Stuck in the Middle With You

AM: 67 mins.
9 miles
PM: 34 mins.
4.5 miles

When I woke up this morning it was pouring rain, so it took me about .05 seconds to make the executive decision to text Jeff and tell him I wouldn't be meeting him at the river. Unfortunately, he texted back before I was able to crawl back in bed and told me it wasn't raining up there. So I begrudgingly got dressed and headed out the door. We ran from Cochran Shoals, doing part of our usual route and also exploring some neighboring trails. He was pretty banged up from a hard 14-miler yesterday, and my legs were noticeably fatigued from the 300s, so we kept a pretty pedestrian pace throughout.

On the way home, I was greeted with metro Atlanta's greatest treat: a mid-morning traffic jam. From the moment I merged onto I-75, I felt like I was sitting in a parking lot. While this alone would normally be enough to make me antsy and/or enraged, today's situation was compounded by the fact that I needed to be showered and at my hair appointment by 10am. My original plan--which had me leaving Cochran Shoals parking lot by 8:30 and arriving home no later than 9--allowed plenty of time for a shower, a leisurely breakfast, some internet browsing, etc. I was now going to be in a race against the clock (although one could hardly call idling motionless on the freeway a "race"). I resolved to take the first available exit and figure out an alternate route from there. It ended up taking me literally 30 minutes to make it to this exit, which was but a mile away, and from there I had absolutely no idea where to go. I managed to wing it and re-route myself, arriving home at 9:45. (For those of you metro drivers who may ever find yourself in the same situation, I took Mt. Paran to Paces Ferry through Vinings, got back onto 285 South, exited I-20, took 20 East to Moreland, which turns into Briarcliff). Since I know you're all concerned, you can rest assured that I took the fastest shower ever and arrived at my appointment a mere five minutes late. And my highlights look terrific, by the way.


A replica of my view for one hour and 45 minutes this morning