Today was the second day in San Diego with my wife. The weather was great [mostly upper 70s]. We went deep sea fishing yesterday and caught a bunch of fish. I went out for a short run on the beach from our hotel this morning. I did a little on the sand but most of my run on the boardwalk [I don't know if you still call it that when it's paved]. There are always a lot of people running there. I'm not used to running around other people [except in races] and I seem to get a little competitive. You know: pass other runners but don't get passed. What little running I have done lately has been slow so I started at around 8:30 pace then picked it up as I went. By the time I had gone almost a mile, I was running closer to 8:00 pace and out of the corner of my eye I could see a guy coming up on me. He was on the other side of the beach wall running in the dry deep beach sand. It's hard to run 10 min pace in that stuff! I couldn't let him pass me like that so I picked up the pace for a ways but he was still there. I dropped my pace more [into the 7:30s] and I guess he dropped back and I didn't see him any more. After a mile at this pace I see this guy again out of the corner of my eye. This time I maintained my pace and he went running right by me barefoot in that deep sand. Wow! He definitely had the look of an elite runner. Not too long after passing me though he turned out to the middle of the beach and stopped. I guess he was human. He must of been near the end of his run wanting to do a fast finish and used me as his target. I turned back a little farther out then ran back in 7:35, 7:28 then the last 1/2 mile at 7:07 pace. I don't think I've run a mile under 8 minutes in the last 3 or 4 months so it felt good to run a few faster miles. Overall pace was 7:39
| 