Climb Mt. Niitaka!

Okay, so I stole the title from WWII history class. Sue me. "Climb Mt. Bonnell" would of course be much more accurate, if I were writing about today's run. So, about that run...

6:00am was the start time for today's little jaunt up Mt. Bonnell, via the slightly extended approach Lake Austin Blvd. to Enfield to Exposition to 35th. Once again, running Enfield to Exposition up to 35th, I was happy with my decision to skip the AT&T marathon this year. That's a tough little stretch from about mile 8 to mile 11 or so. But, I digress, as usual. :-)

It was really nice out there this morning, crisp and clear with starting temps around 33 degrees. For me, that's great running weather. Warm hat and gloves at the ready, I hung out in the Annex while we gathered ourselves up for the day's journey. I took the time to chat with Amy as Gilbert talked with us for a bit about things hither and yon, and we finally got going maybe 10 minutes past the scheduled start time.

Amy and I grouped up with Brian and Frank, and our pace pod settled into the day's groove. We had a grand time rolling along up to the first water stop, chatting away about the usual topics. A fairly snappy water stop later, it was time to deal with the hilly stuff. Enfield to Exposition to 35th was rolling, but Amy and I got through that in good shape. Frank and Brian had dropped back to investigate a construction site on Enfield. Amy and I made the turn on Mt. Bonnell Road, and for the first time in quite a while, it was time for a Bonnell Climb. I caught up with a few folks on the climb, which made me feel pretty darned good, and I hung out for a while at the Bonnell water stop talking with Colleen and Eric and a bunch of other folks while my group formed back up. Alex came back by, smiling away, as his group of Bonnelliacs returned from their trip down the backside of Bonnell to the Dry Creek Saloon and back. Fun times.

I was grinning, myself, once again being reminded about how much I enjoy the Bonnell runs, for whatever reason. I guess it's just cool to tell people that you ran up Mt. Bonnell that day. :-) So, a GU, 6 minutes, and some Powerade later, we took off to return to RunTex. Pretty soon, Brian picked up the pace and left us in the dust on Pecos, but Frank, Amy and I maintained our group through "Backwards Scenic" as we picked our way back to the last water stop at Enfield and Lake Austin. The Rogues were coming down Scenic as we were going the other way, and maybe Austin Fit had some groups in there, too. Hard to tell. Certainly it felt like we were running against the human tide!

Gilbert and Kenny were there at the water stop when we arrived, and we exchanged some light-hearted bantering as we took our last GU and had some Accelerade. Oh, Amy was sporting a special holiday flavour of GU, something like Chocolate Mint? She assured me it was pretty yummy, but that's too much for me. Santa put a 6 pack of the special stuff in her stocking. That Santa's quite a guy!

As we rolled down Lake Austin Blvd., I decided that I was officially happy that I'd joined everyone for the full Bonnell Experience today. I was feeling great, and with the snappy weather and all, it was just a great day. Not to mention that my pace pals for the day were such great running friends! Another day to revel in all that my running hobby/avocation has brought my way...

After announcing that we weren't going to do the "fast finish" that Gilbert had suggested, I think we did actually pick it up a bit down the homestretch. Not terribly so, but a little. Frank took a side trail on the way home, and then I pulled away a bit from Amy in the last mile. I guess I was just feeling good, and my legs decided on their own to pull me to the finish at their pace.

I finished nicely, and enjoyed a cup or two of water. There were more Gazelles there, and more opportunities to talk with folks. I feel like I'm back with the gang now that my White Rock recovery time is over, and I'm looking forward to the weeks ahead.

The scoring, for those at home: 10:00, 9:29, 9:26, 9:05 (2:19 GU/Accelerade stop), 9:01, 8:55, 8:50, and 0.68 miles up Bonnell at 9:43/mile pace (6:00 water/Powerade stop), 9:20, 9:05, 9:20 (2:05 GU/Accelerade stop), 9:04, 8:35, 8:47, and 0.86 miles at 8:00/mile pace. Final score was 14.55 miles at 9:06 actual running pace, 9:49/mile counting all the stop time. HR numbers were pretty good, legs feel good, great day at the running office.

It was fun to lead the stretching for the gang afterwards, even though I had to think pretty hard about the correct order of things from time to time. Much conversation followed, as we all enjoyed the bright sunshine and cool temperatures.

For the week, I ended up with a pretty robust 35 miles, although most of it was easy running. I can no longer hide from speedwork, though, so Monday will be mile repeats with the gang at Zilker. It's good to be able to run like this, and I hope to never take it for granted!