The sun is up, the air is fresh, the stone is old

5 miles easy through Providence inbetween meetings

Just did my long run this weekend so I was hurting! I've been excited to just get the distance in lately. My pace has been so slow I knew I had to mix in a race or two to keep from getting the "marathon shuffle".

I showed up at the race pretty late since it was so early..It was 38 degrees this morning! Nuts! I made it up to the starting line just moments before the race started and had time to talk to my neighbors and their kids running the race.

I wanted to pace at 5:45 for the 6 miles and started out a bit fast which is usual for me. I saw Scott and said Hi for a minute and then just enjoyed the first downhill bit. It was hard to run a pace when I have been just jogging lately but at least the tendon wasn't bothering me. I fell in behind the first two guys and pretty much finished on the pace I wanted. Great workout!

8 miles easy in New York Central Park

5 miles in the morning in St. Louis.

5 miles afternoon in San Diego and 45 minutes weight training

10 mile trail run in Anchorage, Alaska.  What a morning!

1 mile swim in 32 minutes.

1 hour weight lifting

This is the absolute funnest race of the season, so I knew I couldn't miss it inspite of a tendon issue, anyways how can you get injured running downhill anyways?

There was a lot of fun people at the start so the race was turning into a good time even before it started.  There was a pretty good wind comming up the canyon we would have to run into so I was pretty sure times would be a bit off from last year.  Also the starting line seemed to have been moved up the canyon higher.  I had on my "Fat Man" shoes, 15 ounce Kayanos since this is so steep of a course.  No way my calfs can handle any kind of flats this year in any race, let alone this one.  We started off on a pretty good downhill and I was just looking for someone to use as a windblock for a mile or two but Moody is running so well this year he was just too fast.  Also I knew Rob Murphy was going to be passing me soon since he beat me good at the Deseret News 10K so I had to get going.  Nothing is like this race, you really just have to do all you can to slow down as you run.  I felt like my arms were windmills on the sides of my body and my form was ridiculous.

The first mile was 4:31 and the second was about the same.  I could not close the gap on Teren and Patric but was able to catch up to Moody and used him as a windblock for the third mile and rested a bit, which I'm sure annoyed him since I run like a three legged camel on this course.  Mile 3 was a bit slower at around 4:37 and I thought I had about a mile and a half left.  I tried to figure out the math on what an 8K would be, but only about three brain cells were functioning so I just guessed it would be about 5 miles so I better figure out how to breath.  I just could not get any air about mile 4.  But right then we came up to one of those downhill warning signs with a picture of a truck on it and a 9% grade!  I knew I could survive a mile at that kind of downhill so I relaxed again and that was my fastest mile at about 4:27. 

We had a great evening with the Murphys at the barbeque and I met a few fellow bloggers which is always fun.  The kids and I splashed all the water out of the hot tubs.  We went on a hike Sunday morning since we were all too sore to run one of those trails again and had just a great time.