I'm retired from racing. Really.

AM- early morning run with Jim and Dan.  Wasn't too warm or humid, relatively speaking.  Quads had soreness of maybe 1 out of 10, so that's something.  It means I did at least a little bit of good pounding on Sat.

Lunch- 10 more with some of the guys.  A bit more tired and slow, plus warmer.

Lunch- longish lunch run. Even picked some wild blackberries again. 12 miles or so. Not as hot or humid today.

AM- wanted to get in my first workout in forever. 3 miles warmup, then 8 mile tempo. Started easy at 6:30 pace, then steadily increased the pace to sub 6 by the end.  12.5 miles total in 1:22 or so.

Lunch- Got my gait analyzed at the gym.  My leg length difference affects my stride (right is .5 inch shorter), but I've always known that.  Ran a bunch, too- 9.5 miles total.  Rather hot and sweaty out today.

Pretty tired by the end, especially the last mile.  I realized I've done 110 miles in the last 7 days.  That's about as high as I ever go. That's almost Jake mileage, minus all the sub-5 min workouts.  Looks like I'm even on top of the mileage board, though a lot of that is cause most the Utah runners were racing today.

Lunch 6

PM- last Paris Mtn run with Justin before he leaves for New Hampshire. Met him, plus Aaron and Lynn, at BOP, then ran into the park to meet Barry and Josh. Ran up SS and the Brissy Ridge to upper kanuga, which we rarely run. By sheer luck, we ran into Jason, bringing our group to 7. Ran down to the lake. We could see some dark clouds and lots of lightning but no rain yet. Justin took us on some crazy route after the lake, mainly off trail on a sewer line with quite a few thorny bushes. At least a front moved through, dropping the temps 10 degrees. Finally ended back on BR and ran down. With about 2 miles to go, the skies opened up in typical SC torrential rainstorm. The trails flooded almost instantly, and we were soon running in ankle deep water. And deeper- it's nuts how hard it can rain. 70 deg and a hard rain can be quite enjoyable, splashing and singing. Ran to Barry's truck and hopped in the back for a ride back. Then went to Five Guys for burgers and brownies. Good run, enjoyable evening. I'll really miss him. Finished with 12.5 miles in 2:15, 1700 ft climb, 1900 ft loss.

128 miles the past 7 days of running.

AM- 4.5 ez and slow. then water park and blueberry picking.

I ordered some Smartwool gear from their website Mon night and got 5-7 business days shipping. It arrived Wed. Guess they don't have huge demand for their warm gear in July. Especially going to South Carolina.

AM- very last run with Justin before he leaves to NH for grad school. Drove to DuPont through a thick fog with thunder rumbling. This being this summer, the skies opened up for a while and we got soaking wet and ran much of the run with ankle deep puddles and mud. I still cant believe the severity of these storms. Even had to reroute a few times due to dangerously flooded streams. No rain the last two hours. But being wet isn't really bad when it's 75+ degrees out. Finished with 19 miles and 2200 ft climbing in 3:19, going from memory. Now to clean the house, help a guy move all his stuff out of his house and into my garage, then have a party for 2 families moving next week. Busy day, all on 4 hrs sleep. Good to get one last Justin run, though. It's been a fun two years and he'll have fun at grad school. I'm just never going to call him Doctor, that's for sure. By sheer coincidence, looks like I hit 2000 miles even for the year today. That is all.

With Justin after the run