A Dark Run After A Ridiculous Exam

Well, today has been an interesting day. I had my first exam of the semester at 5:30pm today. The form of the test was open note, book, internet, etc. There is no such thing as preparing for an exam like this. It's more of a thinking on the fly kind of test. This is my second class with this particular professor, and his teaching style is the exact same, so I know that I tend to perform well on these exams.

I got up today and went to Starbucks to grab some coffee and look over the notes and homework for another class. I've come a long way in regards to coffee. My first cup of coffee was at the lodge where we stay when we go to Kentucky Lake. I cannot recall the year, as my family goes there annually, but it was early 2000s for sure. That first cup, and a few more after, were more sugar and cream than coffee.

As I've gotten older, my coffee tastes have matured. I eventually grew to be able to drink it like my parents do: light cream and moderate amounts of Splenda. In the past couple of years, I've ventured out to drink bolder, more adventurous blends. Starbucks has been fundamental in my coffee maturation. I've made several barista "friends" at various locations. They have been more than helpful in teaching me various things about coffee.

Most recently, Starbucks re-released their Anniversary blend, which is very bold and spicy. Before I tried it, I could not place the spicy adjective in my mind as a taste for coffee. It was very evident once I drank it the first time. I liked it. I've ordered it, instead of their mild Pike Place, since. Today, they had replaced the Anniversary blend with the Italian Roast. Again, I ventured out and tried it. I really liked it as well. A great pre-test drink.

I headed to campus and met up with some friends/classmates. They too felt under-prepared, but also apathetic. There was no way to tell what would appear on that PDF in mere minutes, but regardless, we would give it our best. We made it to the classroom and sat down. The test appeared on Blackboard and we all began.

Fast forward 90 minutes. We met in the hall outside the classroom, post-test, and stared at each other with quizzical looks. None of us could regurgitate our answers precisely, but we had a feeling we performed well enough. I cleared my mind of the subject and headed home for a run.

Because winter is approaching, and I stayed on campus a little later than normal for a Monday, it was already dark by the time I got home. It was also kind of cold outside, so I wore one of my new running shirts, which is almost neon yellow. Great for a night run, eh? I thought so.

I huffed on my inhaler, did some stretches, and headed out.

I made it to Central Park and things were different. There was a Budweiser trailer with a folding chair next to it. I passed it and kept running. Next, I saw two funnel cake trailers and a corn dog trailer. There were also many canopies and various types of chairs. I'm guessing there is some kind of Fall Festival coming soon. As I wrote the previous sentence, I recalled the St. James Art Fair; it's the biggest, best, and worst art fair ever.

I looked it up, and sure enough, it begins this weekend. I could use up an entire blog post to rant about it. It's a truly awesome art fair, but living within two blocks of it makes for super annoying travel - similar to the 35 marathons/triathlons per year that require me to take a 20 minute detour to get anywhere I want to go in Louisville.

That might make for an interesting run on Friday.

I passed all the trailers and kept running. The park was dimly lit and the heavy amounts of rain we took last night made for several muddy places that I had to try to avoid in the dark. UofL actually delayed classes this morning, due to flooding. It's become a rather common occurrence. I passed the busy tennis courts and ran through the police station (there's a little archway to go through in the middle of it).

My speed slowed on the way back to my apartment due to the condition of the sidewalks. They were poorly planned and many of them have trees growing up through them. The tree roots have caused much rigid undulation in the concrete, which is rather easy to avoid in daylight. When I approached a tree tonight, I had to slow down a little bit to ensure that I didn't trip and faceplant.

Overall, the run went rather well. I had a little difficulty breathing towards the end of the last run, but not too bad. My run pace average was better than any week 5 day 2 pace yet, so I'm making progress. My walking pace was the fastest of any run yet. Improvement feels good.

Now, onto some homework. This week is the busiest of the semester yet and a research paper due next week is providing a lot of that busyness. I'll knock it out in the coming days, like I always do.

The song of the run is one of my favorites to listen to, quite loudly, while driving. It's Phoenix - Love Like a Sunset. There are too many good things about this song for me to describe, so just listen to it for yourself.