15.02 mi, 2:13:59, 8:55 avg
Left from my house about 6:10, ran the long way to the back gate, past it, and then back to get in an initial 1.7 miles before meeting up with Joe and Jamie. We then headed out to 54 and up Starkey Blvd towards Alico Pass. We ran into Craig returning from his run and ran back to his house and then stopped there to refill water bottles. I was feeling pretty good and decided I didn't want this to be a sluggish pace run. Jamie was one week from her marathon and needed something a little faster pace. My warm up miles (first 1.7) were a little bit slow but made sure not to let it dip too low when running with Joe and Jamie.
On the return trip I had us line up for "Indian runs" just to break up the monotony, did 3 of them. Joe and Jamie grumbled a bit but they are always good about playing along. (Note: I've been researching to see if there is a better name for Indian run but I haven't found anything as universally known to describe this).
After dropping off Joe and Jamie I ran back to my house, then did out and back to the gate and out and back to the end of Eveningwood to hit 15 miles, last two miles at 7:45 average pace.
Then, after the run drove up to Hudson to pick up Aubrey's unicorn shirt for her party later. I drove by Serenova Tract entrance and saw a bunch of protesters along the road with signs to "Save Serenova". Apparently there is a road extension which has been approved and funded by the state/county that will run right through the preserve. Some of it will be elevated to lessen impact. Serenova is the large tract of preserve land that joins next to Starkey Park. It's where I've done some long runs when I'm going "extra long" like 30 or 35 miles.
Next, on to Berkely Prep High School for the track meet. Andy was also there to watch (and drive Tom there and back). Hung out and watched some of the events until Tom was up. Even though he had just PR'd on Wednesday in the 1600 and 800 I was hoping he could do it again. That sub-5:00 barrier was just waiting to be broken. For today's meet he made it into the "seeded" group so he would definitely be running with some faster runners. There were some pretty fast runners in the non-seeded heats but definitely more in the seeded ones. He ran pretty even with usual pattern of faster first lap, 2 and 3 a little slower, then a faster 4th lap, similar to Wednesday, but today they were all a little faster, bringing him from 5:05 on Wednesday to a new PR today of 4:58. Splits were: 1:12, 1:15, 1:16, 1:14 Very exciting to watch! Proud of Tom and his hard work.
There was a long time before the 800 races. He also PR'd in that race, down to 2:16
It was great hanging out with Andy and also saw several other friends from Striders and other parents of track runners.
Ended up being an hour late for Aubrey's party but she wore the shirt for pictures. It was at a place where they showed you how to paint something, she had picked out unicorns.
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