My schedule had me down for thirteen miles at a 9:30 pace today. I only managed to get 11.5 in, but I’m alright with that (this time).

I decided to do my run down on the Town Lake trail; it had been too long since I’d taken advantage of this particular running treasure. About a half mile into the run, I realized that I had forgotten to apply my nipple guard band-aids, so I had to go back to the car to put them on. After that, I took off again on my loop around the lake. I wasn’t sure exactly what route I was going to take but, hey, that’s why I have the Forerunner, right?

I had a decision to make about four miles into the run. I could either start with the seven mile loop, or do the ten mile loop out over the dam. The ten miler has a little more sidewalk in it, but it also has some of the most beautiful, quiet, peaceful lake views. More importantly, it had been months since I had a good run out over the dam. The last few times I’d attempted it, something had always gone wrong and I ended up walking back the last few miles. Not that the route is terribly challenging, it just always seemed to work out that way.

I decided to go for it. And you know what? It turns out that old 10 mile loop isn’t such a big deal after all. The only problem that I encountered hit me just as I was coming under I-35 - basically, where I would have ended up had I not done the longer loop. I was wearing my Pervasive shirt for the first time, and it has a large graphic over the left breast. Well, it had really started to bug me, and I was getting annoyed that they’d do something like that on a running shirt.

Well, what had actually happened was that my left band-aid had dropped off. Anyone who’s watched runners come in with bloody nipples at the end of a race knows that this is not a Good Thing. Mine wasn’t bad, but it was surely beginning to hurt, and that logo wasn’t helping out any. I had to run the last 2.5 miles back to the car while holding my shirt out from my body, an act which isn’t conducive to great running form.

Now the good news. When I got back to the car my Forerunner was reporting that I’d just taken 1:36:38 to run 10.05 miles. That’s a 9:37 average pace, including the stops to take care of my rubbing issues. I had been going at a relaxed comfortable pace, not hurrying at all. To me, that’s a strong indication that my 9:18 pace at the Pervasive 10 mile run was heavily influenced by the weather and the hills; which is another good thing to know. I should point out that I intentionally do not look at my time during these runs, just record it to watch later, so I didn’t know how fast or slow I was going. Checking my watch shows that my pacing was a little random, ranging from about a 9:10 up to just under a 10:00, but that’s alright for a long run.

Anyway, I applied a new band-aid and headed back to finish up with another three miles on the Pfluger loop. After a half mile though I stopped and turned around; I was sufficiently sweaty that the band-aid wasn’t sticking. It was getting a little dark, and I ended up running by the high school track to get to my car, so I decided to finish up there. I dropped my shirt and did a few more laps.

First off, I should point something out. I’m quite self-concious about running without a shirt on. This felt pretty good - admittedly it was getting dark and I wasn’t on the trail itself, but still, I didn’t feel that I looked too bad. This is a good accomplishment for me, and it actually led me to come up with another goal for this racing season, that by the end of it I’d be in good enough shape to do my running without a shirt on if the weather was appropriate.

So I did another mile or so on the track, but then something else started bugging me: my toes had been getting a wee bit too warm on this run. I was wearing my better shoes, but I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re pretty much worn out as well - although not as badly as the other ones. That means that tomorrow will include a trip to RunTex and at least one new pair of Sauconys.

All in all, a fun day’s running.

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