I wasn't sure whether to log this run for yesterday or today, but since it was just after midnight, I'll log it for today. I was up late last night and just before I was going to go to bed I heard our wind chimes on the front porch. I stepped out. The wind was blowing strongly through the trees and blowing a light mist from our sprinklers. The night seemed to be calling to me and I got the urge to go for a midnight run. Karen was up late with her sister who is staying with us, and I wasn't really sleepy (I had a brief nap after dinner), so I headed out. I decided to head to the high school track to reduce the danger of getting hit by traffic or stepping on something in the dark. There was a light near one end of the track, and it was just light enough to make out the white lines against the black track on the dark end of the track. On the way over I had enjoyed listening to the wind and the crickets. The sprinklers were on in the center of the track so that's what I heard there, and some pennants flapping in the wind. The wind and the mist from the sprinklers kept things relatively cool, but it was still a little warm. I only got one direct hit from the sprinklers near the end, and it felt good. I decided on a 3 or 4 mile tempo run at the track. During the third mile I decided to go four. I was hoping for mile splits between 7:00 and 7:15, and felt like I ran close to that level of effort, but I think the strong wind hampered my efforts (even though I know it was helping me half the time since I was running in a circle). Actually, my Garmin said I was running between 6:50/mi and 7:10/mi, but it also registered around 1.08 miles per 1600 meters, and its really only 0.994 miles. My 1600 meter splits were 7:34, 7:42, 7:39, 7:18. I enjoyed the run, and I enjoyed sleeping in a little this morning. At noon I ran Lake View with Tom. I guess we sort of ran with Will and his buddy. We started at the same time but they stayed in front of us until they took a detour to the fountain at the park (Tom and I were both packing water), and then I guess they headed back. We didn't see them again until we got back to the fitness center. They were already inside stretching. Neither Tom nor I felt like going very fast. It was hot with the temperature in the mid-90's. We still managed to finish the 5.2 miles in 41:54 (8:03/mi). I'm not sure I enjoyed the running all that much, but it was nice talking with Tom as we ran.
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