Low 50sF, mostly cloudy, windy (10-20 mph). Endurance run + club run. Late for club = 2 miles at accidental-marathon-pace. Seeing as how I haven't been under an 11:00 min. pace since the marathon 3 weeks ago, it's pretty amazing to me that this run was so fast (pretty much 10:30 and under the whole time, except for coming up the Parkway). I was late for the club run because I couldn't figure out what the weather was doing and I kept changing my mind about wardrobe. So I let myself just have 1 mile at 12:00 and then let it rip down the Parkway. Near the bottom, with 2 miles to go until the club meetup spot, I realized I still didn't have time to make it -- hence the 2 marathon pace miles. The whole way I was thinking it was pretty stupid of me to spend so much energy that early, but I figured I would accept the consequences happily as long as I could make it through at least 12 miles today. At the club run, I paired up with a lady who is much faster than I am, but wanted to run with me anyway. I sped a little for her, and she slowed down a little for me, and we both had a fine ~6 miles together. We stayed at about a 10:15 pace, which is faster than what I've been doing the past 3 weeks, and it felt great. Heading back up the Parkway (The Leg Builder, formerly known as The Spirit Crusher) is when I really paid for my somewhat reckless behavior, and I had to walk the steepest parts. For all my changes of clothing, I still was not dressed quite right. But other than that it was a fantastic run. My legs feel great and the autumnal world is very beautiful right now. I sure do love running. And hey, I'm having a birthday soon. I won't say when, because I don't care to post my date of birth on the internet. But within a short time I will be 51 years old - and I'm a runner! Ha! | 