Hot Friday Morning

There is a new age for masters categories, and it's 32 years old.

Yesterday was Pat's birthday. He celebrated by doing an interval workout and drinking 5 beers at night. Not a bad celebration. But for some reason he wanted to take the day off of work today and do a long run with me. So I moved my long run from Thursday to Friday so that I could run with him for 2 hours at 6:30am rather than running with Bob et. al. on Thursday morning at 4:45am for 45 minutes and then alone for the last 75 minutes. Oh the irony.

We met at my mom's house so that I could turn on the pool skimmer early. I pulled two frogs out of the water; one dead, one alive. Sort of how Pat and I ended the run! We talked about strategies for hitting as many water stops as possible: Chatham, Hanover, the Courtyard Marriott, the ER. He wanted to avoid those last two. So we went through Brooks Park and Clearview first, and over to Pratt. There we saw the Colonial Forge team getting ready to do a tempo workout. There was a lot of giggling. I was surprised that Sean called out to me, considering all I hear from the gossip is who much he and Mike hate me. That was only 5 miles in and we had a long way to go! They invited us to join their tempo workout, but I really didn't feel like getting dropped by high school kids. At least not until Tuesday at Reddish Knob.

Water at Chatham was welcomed. Then we went under the sea backboards. I think I was running 7 minute pace over the river and put 50 yards on Pat. I slowed to a crawl and waited for him on Rt. 2. As we approached the train tracks, he told me to go. So that was the end of the run with the two of us. At Cobblestone, they'd opened the fire hydrant. It was like a raging river in that parking lot. I got soaked running through the water, and the force of the current (yes, current) actually knocked my foot off of the curb when I tried to get onto the sidewalk and I felt my left ankle crack. I wasn't pleased with that, but 2 minutes later I'd forgotten all about it and focused instead on how wet my shoes were.

I stopped to pee on Sunken Road and there wasn't much happening on that front. Gross. At the top of the hill on Hanover I started to take my GU. Pat had none so I saved half of it for him-- he needed it more. After water at the water fountain, I went back looking for him and handed it off. He said he was going to go straight back to my mom's house. I figured it would be a little less than 3 miles since that's how long it took us to get there the other morning in the dark. Bye Pat.

Where will I go? I'm dying now at 10 miles. Do I really have 8 more miles left in me? I figure that I'll just do the normal morning loop and see where that takes me. Every decision that I make is based on staying in the shade. I saw Larry! He barked at me. Shortly after that, I rounded the turn at the Dixon Street traffic light and my foot slipped within my shoe! Everything was so wet that I just slid around in there. So I had to be careful every time I made a turn because I didn't want my insoles folded up underneath my foot.

The visitor's center doesn't open until 9am, apparently. So I went into the Marriott. I kept going through the morning loop and got off the canal at JM and went down Germania. Then I went to my dentists office to get more water. It was so cold in the office building, I would have been happy to die there. The water was so cold that my teeth hurt minutes after leaving that place. Wonderful. There was a bathroom next to the water fountain with the door open and it had been destroyed. As I left, two nurses walked by and saw it and looked at me. I told them it wasn't me and then ran out of the building! 15.5 miles! Almost home!

Coming up the hill and around the last turn on Ingleside, I saw Pat. I assumed he had come back looking for me, but didn't understand why he wasn't in his car. I did think he might worry about me since he was going to run 13 miles and I was going to run 18 miles. But no, he was just finishing his 12 mile run. He'd taken a lot of breaks on the way back and we both finished at the same time. Ridiculous.

I'd never been so happy to get into my mom's pool after that. I rescued one more frog. Afterwards I went to school to get ice for an ice bath. The ice had completely melted 14 minutes in. After that it was just me in cold water. Next time I should probably find some shade to sit in.

60 in 5 days so far. Need 20 the next two. Easy tomorrow morning and then workout Sunday.