54F, raining. Austin, TX - we were in the area visiting family, so I went to downtown to meet David "derhammer" and his group of Gazelles on Saturday morning. I had read about some of their speedy past few weekend runs so I took it easy the last couple days in the hopes I'd be able to keep up.
I saw David in the parking lot and we did a warmup mile, then 19 @ 7:20 AP with Mike and Russ. It was a killer run, hillier than anything I've attempted to this point in my running life. The hills started about 5 miles in. I knew I was in for it, because the other 3 guys seemed to actually increase their pace going up hills, and I tend to let gravity win when I run on my own. Finally came to Mt. Bonnnell, which was pretty brutal - might as well have been climbing stairs, it was that steep. Then we literally did climb stairs at the top, to reach the peak which had a pretty great view of Austin. Then down the mountain. Then turned around to go back up the mountain. It was a Texas "mountain," so maybe only a few hundred feet tall, but the elevation gain seemed to all come in about a half-mile. This last climb we got strung out a bit with SlowJoe bringing up the rear -- David zipped passed me like I was standing still. Finally back down to the flatter area to finish up, still around a MP effort.
Quite a run, but I had an awesome time. I was pleased just to be able to hang on for dear life. Good scenery and good company, for sure. Then after the run, I met Dasha from the blog to top off a great morning.
Here's what my watch had for splits - 8:33, 7:57, 7:47, 7:31, 7:41, 7:35, 6:58, 6:59, 7:33, 7:22, 7:18, 7:32, 6:52, 6:52, 6:58, 6:50, 6:43, 7:26, 7:01. Miles 9-12 included the crazy hills - I'll credit myself with 10 good MP-effort miles. | 
