Yesterday was a success! The run started at Lake Hefner at the tiny peninsulas known as Stars and Stripes Park. That is apparently where the track that goes around the lake begins, ends, and laughs at your weak, pathetic human body.

From the point marked on the map, we began running on a tiny road heading westward. The road would otherwise have been a sidewalk, but there were painted median markers so obviously it’s a road, a tiny road made for a once great race of Shriners that have all but died out that is now used for recreational running and cycling.

In total we jogged about three miles (4.828032km). Well, truth be told, there was some walking mixed in. The stagger between jogging and walking was three minutes jogging and one minute running, so 25% of the journey was walking. With that in mind, the jog really was 2.25 miles (3.621024km) with .75 miles (1.207008km) of walking. We did not see the sea monster, unfortunately.

I ran in my Vibram Sprints and they held up quite well. I didn’t really have any doubts on the matter, but I had never ran that distance in them before. They definitely feel more secure than my Classics simply because of the top strap. A problem with my Classics that I’ve come across while doing any running or through normal wear is that they are more prone to getting dirt and dust inside than the Sprints. Running that way is not as fun as you might think. The Sprints “hug” the bottom of my foot better, keeping out most of that granular business.

I can’t say that I was totally ready for the distance that was jogged. There were a couple of one minute walk breaks that lasted more than a minute, but coming from not running in an admittedly long time to going three miles I feel pretty good about the whole experience. My calves at the end of the trek felt like they were going to explode, but in a good way. I am feeling a little soreness right now as this is written, so I doubt that I will be going again for a couple of days just to make sure I haven’t overdone anything (and also because it’s supposed to snow tomorrow; I hate Oklahoma sometimes). In the end, though, it was pretty great, and stage one of Operation Sexy Calves is complete!

Tomorrow, in about thirteen hours, I will be running. Why? I honestly have no idea. Well, truth be told I might be turning into a hipster and will attempt to get all “healthy” or some such. To spice it up a bit, I will be running in my Vibrams.

As we all know, I’ve had and have used these type of shoes for almost a year now, but I haven’t done any extensive running in them (like I had planned on doing). I’m definitely not opposed to the idea, I simply never got around to doing it much until now. My Vibrams have simply been my super comfortable shoes that I wear everywhere unless it’s snowing outside.

The circuit that I will attempt tomorrow afternoon will be about 3km, or 1.86411358 miles around the great Lake Hefner. I’m not quite sure what will happen, death is always a possibility, but I will surely discuss it in print for after I thoroughly exhaust myself. If it all works out and I do continue to run regularly, I have half a mind to at least try the 5km portion of the OKC marathon that is happening in about a month and a half. That remains to be seen, but running a marathon is definitely on my bucket list.