A few days ago

This week's prompt for the Group Blogging Experience is "Two Days Ago"

I am changing my theme to a few days ago because it took me some time to consider this post.

Permit me to take you back to Sunday, June 15, 2012

Happy Fathers Day, Dad!!!

I visited my currently favorite metro park to complete a 3 mile walk/jog.

At regular intervals of about 1/5 a mile I stopped and completed an exercise I learned with my Personal Trainer.
Mountain climbers - on benches
Assisted push ups - on benches
Prison squats
Walking Lunges
Knee lift with chops down (sounds weird right)
I really wanted to do some squat thrusts but too many dog-walkers do not feel the need to clean up their doggie poo.
Yes. My plan was pretty ambitious. My Trainer did not give me homework, I just really want to get into shape. And I voted for the last levy and dammit, I am going to get my money's worth.
I started the running application on my smartphone and set off in my expensive running shoes and wicking running clothes.*
I observed some things during this adventure. I spot an older gentleman with his little dog during my first 1/2 mile. He informs me that this dog found a baby toad. He picks up the thing to show it to me. I am relieved that the creature is still alive after being sniffed by the dog. I leave the man to seek out other small creatures in the grass.
I see nothing more exciting than walkers, joggers and runners out for a nice stroll before the thunderstorms began by the end of mile number one.
I round the corner back toward the entrance to begin my second mile and I see that more people have arrived.
First, three boys have found something interesting by the shelter-house.
I noticed them yards before they saw me.
I knew it had to be something gross. They had too much excitement for it to be something as simple as a monarch butterfly.
I had to ask.

Yep. They were proudly presenting a discarded snake skin to me.
I told them that the were lucky to have found it.
They excitedly pointed to its original location.
I suggested that the snake used the rough surface of the shelter-house to make a break in its skin in order to sloth off its old scales.
I am at heart an educator, after all.
One young man interrupts my lesson to say.

Then his friend says,

The boys then run off to discuss the identity of the lucky bastard who found the nasty thing.
I continue my work-out.
I stop near a tree to complete some high knee lifts.

I see this

I want you to know that the top most gum looked gooey.
As if it had been affixed to the trunk just a few hours before I saw it.
I gotta wonder.
Why?
Seriously...
Why?
Look at it again.
It is a picture of a series of dried pieces of gum stuck to an innocent tree. What did the tree do to deserve such treatment?
And in answer to your question, YES. I will be tracking the progress of the gum line as I visit the park in the future. NOT because I am curious but because I appalled.
Completely grossed out.
Around the 2.5 mile mark I finally see a orange butterfly but I am too focused to stop and take a picture. So here is a cheat I found on the official metropark website.


I got pretty tired after that second mile and my walk/jogs became more walk/walk intervals between the breaks where I completed some silly exercise to impress my Trainer who will never really be impressed with my progress. He irks me yet I cannot quit him....
Back to my story....
I was so pleased when the running app RunDouble chimed "slow down for your cool-down."

As I completed my casual stroll to my car equipped with a long-range car starter (think air conditioning) I spot this pretty thing

I hope it lives long enough to become a butterfly and no little boys, gum chewing runners or dog-walkers destroy it.

The thunderstorms began about 5 minutes after I exited the park.

My final stats  from  C25K Couch to 5K by RunDouble for Android on AppBrain

Stage	Distance	Time	Pace
WarmUp	8 yards	0:05	19:16
1	3.00 miles	65:47	21:55
CoolDown	233 yards	5:00	37:37
Total	3.00 miles	65:47	21:53
inc WU/CD	3.14 miles	70:53	22:33

 
 *I  think a future post will focus on my search for the perfect sports bra. Perhaps the theme could be "Trial and Error"