Flamingos Spotted in the Wild on Morning Run!

 The flock was on a hillside; the solitary was under a viaduct:

In other news, I've started my first slow steps toward running again! It's been two years since I was doing any significant running. I made an actual effort in the summer of 2019, right after I retired, but it all went away in the fall after my mother died. But I'm signed up with my girl for an actual 5K race at the end of October, and I want to make an effort to train for it. This is the incredibly fun Dead Man's Race at Historic Congressional Cemetary, which I have done before.

Me in 2015 at Dead Man's Race
Possibly the most fit I've ever been

I've been walking quite a bit more recently, and when my girl took up running this summer, I got the bug again. My running is Slow AF, but the mechanics of any running are different than the mechanics of walking, so there is a distinct difference between the two. A customary Slow AF approach is to run/walk very short intervals - right now, for me, it's literally 45 seconds of running followed by 60 seconds of walking. But by putting the walk intervals in, I can right from the start of training go a reasonable distance.

I have a target of finishing the 3.1 miles in less than hour. Most of my daily dog walks are at closer to two miles an hour than three miles an hour, and very fast walking isn't comfortable for me. With the run/walk intervals, my walking is naturally much faster than dog rambles, but three miles an hour would be a challenge for me to sustain outdoors (I can do it on a treadmill, level). But interspersing run intervals gets me there nicely - I was just over an hour today.

An added bonus to running:
nerding out on my stats and performance

My goal is to run three times a week for the next three weeks leading up to the race. On the off days, I'll do walks with the dog. Maybe after the race, when I have a base, I'll try running with Bixby. Right now, I don't want to have to focus on managing him while I focus on running form.