The Long Run

Pasco Sheriff Jingle Bell 5K - 18:34, new PR and 1st overall. Wasn't expecting that.

Trailed very fast high school cross country teenager for 2 miles then gradually caught up to him. There was also another guy ahead of me for the first mile, a few years older than me but pretty tough looking (he's done some Iron Mans). We were spread out 1 - 2 -3 for a while with the same sized gap between each of us. Also, there were some smaller kids who I almost tripped over at the start who passed me and were out in front for about the first quarter of a mile.

I caught up to second place guy and slowly closed the gap on the teenager. Ran next to him for a bit then started to pull away.

The course was a little bit hillier than expected (as there aren't that many hills around here), but I think I used them to my advantage to recharge my speed on the downhills if I started to slip a bit.

There was one final hill right before turning into the parking lot of the New Port Richey Aquatic center, where the finish line was. I turned the corner and saw the clock which read something like 18:22, that really got me going and I pushed as hard as I could, crossed the finish line and couldn't quite believe that I had PR'd and one the race.

Thank you Kathryn L. for putting on such an awesome race and encouraging me to run it. Did some warm up before the race (jogged the course), then some strides, then did a little over a mile before awards.

Had a plate of pancakes, stuck around for the awards then headed over to Starkey Park to do the rest of my miles out on the trail.

I arrived there about 10:00, it was still cool out (high 60's) but the sun was up. Did another 16.64 miles on trails (longest all trail run so far - well, almost all trail, ran about a 1/2 mile on the bike path to top off water bottles). I parked at the horse corral and ran towards the 3 mile loop, then out past it over to the power lines where I headed North.

I came to the water crossing where Sean had seen an alligator the day we ran together back in July and I was still recovering and rebuilding (I just did 6 that day so turned back early and did not see the gator). But, with the dryness, there was only a very small water crossing (short enough to jump over), but with the size of the swamp and ponds on either side of the trail I could see how much of an obstacle this could turn into when it is the rainy part of the year.

Kept going north and got to the paved bike trail. Took a slight detour onto it to top off my water before continuing north some more along the power lines. Enters into a new park at some point. I turned onto one of the marked trails and ran on it for a while until I came to a bridge over a creek, crossed it and the trail started to get overgrown until it disappeared. Made my way back through some tall grass to the main power line trail which I stayed on until taking another chance on a side trail. The second one worked out better.

Ran until I had gone a little over 8 miles total then headed back the way I came (minus the first disappearing trail!).

The total distance for the day was just a little more than I did two weeks ago but I felt a bit more wiped out due to the race and the timespan. Had been on my feet and on the go since 6:45, and now it was 12:45.

Recovered pretty well and enjoyed another bass guitar lesson where I learned a few new things (like how to tune using harmonics), but also learned about how much I have to learn. Hope I can get better at it someday!!

Click here for a few pics from both runs.