this in a heartbeat. I would probably be further along as well, but my full time job right now is finding a job. Probably the other slowness is the way that I work. I’m a hacker. No, not the kind that tries to break into the CIA, or the DOD. A hacker is a coder; a programmer. I just really enjoy writing code and seeing it work. I like even more seeing my code do things for people. There are probably lots of faster ways to make web sites, but I still like mine. Except for what I do with WordPress, I use a text editor for the special stuff. Yep, that’s right; a plain old text editor–no drag and drop, no point and click.
But enough about such foolish things. You didn’t stop by here to debate the pros and cons of text editors. Thanksgiving is a great time of year. It is time to be thankful for all the things we have. I am thankful that I have my family. I am thankful that I am blessed by God with so many things. I am thankful that I get to get up in the morning and run or ride or whatever. There are so many in our world with so much less and they are still thankful for what they have. We are blessed beyond measure for things we probably don’t deserve. So I am glad that on this Saturday, I get to get out and run and do some work that will help others. Happy running!
