This is one of the easiest Saturday morning runs I’ve had in a long time. We got together fairly late - 6:00 - to do the ten mile lap of the lake. This was a preview of sorts, since we’re going to be doing the same course as a time trial on Monday. We were told quite firmly not to go faster than 90 minutes.

Because of this, a portion of my mind was busy making notes. Riverside hill a mile in, well, that always sucks. Mile three has the hill over the dam. Mile four has some light ups, no big deal, et cetera. We started out nice and easy, then Gilbert caught up to us about two miles into the run and started yelling out random encouragement. Between that and the fact that they’d just repaved, most of us managed to miss the trail entirely and ran down the sidewalk for half a mile or so before hooking back up with the loop! After we crossed the dam, Gilbert came up from behind and started picking up the pace a bit. I got sucked into that group but realized it fairly quickly and backed off. He wasn’t going that fast (yet), but it was still faster than I’d planned.

We grabbed water during miles 3, 6, and 9; the temperature was decent, in the mid seventies, but the humidity was rearing its ugly head at around 80% with a very weak breeze. After we were done (in 1:36:15 for a very comfortable 9:26 average pace), we did ten strides at Auditorium shores followed by an easy half hour of conversation before all the groups were back in for stretching. This was an incredibly casual Saturday; I realize that some of you may want to slap me for saying that on any day where we run 10 miles, but hey, this is the first time we haven’t had either a long or a hilly Saturday run in a very long time.

I’ll have to see how much I can shave off that time come Monday. That one, I’m thinking, will be considerably less casual.

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