DALLAS -- 7 Mile Run (A)

DALLAS -- Between the $54 oatmeal breakfast and a day of Super Duty truck...uh...duty, I missed the morning run. The sun comes up late here...like around 7:15ish. Not enough time to get a good one in before eating.

So waiting until evening and it was good. Downed a bag of jerky before the run (dumb though tasty) and just flew. There's a path in downtown Dallas known as the Katy Trail or some such. It goes by Jerry Jonessss house, I hear. If you put the owner of the Lions' house on a public trail, we'd have a different owner by now. (Saw the Cowboys' five Lombardi trophies, too. Impressive. And Toby Keith...guy is freakin' huge.)

Anywho, the run was fantastic. Dallas has more blond, cheerleader types than any other city I've ever been to. More botox than LA, I reckon. Way more. But, to their credit, they all run. I picked off about 50 iPodded chicks with "Rush Phi Chi Box" or whatever shirts. Can't read Greek letters. Can't read period.

So I'm flying. Just flying along. I'm really not used to passing people for two reasons...1: I'm not fast enough. 2: I don't run any well trod paths, so it rarely comes up.

But today, I just killed it. I put the old hips out at first and just bashed out the first three. Some doofus tub tried to shut me out (ala Schmidt's post). He takes from his friend saying, "Late." Oh man. The reason he ended his conversation was the passing of one of the 50 pom pom gals that I was coming up on quick. So he turns to his boy and smiles and says, "Late." Then he procedes to run his thighs off trying to be the first to pass this girl and stay ahead. But you just know when people can hang and when they can't. I thought I'd at least get five minutes of a good pace out of this jobber, hang right on his tail and break him (just like I've seen on TV!) but then he fades out after seriously 30 seconds. I couldn't even laugh. He just puffed off into the review, likely to be passed by the young lady he had just worked so hard to impress. Best.

So the trail finishes up back down by American Airlines arena and I lucked my way back to the hotel and dinner. Nice. Not really a great running town, but that's a pretty good -- if boring -- trail. No water 'round these parts, so they just run in a straight flat line to nowhere in particular. But at least they made it. No serious stops. Mostly just wide open. And lotsa people use it. Love that.

Go Texas. Yessir.