Saturday, February 24, 2007

Return to the Herd - EZ 7 Miles

The first post-marathon run is always an amusing little event. Depending on how the race went, how soon after the race it is, and what you did in the meantime, it can be either a fun jaunt or an achy death march. Since I was a pretty good boy this week, I had worked out a lot of the junk left over from the 26.2 mile journey through Austin last Sunday. So, I was looking forward to seeing everyone today.

It was warm and muggy, of course, which reminded me how lucky we were with the weather last weekend. A really large group of folks gathered at 7:00 for 5-7 miles of easy running, and most were pretty happy to be there. After Gilbert gave us a pep talk, we set out for our loop of Town Lake. It was good to see Richard back with us as he slowly builds his running mileage, and we chatted during the first couple of miles of the run. A nice water stop at Mopac, and then we were off again. I ran the second part of the run with Colleen, Amy, and Brad, and we had some fun talks on the road. Except for some mild quad stiffness as we came down the hill on Riverside, my legs felt really great. I was pretty surprised, actually.

Anyway, we skipped striders today (I know my legs aren't quite ready for those yet), and met up for the full stretching routine. The difference in how people were doing mentally today as opposed to last Saturday is quite dramatic, but that goes under the "Duh" category of psychological analysis. :-)

We talked about our various race results, of course, and everyone is mapping out their spring racing plans already. After I stopped and chatted with the Boston girls (Renee and Rachel) for a bit, it was time to head on home. Tonight is the big Gazelles post-marathon bash, so that should be big fun!

For the day, 7.05 miles, 9:39/mile pace including the water stop. Nice!

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