10:30 AM - Overcast and temperature of 49 degrees at the start. It's been a whirlwind week. Started off perfectly on Sunday with Emmy and me getting engagement photos taken around western Mass. She won a $500 certificate towards the photos and it was really a lot of fun to feel like celebrities for the day, taking pictures in Stockbridge, along Rte 7 and 8 and inside the Red Lion Inn and stuff. Was neat to have our very own photographer! Hope the pictures turn out great too!
Haven't had time to breathe this week. Worked four nights at the bookstore right after I got done student teaching. Got home and went to bed for a few hours, up to do it all again. Decided I needed to get a good run in today. So I headed over to the new Galway Preserve. It was soaked and the yellow trail was downright treacherous. Rolled my ankle after only .5 miles. Doh! Such a noob.
On the warmup, I did 2 miles out on the road, and about .25 miles down the road, there is a huge field on the right and there were hundreds of Canadian geese in there. I guess seeing a bearded runner with short shorts on scared the poop out of them, because a couple squawked and took off and before I knew it there were 300-400 geese up in the air flying around. It was like Hitchcock's "The Birds!" Downright weird! Funny though! :)
Went back and did another 2.5 miles or so through the nature trails, then out onto the roads to break things up. Did an out and back to Mrs. Smith's pie shop. Took a PowerGel at Mile 7 and then a ClifBar at mile 10. Felt pretty good considering my feet have been hurting every day when I'm at work on my feet all day. And, despite not running for the week I managed a respectable time. You can see the miles done on the roads easily (as they are all sub 10:00). The trails were fun though. Lots of mud, roots, rocks, leaves, stream crossings. I had a blast! Splits were:
- Mile 1: 8:57
- Mile 2: 9:03
- Mile 3: 10:52
- Mile 4: 10:27
- Mile 5: 9:08
- Mile 6: 8:29
- Mile 7: 8:24
- Mile 8: 8:35
- Mile 9: 8:29
- Mile 10: 8:26
- Mile 11: 9:59
- Mile 12: 10:53
- Mile 13: 10:30
- .35: 3:43 (10:40)
Total Time: 2:06:00 Total Distance: 13.35 miles Average Pace: 9:26 | 
