With the steady rain falling at 5:30 this morning I suspected Wayne
but come to pick me up. I gave him a call and confirmed that he
preferred to run at the fitness center later to getting soaking wet. I
didn't want to pay to run at the fitness center, so I was going to go
out in the rain. But then I decided to go give the fieldhouse at BYU a
try. I ran many miles there in 1982 training for my first two
marathons, but it has probably been 25+ years since I've trained there.
Kevin J. and I tried once a year or two ago but there was a high school
track meet going on. I got there a little before 6:00am. No track meet this morning. At first there was mostly just a few senior citizens
walking around or jogging. The numbers slowly increased and got younger
as the morning went on. The big loop was closed this morning.
I had originally planned on 16-18 miles for today, but with 7
1/7 laps per miles, I didn't think my sanity would last that long. I
decided to just start running and see how long I lasted. Keeping
track of laps was the hard part. I would count three laps on my right
hand, then three laps on my left hand, then one lap not counting on
either hand. Every 7 miles I ran an extra lap. I ended up doing this twice for a total of 14 miles. I didn't realize until afterwards that (7x7)+1
= 50, and 50x2 = 100, so I ran exactly 100 laps. That's a new record
for me. In high school I once ran 10 miles in 80 laps on an 1/8 mile
indoor basement track (no windows, just concrete).
This morning I averaged about 8:10/mi the first 7 miles and
8:30/mi the second 7 miles for an overall average of about 8:20/mi for
the 14 miles. Not bad for running uphill into a strong headwind. OK, it
was on an indoor track...level with no wind...but I still feel pretty
good about the run. It was kind of fun passing people over and over
again. I only got passed a few times, generally by people doing speed
work or kicking at the end of their run. It reminded me (a little) of 1982 when I was 22 years old and in sub-3:00 marathon shape. Driving
home I passed a runner we see out most Saturdays, and other days when
we run to Provo Canyon. He was soaking wet and it didn't look very fun.
I don't mind running in light or intermittent rain, but with the steady
rain this morning I was glad I decided to try the field house.
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