Today was a day much like any other. Wake up at the crack of dark (in this case 4:30AM), shower, eat a Kudos bar, drink some Gatorade, drive to RunTex by 5:30. I grabbed a ride with Carrie (for which my thanks) and we were up at the Gateway shopping center by 6:00. We ended up following Gilbert’s car and, who’d'a thunk it, he even drives fast too.

I had decided to wear my Fila’s for this run. I’d put 4 seven-mile loop runs on them and, after I fixed the laces, while they weren’t great they didn’t seem that bad either. They’re definately lighter than the Asics Nimbus I had been wearing for my long runs, and I really wanted to try them out for the race. Besides, they went perfectly with my Fila Gazelle shirt (even the colors).

Most of the people gearing up for Chicago were doing a fast 14 miler, and it ended up being just three of us that were going out for 20-22. Well, there were actually five, but one ended up tearing off and one had started earlier, so it was just us three together. Its amazing how much nicer it is to do 20 miles with company than by yourself, isn’t it?

So. The normal 20 mile course. We started at Gateway and headed down, around, over MoPac, through the warehouses, under 183, and got to our first water stop at the North end of Shoal Creek. Gilbert said that we were strong, doing well, and sent us on our merry way after dosing us liberally with Gatorade. Starting at 6 instead of 5 meant that it was going to be a warm run, and dehydration was a definate risk we needed to mitigate.

Down Shoal Creek to a turn that I almost missed because its been under construction for weeks, making it really obvious - not any more! Right, left, etc, and we kept on trucking until we met Gilbert again at the nine mile point. My toes were getting a little sore by now, but it was quite manageable and I figured that I just hadn’t done a sufficient break in period (never mind the fact that its more than I think I gave my Nimbus). I took a Gu - I’d only packed two for today, rather than my normal four, just to make sure that I wasn’t getting too dependent on them - and we took off again.

Our pace was a little slower than I’m used to so that we could accomodate everyone, but not by a huge amount. The point of these runs is to get time on the feet and miles on the shoes anyway, not to break any speed records. We got to the third waterstop, a bit past the half-marathon finish line, at about 2:10. Bernard was there and I remember mentioning that my feet were getting quite sore; I ended up doing a quick ITB stretch which I haven’t had to do mid-run in some time.

Mile fourteen, fifteen; by this point we were Westbound on 6th street heading from Congress over towards MoPac. Not just my feet, but my knees and right hip were getting sore. Coming over the hill we saw a different training group meeting up at the Lake Austin RunTex (I hang out at the Town Lake location), and they just kept on pouring towards the store on both sides of Lake Austin Blvd. Gilbert wasn’t at his usual spot (just past Magnolia Cafe) but we had been assured that there would be Gatorade for us at O’Henry Middle School, just up Exposition. This was another mile, and by this point it was getting on for 9AM and 85 degres with full sun; that’s pretty brutal to only be getting fluids every four miles in.

It wasn’t very fun doing the half mile uphill to the school, but we made it out there and were very glad to see our cooler tucked in behind the transformer. If it hadn’t been there it would have been another mile back to MoPac, and that was not something we wanted to do without a drink. I must have taken in 12-14 oz right then, in addition to my second Gu, prefering to risk nauseous running to my annoyingly persistent dehydration feeling. Renewed and refreshed we turned back around and headed for home.

One mile later we came up on the MoPac footbridge; I’d decided that I’d had more than enough to drink and headed off, while the others stopped for one last cold one from the RunTex tables. I took the North side of the trail to the Lamar footbridge, over, and back to RunTex coming in at a tiny bit over 20 for the morning. I’d like to say that I picked it up, and I was going 8:30-8:45, but I felt pretty crappy by the end of it. I did have a little boost coming in - they were doing sound checks for day two of the Austin City Limits festival, and I got to hear a very loud rendition of Keep On Dancing as I ran by. Neat.

I did make it back in time to see Gilbert presented with a gift from the group; Kenny organized getting him a nice bike to ride. It was built up by a collection of volunteers, custom painted with all sorts of Gazelle references. Very cool. Since so many of the group will be in Chicago, and were wishing that he would be there as well to cheer them on, he was also given a set of plane tickets and a hotel room! That was too cool. In exchange, we got breakfast tacos, two of which I’d eaten by the time I remembered that I hadn’t done my strides after running. Oh, well.

I did stop by RunTex and chatted with Gilbert and a couple of other people as well. They’re going to let me trade back those Filas even though I’ve got 50 miles on them, and I’m probably going to switch into some of the new Landreths. I tried on a pair, and they seemed alright, but I was sore enough that I couldn’t really run in them; they’re going to hold them for me and I’ll check them out more carefully tomorrow.

After the workout I downed most of a bottle of Gatorade (32 oz) and a 20oz cold PowerAde from RunTex. Even with that, I went from 167lbs before the run to 163.5 afterwards. I’m thinking that’s not great. Still, the good news is that we’re unlikely to hit hotter weather in NYC than I’ve had during my training.

Oh, one more thing. When I got home and peeled off my socks for the first time, I saw that I’d managed to give myself two blisters on my left foot. One’s on the middle toe, at the front, and the other is on the - er - ring toe? Its a nice one too, blood and everything. I don’t think I really need to post a picture, do I? Believe it or not, thtis is the first time I’ve given myself any kind of foot injury past a very small blister, not including the weather-induced blisters from this year’s marathon. I mean, this is the first one that was my own damn fault. D’oh! The good news is that this is far enough out from New York that it will but a distant painful memory by then, and I don’t think that my resultant poor running form did much more than make me sore.

Still, it wasn’t one of my better runs. But hey, another 20 miler bites the dust. Next week I’m running in the IBM 10K, probably doing 2 before and 2 after, and I’m intending to race it. I won’t do exceptionally well just because I’m pretty tired, but I will hopefully be able to PR. I’ll take that.

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