Week 10: check

This morning I completed my second of three 16-mile runs, and I'm sorry to say that it took me longer than the first time. :( Bummer. I'm gonna go ahead and blame it on my knees. They've been giving me some trouble this week and I feared today might be rough, and it was. I was doing okay yesterday with my dosages of ibuprofen and frequent ice sessions, so I was optimistic today...until I hit mile 2 and began to feel them. Both were unhappy, but specifically the right one, as usual, was worse. Thankfully somewhere around mile 6 they seemed to accept their fate and began sulking, rather than screaming. Much appreciated. Fortunately I made it all 16 miles, but since my ice bath I've been a heap of worthlessness.
Other than my knees, a new blister, and being so beyond slow, my 16 mile early morning adventure was most definitely not boring. I'd like to thank the wonderfully diverse group of people who populate my running route: first I saw a guy running with no shoes, (which I've heard actually isn't that bad, as long as you aren't running long distances) and unfortunately he wasn't wearing much else either; his shorts looked like they were made of wheat or leaves, or some other plant material, and I haven't seen dreadlocks like that since Central America. My guess is that he was trying to draw the energies of Mother Earth up through his feet. Most likely. A while later on I saw an older guy with an hawaiian shirt on, and a straw hat with a huuge pink flower laye (sp?) wrapped around it...and this guy was BEYOND tan. Like, fresh off the cruiseboat tan. Shortly after that I saw a cute little old guy wearing the TINIEST little white shorts you've ever seen held up by suspenders, looong white tube socks and some sort of bavarian-looking hat with a giant feather sticking out the top. This guy saluted me, said good morning and greeted me with a toothless grin. A few miles later when I was on my way back down the trail, the hawaiian and the bavaran shorts guy had apparently become friends and were walking together, and they'd picked up a third...a cowboy. Large cowboy hat. Yesss.
Not long after that I saw a lady with two dogs, and one of the poor dogs, a smallish dog, (definitely smaller than Rocky Raccoon) had some sort of brace contraption attached to its hips, and the back end of the brace was on wheels! Rolling behind the dog! I've never seen anything like that before, and I hope it helps, whatever it is. I decided I shouldn't laugh though, I'll probably need one of those things when all this is over.
I also extended my route a big further today and it was nice. I wrapped around some pretty ponds on a nice little trail, and then followed it on under the freeway...which gave me the creeps. (I found out later that someone once fell off that part of the freeway and landed on the trail and died. Gah.) When I noticed that someone had left their sleeping bag in the middle of the trail, I decided I might not go back that way.
Onward to week 11 whilst I baby my knees.