The Long Run

After sleeping in a bit, then taking the boys to Ihop for breakfast, then a trip to Costco for my birthday (I'm pretty easy to please), went for a run from home, out towards and onto Trinity Blvd on the grassy part, then turned around and ran to Flex One. There was a steep bank in the ditch that I ran up and down a couple of times.

Went inside the gym and did another 13 minutes on the treadmill and a little bit of working out while Jenny was training Elizabeth H. and Chris H. was hanging out.

Then headed out to Tijuana Flats for beer and chips, then back home and over to Carabba's with my family and parents for dinner, and when I thought it couldn't get any better, Scott, Tracy and the Suncoast Running store staff was there and bought me a drink! Whew, what an awesome birthday!

Nice, easy paced enjoyable run with Lisa around the neighborhood.  I had thoughts of not running today and probably would have felt slow and clunky if running by myself, but instead the pace and the run felt easy and enjoyable (sure it was a little slower than normal, but it felt nice and easy rather than a struggle).

It was a bit chilly this morning so I wore long sleeves and a hat - head was a little warm by the end of the run because it wasn't that cold, about 50 degrees.

I did a quick "better than nothing" workout after the run and then biked Thomas to school before heading off to work.

Easy paced run with Jenny, Lisa, and Chris H for first part of run, then just Chris H. and I for the second half. Little bit warmer than yesterday, nice morning for a run.

Pace felt nice and it was fun to have some people along.

Started with Jenny , Lisa R. , and Nicole S., ran together to Trinity Blvd, then I kept going and ran to the Y for water and gel stop.

Ran into Raj as I was heading towards the Y and ran with him for a few miles, before heading back home.

I was chatting this morning about shoe rotation and how good it is and now just realized I wore the same pair two days in a row.  Oh well, I'm sure I'll live.  And what's more I should remember to be thankful I have shoes to choose from as well as just having shoes, period.

Had considered a tempo run with Raj, but thought better of it since just getting over something that almost turned into a holiday wrecking bad cold. Actually turned off the alarm an hour before it was supposed to go off and was going to sleep in if that's what my body needed, but I woke up at 5:00 anyway. Did easy instead.

Started out slowly caught up to a few people like Stephanie, Amye E. and Rachel G. to say hi and chat a couple of minutes. Felt way better at the end than at the beginning. Remembered to wear different shoes today.

Ran 1.5 miles with Jenny , Lisa R. , and Kathryn L. then did another 5.5 myself. Warmer this morning with some touches of cooler fog patches. Nice run.

My first run up at Croom. 

I'm signed up for a 50K here in January called the "Croom Zoom" - it is basically a 3 loop course plus a small loop at the start.  Running off road on some of the best trails around.  This particular course avoids the big hills that the fall and spring races here run on but there is some pretty good rolling stuff.  Never having run up here before I wanted to get a feel for the course.

I had wanted to get in 20 miles and I was originally going to try and just follow the course as best I could. But, Sean mentioned that he saw some people from FL Ultra runner's group were meeting at 5:00 to run 3 loops on the Croom Zoom course.

So, I woke up at 3:25, left the house at 3:44, and got there about 4:40.

 Starter loop and loop 1

We did the "starter loop" then one full loop (with a slight detour added),so a total of about 12.5 miles so far.  There were a few spots on that first loop where I wasn't sure how well I was going to be doing for the day, going through some deep sand, having a hard time seeing and avoiding the roots while it was dark out, and I was needing a bathroom stop with about two miles left before we got back to the parking lot.

The pace was pretty easy for the first loop, about 11:35 or so which included periodic walk breaks to go up a hill or to decide whether or not we were still on the right trail.

Loop 2

I did a quick pit stop at the start area, then started on the next loop.  Now it was light out and a picked up a few more people that wanted to run with the group but did not want to start at 5:00.  The pace was a little bit quicker and the running was a lot easier now that it was light out.  By the end of the second loop the pace was just a little slower than 11:00 pace.

Loop 3

After the second loop I drank some muscle milk - I had planned on refilling my drink bottles with Accelerade but had left one of them at home.  Oh, well - two 10 oz bottles of Accelerade and 3 gels would have to do for 30+ miles.  One of the guys was heading out for the third loop so I hastily followed him back out onto the course.

Not sure if I was making a mistake or not, but after the halfway point of the last loop I felt pretty good. Picked up the pace for a few miles, then finally found my way to the end.

Couldn't believe I ran that far. The scenery was amazing (except for the first loop which was dark). Saw a pretty big deer. Andy pointed out the holes in the ground where some of the trees completely burned to the ground and then kept on burning, not even leaving a stump, just a hole in the ground. Several hunters were out so we made sure to periodically make some noise, like a "whoop whoop" or a train (whoo-whoo). Had fun running again with Andy (ran with him in Jacksonville in 2007), another Andy, Ash, Dave, Andrea, Tori, Ashley, and a couple others whose names I forget now. Some of the "rooty" sections at the beginning were a little bit tough in the dark. Couple near misses with falling and a few minor ankle rolls but nothing serious. After the run had yogurt, a cliff bar, and a quick stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a donut. Overall an amazing experience. I wish I could think of more to write. Now I'm definitely ready to be back there in January for the actual race.