Sweat by day, soft pretzels by night

I had a great time at the Tulsa Loony Bin!  I worked with Sam Demaris and Mark Poolos (who likes to keep it fancy and eat his soft pretzels by candlelight).

Mark was very kind and drove me to and from the shows each night. 

 Sharing the backseat with merch boxes.

Not only were the shows a lot of fun, but I got to be on a podcast.  Not just any old podcast, one that has beer for the guests.  I promptly asked if I could be a guest for three hours.

During the day, I tried to be productive (i.e. I told myself I was only allowed five hours of Facebooking-stalking per day), so I chipped away at my half-marathon training program.

Perhaps a place with 97 degree heat (and a heat index of 1,000 degrees) and very little shade is not the best place to train for a race.  Because I'm a glutton for punishment who enjoys sweating out toxins from 1989, I decided to do my running outside (normally I run on the treadmill because I'm a wimp who enjoys air-conditioning and drink holders).  I've been sweating from places that I didn't even know could sweat.

Of course, during all of my runs, I contemplated quitting. I asked myself what was I thinking by signing up for half-marathon #2 (and marathon #1 in the spring) in September.

However, slowly (and I certainly mean slowly), but surely, I pushed through. I took breaks after every mile to dump water over my head, but when I finally finished my runs, I smiled a huge dorky grin to myself (P.S. not an uncommon look for me).

Friday was supposed to be my cross-training day.  Does sweating 62 gallons from walking to the grocery store count as cross training? I sure hope so because that's what I did!

Here's the best part: I had food at the condo.  I scored some amazing deals like this one at the Kroger in Little Rock and brought them with me to Tulsa:

This is how you know you have a soda addiction: you have plenty of food, but you're still willing to brave a heat index of 110 (wish I was kidding about that) just so you can get Diet Pepsi.

On Saturday, I got smart and actually ran inside.  Oh, air conditioned runs, how I've missed you so.

I technically did seven miles since it was a 3.0 mile walk to the gym and back. 

There's also a movie theater in the same strip mall as the gym, so I saw The Great Gatsby for $1.25.  I also got to enjoy some much-needed air conditioning since I was drenched in sweat from the walk there.  My apologies to the people seated behind me.

And now, I'm about to embark on a 22-hour bus trip home.  More stories from the Greyhound soon!