Positive Running

Ran 13.5 slow miles with Josh and Joe from Two Rivers Bridge to the Riverview Skate Park and back.  It was good to run with Josh and Joe.  Hadn't run with Joe since we ran the Full Moon 25K in early July.  Compared to Joe's running times last year, his 8:58 per mile pace for this morning was outstanding.  When we returned to Two Rivers, Joe and Josh went to Panera Bread for breakfast.  

I continued and ran the 7-mile loop (6.85 miles) at Two Rivers Park at a 8:17 per mile pace, not including two water filling stops.  What made that pace good was that the trail between the bridge and the loop was very crowded with walkers, a few runners and a lot of bicyclists.  But most people were confining their activities to the shaded trail between the bridge and the loop.  Hence, once I reached the loop, due to the hot weather and lack of shade on the loop, there were very few runners, walkers or bicyclists on the loop.  It was a good run on pavement.  , I ran by Joel P twice during the two legs of the run this morning.  Joel looks like he's training pretty hard.  When I returned to the parking lot, I talked with my buddy Alex who had just finished running for 17 miles.  AT the parking lot, one of the bicyclists commented that he saw me getting water and then running pretty fast around the loop.  He saw that I was out of water as I reached the parking lot and gave me an ice-cold bottle of water.  That was nice.