Be careful what you ask for, you may receive it. Today was a cloudy, messy looking day. I hit some light rain on the way up to the trail, but nothing too serious - it was sprinkling when I started my stretch. And that’s the way it stayed, for the most part.

I was doing seven miles alone today, and I decided to just work on my form and my breathing, doing the whole circuit at three-in, three-out (counting strides per breath). This would slow me down a little, but should help stablize my base. Since I was alone, I knew I’d be running slower than I am capable of anyway; its hard for me to push myself this early in the morning, especially the week of the time shift.

Turns out that my comfortably sleepy pace is pretty slow. I did the first three miles in 10:34, 10:56, and 10:58. That’s really not where I want to be. I had decided not to worry about my speed and go for pacing, but still - that’s way too slow. I was originally planning on stopping twice, but I felt so relaxed that I kept going through the first point and only stopped halfway through mile 4 when I needed to find a convenient tree. Even with that, I did that mile in 10:48. Then I ran up to the RunTex water stop at Riverside and slowed to a walk to grab a drink.

At this point, I saw Alex out working with Gilbert’s group on his 5-mile pace. My left knee had been complaining slightly, so I stretched for a minute or two and chatted, then he got called away and I headed out myself. That put mile 5 at a snail-like 11:41. Mile 6 was back to my normal pace (for today at least) at 10:42, still doing the 3-in 3-out breathing technique. Right about that time, it started to rain harder. And colder. And harder still, until it was pouring down. That convinced me to pick up the pace a bit! I did the final 1.05 at a 9:43 pace, and that includes dodging puddles, crossing the street, and running all the way out to my car in the parking lot. I was completely soaked before I was done.

On the one hand, it was miserable. Looking down so I wasn’t blinded, feeling chilled to the core, all I could do was listen to my feet squelch in their shoes, and hope that the hail that had hit 20 miles North wasn’t on its way down to get me. On the other hand, at least I was wearing all technical fabrics and only had a mile to go. And I got to see something I’d never seen before: from the footbridge underneath MoPac, with lightning and a hard rain as a backdrop, the rain coming down the sluices off the freeway was amazing. I’m not sure which was more impressive, the streams hitting the lake or the ones hitting the grass, but they were all so beautiful. And if I had slept in, I’d never have seen it.

Time: 75:54
Distance: 7.05
Pace: 10:46
GPS Map

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