Yesterday, I woke up amazingly enough at 6:43am to head down to lock 29 to meet Daisy and the VR group for a 13-miler. I stumbled around looking for my clothes and packing my gear in all of 20minutes. I was out the door at 7:03 and on my way to getting my coffee.
It was warm out, about 40 degrees with a light sprinkel. I made the trip in about 35 minutes only to find there were no parking spots and I was still 8 minutes late...damn. I knew they were running 2 out-and-backs, so I figured I would just head out on my own toward Bolanz znd pick them up along the way. I of course made a pit stop beforehand and ran into a lady who asked if the towpath was open. I told her I didn't know and had just arrived. I found a gentleman coming up from the path and asked him the same question. He said it was only open from here to Bolanz. Great, that was only 3 miles. Uuugghhh! I didn't want to run back and forth 2-3 times so I ran back to the lady in the bathroom to tell her the bad news. She offered to run down Riverview Rd with me, but I only had my trail shoes on and they would be no good after about 5 miles, so I hopped back in my truck and made the trek home.
I knew MN and Big Sur were running at 10:00 am around home so I quickly emailed them to see if I could join. Lucky for me they said okay. I watched old episodes of 90210 for about an hour before grabbing my old somewhat weather proof running shoes (later I would regret my choice) and heading out.
I found the coffee shop with little difficulty and was happy to see the girls shortly after arriving. I had done a difficult hill workout yestIerday, so when they said they were running 14 with some good hills I was a little worried. We headed off at an EZ pace down Fairmount passing all the Jewish Community buildings, which I always find fascinating and have to look at. After about 2 miles or so the turns started and I only recognized the names of the roads, but admittedly I was lost for most of the run.
Around mile 5 I especially noticed blisters forming on the arches of my feet. I didn't want to complain, but I was concerned about trudgining through another 9 miles. Thankfully, we stopped at the local college for water and it turned out to be a fitness facility. Now, every fitness facility has a first-aid kit right? I looked for an employee and the kit, but no luck. Then we found a very young life guard in JEANS!! She pulled out the kit, but to our dismay NO BANDAIDS!! Ahhhhh!!! There was medical tape though, so I did with what I had and taped my feet. After about a 5-10 minute delay we were again moving again. We chatted about upcoming marathons and races, training plans, jobs you name it. I'd say it was overall one of the best first dates I ever had. Around mile 9 or so MN had an awful pain in her foot and not wanting to hold us back insisted we go without her. Big Sur and I feeling awful about leaving disagreed with her for a minute before knowing we were defeated. We headed on hoping she would successfully complete her run/walk.
The second part of our run took us along a few more hills and down Richmond Rd to Cedar. We were almost home. We looped around Cedar to So Green and stopped to walk and eat a Cliff Block to refuel. I had the Margarita flavor which turned out to be pretty good and not nearly as sticky as a gel is. We passed lots of people out walking also enjoying the nice weather on our way back. We turned down Fairmount, thank goodness because my legs were pretty tired. Two hard workouts back to back had finally taken its toll.
We hit the coffee shop in 2:18.37 (9:47/mile). MN came around the corner and we decided to grab some food and warm up. We chatted for about 40 minutes and warmed up with the most delicious after run cafe mocha ever before heading home. I was beat, but I had had a great run and I had one more thing to do. Take a nice long HOT shower...mmmmm.
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