The Long Run

4.42 mi, 40:01, 9:03 avg

Short out and back run from my house to Trinity Blvd and a tiny bit running on the grassy shoulder before turning around and heading back home.

10.18 mi, 1:26:03, 8:27 avg

Ran from my house to SR54 and then Starkey Blvd, easy paced warm up about 2.4 miles.  Dropped off my gatorade and then continued north on Starkey Blvd bike trail doing 4x1km repeats of: 3:55, 3:49, 3:51, 3:54

So, each one a little bit faster than 20:00 5k, although I only did 4 today instead of 5, that was actually one up from my bargain of "just do 3" which I did, then did one more.

Good mileage for the morning and run seemed to go by quickly.

6.15 mi, 51:43, 8:24 avg

Run in the neighborhood.  Came close to getting run over.  Was running on the sidewalk, jeep pulling a trailer was coming out of one of the neighborhood parks.  He pulled up to the sidewalk, thought he saw me and thought he was going to stay stopped, so I continued on and he started pulling out so I had to stop. Gave him the two palm salute.  I ran ahead a little bit and he pulled over and started a non-apology saying that he thought that I saw him, then he said he couldn't see me because his windows were fogged up.  I reminded him that I was on the sidewalk and if I had been a little kid I might not have stopped and would have gotten run over.  He finally gave a real apology which was not the main point of saying something but rather hopefully he will yield the right of way to people on the sidewalk.

Rest of run was uneventful, last two miles were faster at 7:46 and 7:16 (maybe from some leftover adrenaline from the big confrontation).

7.72 mi, 1:07:58, 8:49 avg

Last night my AC stopped working, fortunately it only got up to 80 inside my house (but humid with no AC drying the air).  I called the repair people (AirHawk) and told them it could wait until the morning.  Joe messaged me back and said it sounded like the float switch.  So, in the morning I used my shopvac to suck out the water that was making the float switch activate and then the AC worked again but I figured I should have someone check it out.

I started my run which was going to be 10 miles but AirHawk called and said someone would be there between 8 and 10, so I ran back to my house and ran up and down the street until they arrived.  Checked things out and cleaned out the drain a bit better.

I ran another 3.8 miles, out and back to Trinity Blvd, and then went to do 8x25 second strides.  I threw in a bonus stride where I averaged a 4:57 pace for 30 seconds - I just need to extend that pace out for another 4:27!

So, AC fixed twice, run done and now just need to solve the mystery of the missing 5th tie that I ordered for the wedding but only 4 showed up!

Also, saw an incredible full rainbow as a result of the light sprinkling that helped cool down the run.

7.26 mi, 1:01:14, 8:26 avg

Cool temps were back a little bit.  Ran from my house out to 54 and took a right and then down Corporate Center to Trinity Blvd and then to the new park.  Used the water fountain and ran a couple of loops around the lake before heading back home the same way I came.  Lots of people were at the park, several dogs in the dog park and a few couples playing on the thing that looks like a tennis court but is not tennis (not sure what it was, looked like they were using giant ping pong paddles).

Finally made it back to the RAP River Run 5k.

Thomas and Andy came with me.  They had a 10K this year also starting at 6:30, with the 5K starting at 7:30 (glad it didn't start at 8:00!).  Was getting warmer (but still not too bad) and a bit humid.

Andy was going to just run it for fun and Thomas was going to race it (he'd missed about a week of training due to some braces related oral surgery but has been getting in some good training recently).

Made my way through the thick starting crowd.  Thomas was a good bit ahead of me.  Eric from Mitchell cross country was there also and he had a good sized lead on both of us.

About a 1/4 mile into the race I suddenly felt really good and made up some of the initial weaving time.  Course is nice and shaded as it heads north up Grand Blvd.  Finished first mile in 6:13.  Shortly into the second mile I was not holding the same pace and was struggling a bit to get back into the 6:30's.  Finished the second mile in 6:35.

Nice thing about 5K's is they are over pretty quickly but it can be tempting to take it easy in the third mile.  I passed a few runners then caught up to Thomas.  I told him to come and stay with me but he told me to go ahead without him (ok, he didn't really say that but he made it clear he was not going to stick with me).  I passed a couple more runners.  A person on the side called out "400 meters left".  Finish line was a straight shot from there and pretty soon I could see 19:40something on the clock. I picked it up and ran faster trying to slow down the clock but it just seemed to speed up.  But fortunately I was still able to beat it before it turned 20:00.

Thomas was not far behind at 20:19.

Larry Smart was there today and ran 19:07 so he took first place masters award and I was awarded 1st place "Grand Masters".  Eric ran 19:27 but was in a tough age group so took 4th.  Andy took it easy and ran a decent 24:07

After the race I ran about another 1 mile for a cool down, stayed for awards, and in addition to the GM award, won a door prize drawing for $50 gift card to Pet Spa - maybe get Stella a mani-pedi