This should probably go under the “top weird things on my run today” Blog, but nah!!! This stuff is just too weird NOT to tell the complete story, so here it is. The top weird thing started off with two brand spankin’ new firefighter license plates just lying in the middle of the street. I was gonna pick ‘em up and try to drop them off at a firehouse, but I decided not to – thinking about the days that my mother told me if I ever get lost – Stay in one place…So perhaps the owner would retrace his/her steps and find them – Right? Not so weird, but check this out…About a half mile down the road I noticed a fire station that wasn’t there about five months prior (I hadn’t run this route in about that long)…Man, they build things quick here in Vegas! I ran back to where the plates were, scooped them up, then ran them back to the fire station and left them at the front doors. Cool! My good deed for the day :) I continued my run. About a mile away from my house was a fire truck with its lights swirling around. I’m like, “Weird! Huge firefighter theme today! What’s going on?!?!?” As I passed the truck there were four firefighters standing against their truck watching a hydrant blast out water. I mean, there was some serious water was gushing out of that hydrant! I had no clue what they were draining the hydrant for. Oh well, weird
stuff!

Has anyone else ever noticed how long your friendly neighborhood Garage Sale sign stays up on a telephone pole or lamp post? Or how about that cardboard box painted with those unfaithful words that guide you around seven corners just to realize that, CRAP! That yard sale was LAST weekend! It seems there’s just a small, teeny weenie issue of these things staying up for longer than the average life expectancy of your run-of-the-mill Garage or Yard Sale sign. Today, I saw a sign that read, ‘Garage Sale – January 19 and 20’ with a big red arrow pointing down a side street off Silverado Ranch. Of course I made the right turn to go check it out. I mean, who knows! Maybe it’s still going on – A month after its advertised dates. I was wrong. No Garage Sale and certainly no sign that read, “Sorry, the Garage Sale was a month and a half ago. Please disregard our other sign we left out on the corner back in January”.

The Coin Count

Nada today :(

Running
Total: 42 cents

I found 11 cents today!

Running
Total: 42 cents

Mark Sullivan from Formula4media , who publishes “Running Intelligence” and “Footwear Intelligence”, and one of his editors, Cara, visited the Zappos office today for a tour. I first met Mark at The Running Event in Austin, Texas last fall. I heard a ton of great things about him from people in the industry and was very happy to meet and chat with him in person. Today’s tour was great! I was extremely excited that they took the time out of their busy WSA schedules to learn about a little bit more about Zappos.com! I just wanted to say THANKS, Mark and Cara! I really appreciate the time you took to learn more about us and our culture!!!

We are currently building the foundation to become the online destination for runners of all types. Novice runners and experts alike, our hopes are to build a site where you all can come in and find all the gear you’d be searching for, but more importantly, a site you can come to just ‘hang out’ and/or learn more about this crazy addiction many of us have called running! It’ll be a lot of work but we’re ready for the challenge!

Sometimes I talk myself into running on a night that I don’t completely feel like running and on other nights, I can talk myself out of running all together. Sometimes the hardest part about running is getting out the door. Sometimes the hardest part about running is getting out the door and having to deal with people that don’t care much about other human beings. Today I went for a short run and got pegged in the back of the head with an open bottle of milk. Some guy just decided that he was gonna yell obscenities from the passenger side of this passing car and throw a half-full plastic bottle of milk at me. :( I’m okay. I’ve been thru worse. It hurt at first, but it was definitely more of a surprise than anything. The smell of milk is something I’ve never disliked, but it was rather unpleasant today – especially since it was soaked into my running cap and the top of my jacket. I’ve had people throw stuff at me out of passing cars before, but the items thrown never struck. This guy had extraordinary aim – lucky me. I guess in conclusion, watch out for careless jerks that scream and throw ‘stuff’ at you from passing cars. Mean people suck.

Top weird thing on my run today:
-An empty plastic milk bottle on the ground.

Goodness. It was just one of those nights when the Running Gods weren’t happy. It felt like every time I got to a corner that had a stop-sign, there was a car just pulling up. I always have to stop in fear that ‘this guy’ will be the one that doesn’t see me and plow me down like the Giants did the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Even worse, every corner that had a traffic light was certainly against me and my wishes to get a good run-rhythm going. I’m sure it wasn’t every corner, but it certainly seemed like it. Above all though, it’s the jumping up and down or running in place at the corner that is the real issue. Gosh, I always feel like a complete dork running in place, like people are pointing – laughing and carrying about, then later telling all their friends about the dork they saw bouncing up and down on the corner. After all, isn’t it funny when you see other people doing it? In any case, I vote on putting jump ropes and preset hopscotch boxes on every corner, at least it will take my mind away from the obvious. All with me say ‘Yea’!

The Coin Count
Oh yeah! I highly recommend running past car washes. I found twenty-four cents today. All pennies and nickels, but highly worth it!
Running Total: 31 cents

So Mother Nature has been trying to storm in Vegas for the last few weeks. We haven’t had a decent storm in Las Vegas it seems for three years. It HAS been windy though – Really windy. Does anyone really like running in the wind? Seriously. The only good thing at least is when you have a headwind you get a tailwind in return, that is until the time you turn the corner and you have to deal with the headwind all over again. Today, I was nearly blown right into a wall when I turned that corner. This was scary for two reasons:

1)Holy Cow! It is THAT windy outside right now

2)Holy Cow! Am I really THAT light?!?!?

Top weird thing on my run today:

• A dried up pile of vomit. Yucky.

The Coin Count
One cent!
Running Total: 7 cents

I run at night and when I say ?night?, I mean some time between 9:30 and midnight usually – Most of my life I have. It works pretty well for me and my schedule. Running this late seems to help me clear all my thoughts and questions from the day…Hey, it’s better than laying in bed for an hour or two wondering about every little thing. It also allows me to work a little bit more when I get back and it really does help me sleep better. Besides, I can’t get my butt up in the morning any way! Yeah, you’re right…It probably IS because of the late night running. What ever. I like it. For some reason I was up early this morning so thought I would go for my first morning run since the Zappos.com Las Vegas Marathon back in early December. So out I went, 6am and feeling like the morning sun was going to melt me like a gremlin. Along my route I instantly realized the huge difference in my surroundings between a morning and night run. Yeah, there were the obvious things: More people out and about and more school buses than I could count on both hands, etc…But there were also a few things that surprised me – The actuality that people never really looked at me with my oh so pale legs in shorts a little longer than I care to admit was much more believable to me at night and that house with grey curtains that I pass all the time was actually a house with a very obnoxious shade of pink curtains. Whoa! Nothing was more shocking though than the line that was formed inside, and well outside, of a Dunkin’ Donuts I passed. WOW! I didn’t even realize they had a Drive-Thru! THAT was packed solid as well! I’m not sure if this was a usual occurrence and now I wonder if it does happen every day – Guess I’ll have to have run more in the morning to find out. One thing for certain, it put me in the mood for a tasty Dunkin’ Donut this morning.