13/12/11 10-Mile Warm-Up: Runs With Butter Edition

So my original plan for this run was to do the Rosie Ruiz Challenge since I'm still more than two months away from my first half marathon and according to my schedule I'm supposed to be doing 7 miles for my long run this week, but I saw the comment on the 12athon FB page saying it probably wasn't really kosher for this month's run right before I left. I opted to run my 7 miles and then walk the remaining 3 so that my feet won't kill me tonight in my sleep.

In the interest of laziness, I just walked the first mile and a half
of the same route and then turned around and went home again.

This freed me up to do other Challenges, so I poked around in the closet for something suitable for the Holiday Attire Bonus. Medusa costume from 2008? Bring it on. Originally the costume had a dark blue tank top, but at some point in the last three years it went to Goodwill. I decided that my shirt from last month's Vulcan Run was an acceptable substitute despite being bright orange because it's also mythology-related.

Well, okay, Vulcan is Roman, not Greek. If you
find a Hephaestus Run somewhere, let me know.

Snake on a Ponytail.

The floppy gold sandals from the original costume didn't look up to the task of a seven-mile run, so I took off the laces and attached them to my VFFs instead. Work with me here, people.

Shooz

The weirdest thing about running around with gold-painted rubber snakes on your head is how many people either legitimately don't notice them or just pretend that they don't. I fully expected the cars that slowed as they drove by (smiling and waving at them mostly caused the drivers to freak out about having been caught and then speed up again, which was kind of amusing) and the walkers who were suddenly extremely interested in something on the ground in the other direction, but at least a dozen people (I lost count) just smiled and said hello as if there was nothing at all out of the ordinary going on. Not one person asked why I was wearing a Medusa costume! The closest I got was one guy who said, "Nice hat." It wasn't even sarcastic - he seemed to think it was genuinely cool that, for reasons entirely unknown to him, I was running around a park with a bunch of fake snakes on my head. A lot of people looked fairly intently at my feet, although that happens enough just because of the VFFs that I wasn't sure if I got any extra funny looks for the gold lacing or not. A random probably-homeless guy said, "Hey, I need to run with you," as I passed, although that's also fairly normal when running downtown.

Anyway, the run was slower than I'd planned because running the farthest you've ever run at lunchtime without eating first, especially when the previous day involved a rather light dinner, is a stupid idea. (I did have to stop several times to sort out costume issues, but I stopped the clock for those. Mortimer the Arm Snake kept slithering down toward my wrist; I gave up and let him stay there after repositioning him three times in the first mile. The laces started falling down around my ankles about two miles in. I redid them once, but the second time I just went ahead and wrapped them more snugly around my ankles because I don't like tripping and falling to my doom. The hat probably would've come off on its own at some point, but I was already futzing with it pretty frequently since wearing a knit hat when it's in the 60s makes for a sweaty run. I don't know what happened to the hair!snake, but all that was left at the end of the run was the tongue.)

Post-run! I look tired.

Slightly less exciting shoelace configuration

Mortimer lost an eye somewhere between miles 4 and 5,
but the Cyclops thing ties in nicely with my costume theme.

In non-run-related news, I went to pick up my CSA box after the run. Preliminary research indicates that approximately 100% of people will look at you strangely if you walk a couple of blocks to your car while holding a giant cabbage, even though less than half of them will do so if you have fake snakes on your head.

My cat is hissing at the cabbage in this picture.

Some numbers, if you like that sort of thing:
Miles run: 7
Miles walked: 3
Run pace: 10:17 (was going for 9:50, but the last 2.5 miles were crazy-slow since I was overdue for lunch)
Run time: 1:11:58
(No idea how long the walking part took; I didn't restart the watch, but it was definitely a leisurely pace.)
Elevation gain (run): 558ft
Elevation gain (walk): 292ft