sprinting in ohio

Airports are awful. I'm not a fan. And I'm pretty sure that it's impossible for me to spend time in an airport and not eat a cheeseburger at Chili's. Had one yesterday morning in the Tampa airport around 11:00 a.m. It was pretty good. Got to watch the Germany/England match. From that point on it all went downhill.

Long story short: flight from Charlotte to Atlanta was delayed by three hours, which meant I'd miss my connection in Atlanta to Fayetteville. So they rerouted me to Detroit so that I could catch a flight to Tulsa. That's the best they can do? Thanks. FML.

So midway on the flight to Detroit, at 35,000 feet in the air, captain comes on the intercom and mentions "mechanical issues" that will require an emergency landing in Cincinnati. As soon as dude says "mechanical issues" and "emergency landing" in the same sentence, I had an internal freak-out. Not a good feeling. But, alas, the plane landed and they let us off. Sweet. Another day on the right side of the grass.

The excellent news from all this, however, was that Cincinnati has direct flights into Fayetteville. And the last one was leaving in 20 minutes. From a gate at the other side of the airport. Three terminals away. Anybody feel like sprinting? Hell, yeah!

It was on! And there was part of me that was excited to get to run. Even though I was wearing my knock-off Sperry's and had a backpack full of crap. I went full throttle for probably the first four or five minutes. Got some stares, but my legs were feeling great. Turned the corner into the terminal and hit heavy traffic so I slowed way down to a light jog. And the truth is that I needed to slow down. Heart rate was up, sweat had accumulated. And did I mention I didn't have on running shoes?

Made it to the gate. Got on the plane and promptly fell asleep. Woke up in Northwest Arkansas. Happy to be home.