Zoom!

We had a nice little group today for the Scenic loop "medium" long run. On a drizzly day that was good only for ducks, yards, and runners, we set out at 6:30 for our 11-12 mile journey. Amy was back after a couple weekends of long bike rides, and Emily, Rachel, Brian and Richard were there as well. We started off really easy, and by the first quick water stop at Mopac, we had dialed in our speed pretty well. It was pretty funny going by all the folks sitting in their cars along Veterans Blvd. as they sat with gloom in their eyes, surveying the drizzle and rain before they got out to run. We were well into our run by then, and happily went by them, but we could tell exactly what they were thinking. :-) Hitting Lake Austin Blvd., I guess I got moving along a little faster, and by the time we got to Scenic Blvd., there were polite requests from the gang to back off a little. So, in order to accomplish that, they requested the long-promised bachelor party story from me. I won't repeat it here, but it was a long story. 3 miles as we ran. I suppose it slowed me down a little, but we still moved along pretty well. At the dry cleaners where we got our second water stop and some took GU's, we were right at 6 miles into our day, with some good running already behind us. More than halfway done, the mood was good.

Splits, miles 1-6: 10:28, 9:43, .28 miles at 8:59 (brief water stop), 8:30, 8:50, 8:59, 0.8 miles at 8:45/mile pace. 6.1 miles, 9:13/mile running pace.

While we were getting organized to move on, we saw the Boston marathoners coming our way from Mt. Bonnell. We gathered up with them, and especially took in Jennifer, who was running in her own pack, more or less. That may have sped us up for the next several miles, since they were a little quicker than we normally are. Carrie, Jason, Amy (the other Amy), and Jennifer made our little mob a good bit bigger. Up 35th, down Exposition, to O. Henry Middle School and the last water stop. Richard decided to try to regain some of his hill climbing mojo on this stretch, and had some fun accelerating about halfway down Exposition. We were all a little giddy by now, with the drizzle, rain and general weather conditions. Some faster miles along here, too. I messed up with the buttons on the GPS watch, so I don't have individual mile splits for this short section. However, I think it works out to 2.2 miles, which we covered at an average 8:29/mile. So far, at the last water stop, we were at 8.3 miles, 9:02/mile average running pace.

The last 3.1 miles or so are usually "fast finish" miles. After sort of a relaxed first fast mile, most of us really kicked it in over the last couple of miles. Brian pulled ahead, and finally after waiting a bit, I accelerated. It felt fairly tough, but I wasn't in agony or anything. I concentrated on keeping a steady pace, and focused on catching Brian. I managed to close the gap on him a fair amount, but he finished up the road ahead of me a ways. It was a really strong finish, as it turns out.

Splits miles 9-11.4: 8:16, 7:59, 7:29 (!). Very nice finish. Overall, 11.4 miles, 8:44/mile running pace. With stop time included, it was a still solid 9:18/mile. Good run, for sure. Everyone else finished pretty soon after Brian and I did, and we even did striders like good little Gazelles.

For the week, 5 runs, 37 miles. Next week, I should get up to about 42-45 miles, with a long run of maybe 14-16 miles on Saturday.

A silly stretching session in the drizzly conditions finished off the morning's exercise, and then it was time to think about food. Alex convinced me that a good breakfast would be a fine idea, so we joined the Janiak's for a hearty repast at Magnolia Cafe. Lots of fun conversation, and the food was just what we needed.

A fun day at the running office. Tomorrow, we have the River City 10 miler. I'll be volunteering at the Gazelles water stop, so that should be interesting.