Revisiting Old Favorites

In the past couple days I revisited some of my old favorites.

Last night I revisited my old running group.

I did the running group Common Market 4 mile run.  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you may remember that I used to attend this run religiously on Thursday nights after work.  This is where I first stepped up my running and got into a groove of running regularly a few times a week.  

Plus, the group is where I met a lot of my great friends in Charlotte.  Kelly, Gibson, Sarah, Brad, Josie...

Most of our crew at dinner at our house last year.

It's a huge group that runs every Thursday, and everyone hangs out and drinks beer for a while after the run.  I LOVE the group, but it became a lot more difficult for me to easily get there to run once we got Clyde and I had to get home and let him out after work every day.  

Last night I made an exception and rushed home, let Clyde out and played with him for a bit, then headed back out to participate in the run. 
Michelle and I had talked about running together again (we try to run together about once a week or so now), and since she hadn't been to the running group yet, I thought she ought to see what all the hype was about.  We did the 4 mile loop with the group, then headed down a side street to add on another mile for a total of 5 miles in 51:17.

Our breakdown:
Mile 1- 9:39
Mile 2- 10:24
Mile 3- 10:26
Mile 4-10:14
Mile 5- 10:31

Post run, Michelle and I headed inside Common Market we split the most delicious pumpkin beer while chatting it up with our fellow runners.

Even though it's hard for me to make it to the group as often as I used to, I think I'll try and make it there at least once a month or so, because I always have a good time.

My second revisit was shooting guns this morning.

You guys probably know that I don't talk about work on my blog (Dooce anyone??).  I think a lot of people will agree with me that current jobs and blogs don't mix, so I just don't go there ;)

 

I will say, that I used to be a cop, and once upon a time I grew to have an affection for shooting because it was part of my career and because it's just COOL!  

Prior to becoming a cop, I really had zero experience with hand guns.  Back when I was a kid I did a bit of rifle shooting at camp, but that was about all the experience I had with weapons, period, til I got to the police academy.  My lack of experience ended up being a good thing, because I got instruction on how to do everything the correct way from the beginning.  I didn't have any bad habits that I had to change like a lot of my classmates that grew up shooting. 

I was never the best shooter in my class at the police academy, but I was always decent and didn't really have trouble qualifying.  Police officers have to "qualify" with their weapons, which means they go through a course of shooting targets and have to have a high enough score (ie, most of their bullets hit the target in the right area) to carry their guns.  It's basically a test to see if you are able to shoot your gun appropriately.  If you can't hit the target, your department doesn't want you running around with a gun because you're a liability ;)

Back when I was a cop, I bought an off-duty gun.  It was a Glock 27, which is known among cops as the "mini-Glock".

This gun is the smaller version of the first gun I was issued at my first police department, which was a Glock 23.

They look almost identical right?  The main difference is that the grip on the 27 only has two finger holds, whereas the 23 has three.  This isn't a big deal for me because I'm a girl and my hands are small, but some guys get a magazine with an additional finger hold on it so it fits their hands better.  The frame and slide are also shorter on the 27.  It's a good off-duty gun to have because it's easier to conceal and smaller than a big gun, but it holds the same kind of ammo- both are 40 caliber.

I still have my Glock 27, but it's literally been like 4-5 years since I've actually fired it.  Kind of sad.  Once in a great while if I get spooked when I'm alone in my house, I will get it out and "clear" (check each room) the house making sure everything is secure.  Can you picture that?  LOL!  I really need to take that baby to the range and practice with it sometime.  It's just more of a pain in the butt now that I don't have a badge to figure out all the logistics of transporting it and paying for range time, ammo, etc...

I got the opportunity to go to a range today and shoot.  I shot a Glock, a Remington shotgun, and MP-5.  I'm very familiar with the shotgun as well as the Glock because this was also a gun I had to qualify with as a police officer.  The shotgun is pretty crazy to shoot because it has such a kick.  You have to lock the butt of the gun into your shoulder really tightly or it'll seriously hurt your shoulder when it goes off.  Once you get the hang of it though, it's fun to shoot and neat to see what a huge hole it makes on the target :)

I didn't have high expectations that I would do that well shooting today since I've taken such a long hiatus from it.  I kept warning the firearms instructors (who all know I used to be a cop) not to have high expectations that I would do well, but I actually kicked butt on all three guns, which felt awesome! 
My Glock shots were a tight cluster of bullet holes on the target (which is what you want!), and the instructor told me to tell my husband not to piss me off!  Haha!  Same deal for the MP-5 and the shotgun- all my shots were dead center on the target.  Kind of made me miss that aspect of being a cop.

Well, I'll just have to get myself to the range more often to practice shooting!