I love running through my neighborhood this time of year because of all the Halloween decorations.  Even though the weather has still been sticky and muggy, the Halloween decorations take my mind off the chore of running in such terrible weather.  I enjoy looking at all the glowing pumpkins, orange lights and inflatable Halloween characters.  And as I run past all the fun and spooky delights, I find myself singing the song from The Nightmare Before Christmas. This is Halloween.  This is Halloween.  Halloweeen!  Halloween!  Halloween!  Halloween!

Running during the wee early morning hours of Halloween Town could explain all strange creatures crossing my path.  The full moon hasn’t helped ease my fears, except that its illumination is so bright that there’s no need to use my flashlight.  With the full moon, there’s also been a strange low lying fog.  I’m expecting werewolves to jump out at me.

I’ve come to believe there’s a witch living in my neighborhood.  Oh wait.  That’s me. LOL  I kid. I kid. No, I mean a pointed hat, broom riding kind of witch with her double, double, toil and trouble spells because there have been a ridiculous number of toads hopping around in the streets.  I think she’s flying around turning people into toads.

And that witch is also dropping snakes all over the place as she’s flying around casting spells because you would not believe how many dead, squashed snakes I’ve seen in the past week.  It’s crazy!

And I can’t forget to mention the spiders!  Those crazy arachnids were scurrying in front of Tracey and me last week during our mid-week run and each one would get increasingly larger as it ran out in front of us.  I think they were running from the witch and her cauldron.

Oh and there was a black cat as well who darted in front of me on my run back home the other day.  I think he fell off the witch’s broom.

Then, this morning I ran through a spider web which caused me to scream and jump into convulsions and a spontaneous dance like I had been possessed by the devil.  It still gives me the eevie jeevies just thinking about it.

But there is one creature of night that I can’t handle crossing my path and it seems clowns are haunting me from every direction, from the storm drains to the mailboxes. One neighbor felt a clown mask on their mailbox would make a wonderfully evil addition to their Halloween décor.  Every time I ran past or even drove past this house, I would go into a panic.  I can handle fake bats and spiders, skeletons and decapitated heads.  But when you stick a clown in your yard, you’ve crossed the line.

This horrible, evil clown was located at the beginning of my housing section so there was no way to avoid “It”.  Those beady eyes and fangs followed me as I ran past It.  It had got to go!  I had to take action!

One dark early morning, I planned “Operation: Stuff It in the Mailbox”.  But It wouldn’t fit in the mailbox.  It’s fat, hard silicone head wouldn’t budge.  I panicked, so I put it back on the post but faced it towards the house.  A sense of victory came over me.  But as I sprinted off, I couldn’t get the sensation of It’s red curly hair and rubbery face off my fingers.  Deep cleansing breaths seemed to help.

Since It’s repositioning, the owners decided to take It down.  Thank God.  Now, I don’t have to worry about evil clowns eating me and I can go on with my regular training schedule.

As long as a witch doesn’t turn me into a toad.

But then, maybe the witch has already turned me into a toad because my running is “toadally hopping” lately! HA ! HA!

Things are going great since I incorporated strength training into my training schedule and my runs are improving tremendously!  I feel stronger too.  I attempted 15 miles again since my last attempt wasn’t very good and I shaved 27 MINUTES off my time!   This morning, I shaved 4 minutes off my 4 mile time from last week!  AMAZING!  Here’s a week’s worth of distances and times.  You be the judge.

10/6  –  6.2 miles

Time 1:11:15

Ave Pace 11:30

Max Pace 8:51

10/11  – 4 miles

Time 47:13

Ave Pace 11:49

Max Pace 8:55

10/12  – 7 miles

Time 1:22:20

Ave Pace 11:45

Max Pace 8:23

 10/13  –  5 miles

Time 58:56

Ave Pace 11:48

Max Pace 9:08

10/15  –  15 miles

2:57:36  <— BOOYAH!

Ave Pace 11:51

Max Pace 8:40

Calories burned  1541 <—Love that!

10/18  – 4 miles

Time 43:54 <— 4 minutes faster!

Ave Pace 10:59

Max Pace 8:35

*Proudly submitted to Stacy Uncorked, because when I blog about my training, it’s usually pretty random.*