Adventures in Running and Kettlebelling

This entry is not about the whole family, but I thought I would share my recent adventures. I am getting ready for the Army Ten Miler and am trying to increase my running mileage and kettlebell training in the process. Here are some anecdotes from my recent running.
Most of you know that I use my run as time to listen to God. I play praise music on the MP3 and reflect on my Bible Reading and prayer list for the day. This morning, I found myself getting distracted as I started to wear down and needed a motivational song to help me finish the last mile. I started trying to run through my library quickly, but realized that I was not really listening to any of the songs I was flipping through. This was denying God the opportunity to speak to me through the music. At mile five of a six mile run, feeling worn down and slow, I said a quick prayer for God to use the next song to come up to guide the rest of my day. The next song was Michael W. Smith's BREATHE. That is exactly what I did - as hard as I could:-)
I also had a close call with a cyclist on the first part of this run. I drifted towards the edge of THE RUNNING TRAIL when I heard him yell, "On your left." I apologized, patted him on the back, and quickly explained as drove by that I had been distracted by the blackberries. The cyclist showed that he understood my words by holding up his Blackberry communication device. The ding dong missed the blackberry vines with loads and loads of ripe blackberries on the left side of the RUNNING TRAIL, so I pointed those out to him. If I had told him that I eat blackberries, it would probably have confused him tremendously, as I am not sure if he knows of the kind nature makes. He probably didn't notice the purple stains on the tops of my shoes, either - those were from transporting two hands full of the eating kind of blackberries to my kids on a previous run. So, if you are distracted by a Blackberry, I hope it results in a full stomach for you.
While running last week, I scared a big Marmaduke dog's back end so badly that it jumped in front of the dog's front end and told him to turn around and look behind him. His poor owner thought she was about to door some urban skiing and Marmaduke was going to be her motor boat. It was pretty funny and I was thankful Marmaduke didn't eat me as pay back. He did, however, alert all his pals on Monroe Street to my stealthy running techniques. They all stayed safely within their fences and barked their heads off at me as I ran home. Any of you who know me know that I am not too proud to bark back - and I did! And those dogs are stone silent as I run by, now.
On my first run after returning from leave, the big giant police car voice said to me, "YOU SHOULD USE THE PEDESTRIAN SIGNAL." From Benefield's brain, "YOU SHOULD USE YOUR LOUD PA VOICE ON THE GUY WHO STOLE MY GPS OUT OF MY MINIVAN WHILE I WAS UNPACKING FROM VACATION, NOT ON ME WHILE I AM RUNNING." I wondered if he really believed that was the most dangerous thing I would have to do this week. Running across a road with no traffic is nothing compared to getting into DC on the Dulles tollroad. For those of you who are not familiar with this hazard, I would refer you to the story of the witch who put a curse on my #5 spark plug to show her displeasure with my (superb) driving tactics. She is probably in the same order of witches as the one who reported me to Facebook for offering to share Jesus with her (after she offered to share Wicca with anybody interested, mind you)!
So, the running is going well for the most part, but I have really been improving my kettlebell techniques. I anticipated injuring myself or at least embarrassing myself in some significant way during the workshop this past weekend, but that didn't really happen. The only downside is that I don't have much comedy to write about, but I did have a small adventure on the drive back. The Quantico gas station had a broken air compressor that I tried to use to pump up my air shocks in support of the 250lbs of kettlebells in the trunk. Instead of pumping up, the broken air compressor deflated my shocks. Blue looked like she was doing a wheelie or had a dead body in the trunk. It was embarrassing and the whole car rattled like crazy at the least bump. Luckily, I found a functional compressor within ten miles and pumped my dignity back up to normal levels.
So, now you are up to date on my PT adventures. More from the family next time.