That was an impressive run! The last time I did this basic course, three weeks ago, we ran up Scenic to the top of Mt. Bonnell and back for a bit over 14 miles. This time we did basically the same run, but instead of turning around at the top we continued over the hill to 2222 - very hilly - and then turned around and ran back up to the top, then picked up where we left off. That took the total up to almost 17 miles, all of the new ones quite challenging.

I did much better about getting to the start on time today, even though I was feeling a little down; we’ve just started to get some seriously wet weather after over a month of no measurable rainfall, and something about it has trigged my allergies. I popped both a claritin and a sudafed, for lasting and immediate help, and got to the starting point at RunTex with a reasonably clear head. The one thing I wasn’t terribly comfortable about was that I was still running in some pretty old shoes; not the Triumphs that gave me blisters in Dallas, but annoyingly enough my Landreths hit their wear-out point right about the same time and we’re right in the middle of a change-out for the Asics line here; there were no size 12s in Austin when I checked earlier this week!

Since my regular crowd were all gone, all either out of town or running earlier, I was happy to find that Jolel was wanting to do my pace. He was only planning on doing 14 rather than 17-18 though, heading up to Mt Bonnell and turning around rather than continuing on down the other side. Still, that gave me company for the first half and so we ran out together and started chatting. About a mile into the run, still in our warmup mode, we came across Amy and Greta; Greta had jumped in at the one mile point to shave 2 miles off the total while still doing the hard part of the run, and both of them were planning on doing the full out and back to 2222 at around our pace - we had a group!

The first four miles on any of these Scenic loop runs are nice and easy; two on the trail, one decent hill with about a 70′ rise, and then two on Lake Austin Blvd which, while it has a slight incline, might as well be flat. We ran to the boat docks and then paused twice, once for water and again a little bit later to allow a couple of our group to relieve themselves:

After that, it was time for the hills to start in earnest. It was almost five miles from the boat dock to our turnaround point on 2222, and during that time we’d climb 810 feet and descend 764; those are topographical numbers by the way, not odd GPS ones. To some of you who run hills like these every day I’m sure that you’re wondering why I’m even mentioning this; hopefully those of you, like me, in relatively flat parts of the country can understand that this was quite a chore. Of course, as soon as we got there we had to turn around and do it all over again the other way!

We did pause to drink some water at the dry cleaner’s at the start of mile seven, and I took my first Gu of the day for a little extra hill boost since the big climbs were still to come. The peak hit around the start of mile eight, and we stopped again for our official drinks and to do a little light calf stretching. Jolel decided to continue with us rather than run back solo or wait, so once we were all ready we headed into uncharted territory down the North side. Its a really great run, with one very challenging downhill (and equally difficult uphill the other way). I wasn’t terribly fast through all this, but I made sure to focus on my form, to not get too out of breath, and to keep running and never stop to rest or walk. I think my HR was pretty much where it should be for a difficult LSD day.

Once we’d finished going up and over, we got back down to 35th street much faster than I’d expected; good company will do that for you on a run I guess. We turned left and continued on for a mile or so to Exposition, chatting about this and that, discussing what we thought of the neighborhood we were going through that Lance is building his new house in, et cetera. Ah, Austin. Once we reached Exposition and took another quick stretching break, we hooked a right and picked it up a bit, continuing on to O’Henry Middle School for our final water stop of the day. Henry was there, watching over everything while spinning away on a trainer, so we chatted for a minute or two; the idea was to pick things up for the last few miles back to our cars.

Looking at those times, I’m sure we probably waited too long at that last stop. Oh, well. I show 2.82 miles from there to the finish, and while I tried to keep my pace under the 8:00 target it was pretty hard. My feet were getting noticably sore, probably from my worn out shoes, and the blisters on my little toes were making themselves known as well. I’d put bandaids on each one, but even so the rubbing was getting sore. Still, for a difficult run I’m alright with my times, especially since we really started picking it up at mile 13:

Amy was doing better at keeping the speed up in the last mile, she started to pull away about 1.25 miles from the finish; I was close behind Greta until she stopped at the 1 mile mark. Volel was behind me somewhere, but I wasn’t entirely sure where. After I finished I waited around for a few minutes, then did five 100M striders; when he still didn’t come in I wondered if he’d stopped at the one mile point as well and went up to RunTex for stretching. He arrived shortly thereafter, doing a run/walk for the last couple of miles which was still decent since he’s coming off an injury and hadn’t wanted to do 17 today at all!

After the run I felt tired, but not completely worn out. My legs were much more sore than my lungs were, if that makes sense. I was able to get into RunTex and pick up a brand new pair of Asic Gel-Nimbus, just off the truck and looking like they’re right off the set of a Buck Rogers remake: silver with hints of orange. Oh, well, I’m sure the trail can take care of that for me pretty effectively.

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