Getting There

4AM comes pretty early in the morning. But if you can get yourself out the door, the running part comes easy. Sort of.

Anyway, as lousy as yesterday's run was, today was pretty good, even if it was long. Instead of dropping to a slower group, I stuck it out with my usual group, aiming between 8:20-8:30/mile. I felt pretty good, though around mile 10, I started regretting my decision. I felt like I was lagging and my mini-group (Vic, Alan, Dave, Kevin) was pulling away. It turns out that was because those guys were hitting closer to 8:10 than 8:20.

For the segment of the run called the "Golf Course Loop", I set the pace because I was the only way that knew the way. I found myself keeping closer to 8:20, even though we were at miles 12-16 for that leg. Vic kept trying to talk me into 22, but I headed back rather than head farther out. With my luck, I'd have cramped in the middle of the Chestnut Loop and would have to walk back even farther than I would otherwise. I'd also remembered I had to be home by 9, and adding the extra 2 would have made me late.

Sure enough, just as we were getting close to Mizell, my calves started that pre-cramp twitching that I've grown so familiar with in my marathons. That was at around 19.5 miles. By the time I got to Cady Way, I already had 20 in the bank, so the rest of the run was a bonus.

All told, my GPS read 20.5 at the end, though the data analysis software called it 21. Whatever it was, the end was tough going, but I sure felt a lot better than I did when I did the 18-miler.