Cowboy Up

That’s a favorite term of mine – “Cowboy Up” meaning toughen-up, don't back down, don't give up, do the best you can with the hand you're dealt. So, beginning to feel my old energetic self again, I was easily tempted upon receiving notice of a Virtual Cowboy Up 5K, especially when I saw the finishing medal.

Official race day is not until Sunday, but that’s the beauty of a virtual – you can complete the mileage at a time convenient to you within a specific time period, . This morning felt like the right time so, too hot to walk outside, I drove 25 miles to the mall. The drive supposedly only took about 20 minutes but, in traffic, it felt like forever … not something I want to do every day.

At any rate, I had three goals when I walked through the mall doors.

1.       Finish in under an hour

2.      Get out without clothes shopping and/or 3. binge eating

The stores were just opening as I entered, so I didn’t have to worry about dodging crowds of people, and I was pleasantly surprised to find quite a few elderly singles and couples also walking the mall.

Mall floor walking felt a lot better on my feet than walking on asphalt/concrete and I thought I was clipping along at a pretty good pace. Yet and still, I did not meet the under-an-hour goal.

The cell phone buzzed a few times to let me know of Pokestops along the route, so I took a few seconds to pick up pokeballs, eggs and miscellaneous other game stuff at Gameworks and various others locations in the mall, and there was one capture, but those diversions took seconds and didn’t add much to my finishing time.

I also took a second to take a photo of a particular boutique, because it reminded me of something cute I’d just read on facebook.

(Just in case the print is too small for you to read, it says "My cousins daughter is turning 7 ... her mom asked her what she wanted for her bday and she said 'I want justice'. With all that's going on in our world today her mom agreed and said 'don't we all baby' ... her daughter replied 'no mom it's a clothing store in Del Amo'")

The generation gap is showing, because I never heard of Justice either ... a chain clothing store for kids.

As expected, there was a lot of temptation in the mall, but I got out without shopping for clothes or binge eating in the food court. I also passed up several candy stores, but only because none was Sees. No way am I yet strong enough to stay out of Sees. Fortunately, this mall had no Sees.