Der Kommisar's In Town, Oh Oh!

Sometimes I can't believe the songs that end up being discussed on long runs! I sort of like Der Kommisar, but it just wouldn't get out of my head once it was mentioned. Thanks, Richard. :-)

It was an acceptable weather morning, humid, but 70 degrees and mostly overcast until the last 4 miles or so. We had good attendance for the Mountain Bonnell run today. Jennifer and Rachel were out, but everyone else was there, and we added Leslie to our gang. Nine of us rolled out of RunTex at 6:00 am, and it was a pretty lively bunch. There was extensive conversation about obscure 80's music, as usual. Also on the topic list was serious talk about cars (old muscle cars from the 60's) and their restoration, as well as other flotsam and jotsam. Lots of people to choose from, and the conversations were many and varied. We grabbed a quick water at Mopac to tide us over, and then from there it was the usual Scenic loop and on to Bonnell proper. I hung back most of the early run, letting others set the pace through Scenic for a change. Since I was going a bit longer than most, I figured it would be wise to save some energy for the extra Bonnell assaults I was planning. Going up Bonnell, the front bunch were Shannon and Rich, followed by Brian and me. Leslie was right on my heels. Everyone else came up soon enough, but it was a fairly long Powerade/GU stop there on Bonnell.

Only Richard was interested in going towards 2222 on Mt. Bonnell Road and then back up and over Bonnell again. We took it sort of easy going down, and on the way back up to the top on the return trip, he told me to go on ahead, so I finished a little ahead of Richard on that little loop. Another quick Powerade stop there (because we could), and after a little extra wait time, it was time to go home. I actually sort of enjoy the stresses of this extended visit to Bonnell. It can only make you stronger, mentally and physically.

From there, it was the usual trip down the other side and onto Exposition. Again, Richard told me to go on ahead on Exposition, so I picked it up a little heading towards O. Henry Middle School and the last Powerade stop. Richard's been putting in some late nights getting his house ready to go to market, so he's running on low energy. I'm glad he pushed through today, though, because it would have been tough to do more than half of today's mileage by myself! We grouped back up after the Powerade/GU stop, and stuck together to Mopac. At that point, he needed to stretch his calves a bit, so again, he told me to go on. I did a relaxed "fast finish" today, only dipping down to the 8:20-8:30/mile range, but it felt fine to me. There's a new area of trail construction and detours at Auditorium Shores, so all our usual mile markers are no longer valid. I like to use those to confirm the GPS numbers when I can, but today no such luck. Once I was done, I did a handful of strides as I made my way back to RunTex.

I grabbed my stuff from the car, and took over the stretching session from Pete, who had to get going for family obligations. It was a big group there for stretching, but we had a pretty good time nonetheless.

Another good running day. For the day 15.4 miles, average running pace a slower 9:10/mile. With all the stop time, and it was more than usual today, it drifted to 9:49/mile.

Splits: 10:27, 9:38, 0.35 miles at 9:51/mile (Mopace water stop), 9:05, 9:23, 9:08, 9:01, 0.76 miles up Bonnell at 9:24/mile pace (Powerade/GU stop), 9:34, 0.73 miles back up the other side of Bonnell at 9:23 (Powerade stop), 9:24, 9:11, 8:37 (start of "fast finish" on Exposition), 0.24 miles at 8:12/mile pace (Powerade/GU stop), 8:33, 8:34, 8:21, 0.2 miles at 7:50/mile.