Eight miles, 85 minutes, 44 degrees. And it felt more like Eighteen miles. For some reason, my legs just did not want to move this morning. Also, after about 6.5 I started to bonk a little - just a mushroom wrap for dinner last night, after noodles for lunch (and a 90 minute workout). So I probably should have eaten close to 1,000 calories more than I did yesterday. Ah, well - I’m learning.

So anyway. I was planning on dropping my jacket, but I wore it for the run and was glad of it, considering how cold the wind was blowing off the river. We ran up the trail towards MoPac on the South side of the river, but instead of hitting the footbridge across the spur we continued South and ran along the trail of lights. Some of those displays look positively bizarre during daylight! We headed around past the nature center back to the MoPac footbridge and across, then tried to follow the trail up to Deep Eddy, but it was closed for some reason. Back to the bridge, got some PowerAde to replace the water that was all there was at the start, then East over towards I-35.

There was an unscheduled stop about 3-4 minutes after our penultimate break, just before the freeway, where some kind soul was handing out cookies (mmm…) and water for those who needed it. So we took our last break way early, and took advantage of her generosity. Thank you, whoever you were! Anyway, during that time Minne Mouse of the 10:40 group passed us - she never stops for cookies. So Anthony takes off ahead of her, and I decide to push it and pass our group and theirs to meet up with them. The only problem was breathing heavily running alongside the freeway, since I inhaled a lot of gasoline fumes. Ah, well.

Back on track, we turned right onto Riverside and just followed the trail on in. I ended up finishing in the back of the first packlet (we had split into 2 or 3 with 10 seconds or so between each one). This was the first time since the beginning that I really needed the group to pull me in, so to speak. So between the legs, the lack of food, the cold winds, and the fact that for the last 2 miles I was really looking forward to the porta-potty at the end, I was just glad that this run was over.

And hey, tomorrow is our SockMonkey (10:30 group) holiday party!

Calories burned: about 1,100
Miles remaining: 200.2

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