This Saturday started out much like any other. Six AM rolled around and, well, if the sun had been up that early, it would have dawned over a motley collection of runners listening to Gilbert give us our marching orders for the day. Of course, the sun slumbered for a while longer; its loss, really. The drill was to head towards Mt. Bonnell, running either 10, 12 or 14 miles as the fancy took us. We weren’t even supposed to run the last few fast for a change. Today was all about recovery.

Well, somewhat about recovery. I mean, Mt. Bonnell is considered a “hard” run by most of the other, saner, running groups in Austin. The first three miles are flat, then you get another three miles of serious rolling hills followed up a trek up to the top of Mt. Bonnell. Then you go back.

Anyway, we all took off, and soon settled into our pack running along with Mike, Thon and Carrie. Since Gilbert had told us repeatedly not to stop under MoPac since he had water a mile later, we made sure to stop and drink a defiant slug of water. It was one of those days. We were laughing, smiling, running, and declaiming bad ’80s lyrics to each other. Ah, good times. Sure enough, Gilbert had set up a table for us with water and sports drink; after rehydrating we took off for parts all-too-well-known.

Things were pretty uneventful for the next three miles, up (and down) Scenic until we reached the cleaners at 35th and Pecos. Again, thanks guys; their hoses have provided welcome relief for thousands of runners, I’m sure. We could have turned right and just done 12 miles but, hey, we’re not called stupid runners for nothing, right? Left it was, towards the hill. Thon teased us with talk of running up Mt Barker on the way, but we did the traditional run instead.

That’s when we found the tennis ball.

Actually, Thon and Mike found it. I forget who did what, but it was picked up, tossed back and forth a couple of times, then somebody missed and it wound up down the side of the hill. Luckily(?), I was running a little behind and I knew that I was going to be slower going up than they were, so I took the time to dive off the road and pick it up. Next was the long painful process of slogging up Bonnell, although once again I didn’t stop and I had enough left in me for a pickup at the end. I will get my hills back, really.

The ball was tossed into the group as soon as I was within range, and then all I had time for was a quick few cups of water and Gatorade before we took off again, down Thon’s Super Secret Back Way home. I won’t spoil the surprise here, but it made a very nice change from running Balcones, and wasn’t quite as hilly either. That was just as well because we spent the whole time running around tossing the ball to each other. I won’t say that we ran twice as far as normal, but it sure felt like it at times.

That lasted for about a mile, then we took 35th to Pecos and ran South to the park. At some point along the way the ball came out again for a bit, then Thon chucked it off to the side so that we could concentrate on running. Naturally, a few minutes later we came across another ball as we turned into the park for some hydration adjustments. This one only got passed a couple of times though; the charm was gone, somehow.

From there it was only a mile or so to O’Henry middle school and our last official Gilbert waterstop. About halfway there though, I just plain ran out of steam. I was trying to keep up, but kept falling behind, feeling tired and weak. At the time I blamed it on poor nutrition, but as the run closed out I realized that I was almost certainly dehydrated. I need to drink more Thursday and Friday, I guess. Mike made sure that I was okay, and we met up at the waterstop, but then I told the rest of the herd to take it on home while I slugged it in. I stopped for several minutes at MoPac to drink probably 16oz of fluid, then ran very gently back to RunTex. I never walked it, but I sure wanted to.

Still, it was a very solid 10 miles, and I learned another valuable hydration lesson, so that’s okay. Next weekend we’re scheduled for 18-20; I have to decide whether to do it in Dallas by myself, or on Friday morning instead. Compounding the problem is the fact that I’m doing a charity 5K (the Moonlight Margarita Run) at about 8:15 on Thursday night. Yeah, not the best schedule I could have. We’re down for a 10 mile pace run early Monday morning, and 5-8 800M repeats on Wednesday.

Hmm.

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