Seven miles. Simple, right? Today’s instructions were similar to the other runs around the lake: 20 minutes slow followed by the remainder of the MoPac/I-35 loop at a comfortably hard pace. Well, those were the instructions. My watch battery had died, so I just hooked up with Patrick, Jan and Shane at a comfortable pace.

We picked it up some more once we hit the trail on the North side of the I-35 bridge. I kept it moderately strong, but comfortable, and was able to keep up occasional conversation with Shane. It was warm and a little muggy, but not too bad. After about three or four miles into the run Jan dropped back a little ways, then dropped out of our range; Shane and I continued to press each other. Another few minutes later and we heard someone else come right up behind us and stay there, right on our heels.

As I found out when he pulled past me at about the six mile point, it turns out that our mystery runner was none other than Jay who had come from the back of the pack picking people off one by one. Well, he got us too. By the time we got to the end of the run he was a good 20 seconds out in front. Maybe I could have dug a little deeper and stayed with him, but for whatever reason I just didn’t feel like digging today - probably had something to do with Saturday’s disaster.

Anyway, Jay finished first, then Shane, then I took up the rear. About a quarter mile before the finish line I heard someone coming up behind me, and I was finally able to reach down and pick it up a bit to stay that all important foot in front of him until we hit the zero mile marker. My overall time was 56:30, plus or minus a few seconds, which I believe is a PR for that course - its not one I normally do terribly quickly. All told, that was an 8:07 overall pace even after doing the first two miles at a somewhat casual pace.

And you wonder why I’m not happy with my 7:43 5K PR. Anyway. Before wrapping up I did five 100M strides on the grass at Auditorium Shores, some light stretching, and then headed in to grab a shower and hit the office, all before 8AM. Isn’t that a wonderful way to start the day?

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