Climb Mount Bonnell!

Possibly for the last time for a while, I planned to run the full Mt. Bonnell course with the fall marathoners. Once they get above 14 miles, I probably will look to stay in the 12-13 mile range on the longer weekend runs, since I don't have a fall marathon planned. That'll mean some logistical considerations like starting with the marathoners and turning off at the appropriate junction, etc. Today, though, we ran with the crowd. It was muggy and 78 degrees when we started.

Gilbert is out of town doing an appearance, so Bernard started us off at 6:00. Within the first half mile, we had separated into our pace groups, but unexpectedly, the pace group around us was huge today. We had at least 20 people running as a small mob, which was a first for us. Carrie joined us after her post-triathlon recovery period, and we had a bunch of other folks with us, both veterans and new members. Richard joined us today, along with Mike, and probably 5 new people. I locked into the group's pace, and hung out as we rolled along. Since there wasn't water at Red Bud today, we all stopped at Mopac to top off the fluids, and then carried on. It must have looked a little like an oncoming 5k race to the drivers on Lake Austin Blvd., as we cruised towards the Scenic loop. A couple of peeps checked out the water fountain at the boat docks, but they reported that it appears out of order for quite a while. It is gone and the former location is covered in cement. Schade.

Into Scenic, I decided to follow today. With Bonnell looming, I wanted to save some energy for the big climb. Good conversation was had with everyone, and in retaliation for the gang picking on me for the Song of the Day, I chose "Jesse's Girl," which really is tough to get out of your head once it's mentioned. Nearing the dry cleaners, a sizeable portion of the group decided that 11 miles was plenty, and they peeled off to finish their run without the fun of Bonnell. I can't say that I blame them much. 5 or 6 of the Mt. Bonnell people stopped with them, too, to get a quick drink of water. The rest of us, probably 8 people or so, went on ahead to Bonnell since it was just another mile, and Gatorade was awaiting us at the top. Once we hit Bonnell, I moved ahead to tackle the climb, and was joined by Chad for that bit of action. Since he was running with me, I had to keep up my pace, so there was no slacking today! :-) Huffing and puffing a bit by the end, we were both glad to get to the top. The GPS shows it to be a 200 ft elevation change in something like half a mile or less, so that's a significant bump. Chad asked if we normally did some sort of celebration when we reached the top, in the style of "Rocky," but I just said we were so happy to get there that we didn't spend any more energy in a celebration.

We got our Gatorade, and I took my first GU, while we waited on the rest of the gang to finish the climb. Our subgroup was now Rachel, Chad, Wayne, Mitchell, Leslie, and somebody else, I think. All of a sudden, I can't remember. We stalled a little while we waited a bit more to see if the second Bonnell group wanted to join up with us, but once we saw Mike and Carrie, they told us to go on, and they'd build their own pack. Off we went. Gilbert likes us to go to Balcones Woods, touch the stop sign, and then retrace our steps down Mt. Bonnell Rd. Personally, I prefer to go down Balcones Woods instead, mainly because it's a more gentle downhill run, and the gang agreed to go my way today. It cuts off probably a half mile to mile, but hopefully, that won't hurt any of us. Since Gilbert said he was going to check the sign for our handprints, we all touched it on the way by. That sign was pretty tall, though, and it was more of a challenge than I first suspected. :-)

The descent down Balcones Woods was pleasant, and then we turned onto 35th. Everyone except Rachel and me stopped again for a quick drink of water at the dry cleaners. Rachel and I went on up 35th, taking advantage of a slightly more relaxed pace until we got to Exposition. The rest of the folks gathered up with us on Exposition, and we headed south again. I was getting fairly overheated along here, even with the overcast skies, but we got some relief when it finally started drizzling and then lightly raining. The temperature even dropped a little, down to about 75 degrees, so that bit of serendipity probably saved my running day. We picked it up a little heading to O. Henry Middle School, and got there in good fashion. As we crossed Enfield, or maybe Windsor, I think, a car caused us to hold up a bit, and I noticed that it had a model of the Milennium Falcon, Han Solo's spaceship in the Star Wars movies, mounted on its hood. Wacky! A last stop for Powerade and my second GU at O. Henry, and it was time for some sort of fast finish.

I wasn't feeling it at first, and just rolled along with the gang, but once we got to Lake Austin Blvd., I decided to push it just a little bit. I didn't get that far ahead, but the pace did pick up. Chad, and then Wayne, pulled ahead once we hit Mopac, and I ran in with Mitchell (I hope I've kept their names straight! ). Leslie and Rachel weren't that far behind, either. My shoes were pretty heavy by now with the rainy conditions, but that wasn't a huge problem. The rain was really helping us with cooling us off, so I'll take that as a tradeoff. We picked it up just a little more in the last half mile of the run, and even dipped into the 7:-- range for that portion of the festivities. I was happy to see the finish line, that's for sure!

The numbers? 9:40, 9:08, .34 miles at 9:05 (water stop 1:18), 9:30, 9:16, 9:15, 8:51, 0.71 miles at 9:23 pace (Bonnell water stop 3:35), 8:48, 9:18, 8:50, 0.27 miles at 8:57 pace (O. Henry water stop 2:15), then fast finish at 8:17, 8:09, 8:13, and 0.2 miles at 7:05 pace. Average running pace 8:56/mile. With water stop time, 9:28/mile. 13.52 miles.

After some water (and some bonus Powerade in the RunTex coolers!), I knocked out 6 striders, and they felt pretty good. I wasn't as beaten up as I sometimes get, but I was definitely still tired. The rain was coming down pretty good by now, and we moved the stretching to the side of RunTex. After retrieving my stuff, I was joined by just a handful of peeps for the stretching. Most were discouraged by the weather, and just went home or stretched fitfully under the annex awning at RunTex. About 10 of us did the full stretching ritual under a nice deep awning on the south side of RunTex, and that really did us some good. The best rain happened while we were stretching, but it obligingly had stopped by the time we were finished.

I scored one of the nifty Gazelles gear bags from Leslie, and chatted for a while before packing up and leaving. It turned out to be a qualilty long run and a good day altogether. I remembered to pick up the cooler from Bonnell on my way home, so I didn't have to turn around like I've occasionally had to do. Bonus! :-)

For the week, 35 miles, a slight record mileage since Indy. That's about what I'm aiming for this summer, between 35 and 40 miles, so I'm getting there. Another good exercise week.