Barton Skyway

The main clue to today's terrain should have been the name of the last street of the run, Barton Skyway. Any road that has "Skyway" in it isn't going to be flat in most places. I ran this loop back in June, in the heat, so this was my first time back since then. It's a good loop, flat to downhill for the first 5 miles, then hilly to very hilly for the last 5.5. With the glorious weather that we've been having (53 degrees this morning and clear), this would be a lot more fun than it was in June.

We started down at Porter Middle School at 6:00 am. Frank and Patrick joined us again after an extended post-Chicago break, but except for brief conversations before and after the run, we wouldn't see them much today. Even coming back after a marathon, they're still faster than our pace group. We did have Alex as a special guest runner with us today. He's been feeling pretty tired these last few days, so he decided to join us for the moderate long run for some lower pace running (slower than he usually runs, at least). Our group turned out to be Amy, Brian, Alex and me. We were very compatible, and stayed together the entire day, except for stretching out a little in the last mile or so when we kicked it for home.

It was a fun run, and we did a lot of talking. This was one of those runs where we gently picked up the pace more or less throughout the run. We got Powerade and water at Gilbert's first water stop, about 2.7 miles in, and then I nearly got us all run over at the busy Barton Springs Road intersection just a few minutes later (sorry, guys!). Then, we hit the trail for just a mile or two. It was still really dark for most of the run, so on the trail it was a little dicey with the footing, but we got through that without incident. We skipped the water at Mopac, due to the nice weather and no need. By the time we crossed Barton Springs Road again (much safer this time), we were halfway done, but all the hard miles were yet to come.

We went up the normal route to the Wilke hill workout, and continued past there, stopping for the second time at Gilbert's second Powerade stop. The blue Powerade was tasty! The Barton Hills loop was full of fun hills, and soon enough we got back to the water stop for a final cup of mojo. The last stretch was on Barton Skyway, which has two big hills. Alex took the lead there, and pulled us up both of those in quick fashion. That was the only time I really felt like we were pushing hard, but it was still not too bad. Brian pointed out a beautiful sunrise sky, where the clouds were almost painted by the rising sun. It really was spectacular. Once we reached Lamar again, it was just a slight incline and then a gentle downhill run to the finish at the school again. Brian and I pushed the pace on one side of Lamar, and Alex was pacing us on the other side of the (big) street. We got together at the very end. Amy finished just a few steps behind us.

It was a really strong run on this course, and I think that for the most part, we were pretty comfortable. A handful of striders on the grass there at the school, and it was time to head up to RunTex for the stretching session. Just a lot of fun today on a "short" run. It was good to see Pete after the stretching, too. He's headed to NYC next weekend for a 2:45-3:00 hour attempt at the Big Apple, so I gave him my scouting report on the course, to add to the information that he may already have. It'll be interesting to see how our Gazelles do in NYC. I know they've all worked very hard to get ready, and it's payoff time now.

Splits: 9:48, 9:19, 9:19 (.63 miles), 9:14, 8:46 (Alex picked it up in the dark on the trail), 9:08, 9:18 (hills), 9:23 (.7 miles of hills), 8:37 (hilly), 9:00 (.65 miles), 8:26 (Barton Skyway), 7:49 (.51 miles to the finish). Overall running pace 9:03 for 10.47 miles. With water stops, a still good 9:23/mile average.

Another good run. For various reasons, I needed this sort of run today. It's an instance where running with friends really helped to heal a troubled spirit. This is not to say that this was a run where I sought overt assistance from the crew, but the simple fact of the shared experience and the wonderful morning gave me much more than simple physical rewards. 'Nuff said.

For the week, "just" 34 miles running, two gym workouts, and some desultory indoor cycling on two defective cycles. Next week's mileage should bump up over 40 again, so this was more or less a recovery week of running in the midst of the hard training to come.