Scenic Loop (7/8/06)

It's time to catch up the Blog after my Mississippi adventure and vacation. The Saturday before I left Austin, I joined the happy herd for the Scenic loop. I had thought that if I felt really sharp, I'd go ahead and do Bonnell. That didn't happen today, but I still had a good run. It was a good crew, and we had some fun over the first 6 miles to the dry cleaners. It was overcast again, which helped with the temperature. Again, without the sun beaming down, the temperature didn't rise too much, but it was still muggy and warm. Oh, well.

We probably had 20 people in tow through that second water stop at the dry cleaners. The Bonnell people peeled off then, leaving us with still 15 people or so. I was the last guy to get water from the dry cleaners, and by the time I finished, everyone had scurried off. Thanks, guys. :-) No runner left behind? I took off after them, and tried to slowly reel them in. We had done a good job on pacing through 6 miles, and I kept the pace about the same for the 7th mile. After that, though, I decided to put the hammer down a little and try to catch the pack. I passed Amy during that span, and ended up with a nice mile or so down Exposition as I closed on everyone else. Of course, when I caught up to them at the last Powerade/GU stop at O. Henry, they were finished and were leaving.

After a cup or two of refreshments, I set out for the fast finish. Gilbert had again requested a FF from O. Henry, and I meant to comply. The first mile is mostly downhill to flat, and although I picked up the pace, it wasn't a super effort to get down to 8:00 pace. From the Mopac bridge, though, it was more serious. I picked it up a little more, and slowly caught up to and passed the rest of my crew (except Leslie, who was ahead of everyone else). I expected others to tag along as I went by, but no one seemed interested in pushing any harder. I'm sure they were moving along quite nicely, thank you, but they weren't into chasing anyone else. I kept chasing Leslie, and finished just a short distance behind her at Auditorium Shores. Job done.

Turns out, I had a pretty spectacular finish! Don't know where these late bursts of speed are coming from, but it's cool to get some results like this. The numbers: 9:39, 9:00, 9:10, .39 miles at 9:06 pace (2:06 Powerade stop), then 9:04, 8:58, and .65 miles at 8:49/mile pace in the Scenic hills (2:27 water/GU stop), 8:50 and 8:18 on Exposition (2:00 Powerade/GU stop), and 8:00, 7:29, 7:33 and 0.21 miles at 7:18/mile pace for a fast finish. Overall, 11.32 miles since they've opened up the old trail (this route was a tenth of a mile longer with the Zilker detour). Average pace 8:36/mile running, 9:12/mile with water stop time included.

Once we got some water at Auditorium Shores, I knocked out 6 striders, and they didn't even suck. Gilbert got all excited then, and we did lots of hopping, balance drills, and other fun stuff before commencing stretching. I think I almost fell asleep a couple of times while stretching, especially when we were doing hamstring stretches with the ropes. For the record, I'm pretty sure my stretch counts were still accurate. :-)

It was a fun day running with friends, and after that, it was time to get home and then start the Mississippi family trip. For the week, 28.7 miles running, and decent gym compliance.