Some run updates (I know, i know... you're dying to get an update)

Yesterday I met Kerry at the Moonshadow trail entrance at 5:45am and ran a route we’d only run during daylight before.  A very technical first 30 minutes where the reoccurring questions seemed to be: “Where the #^$% are we?” as the trail is not well travelled, very rocky and just appeared to end every few minutes.  But we made no mistakes, and got to the open field, then down to the creek side and ran up along Barton creek up to our Dam.  We rested there for a few minutes.  I decided to go sit under the waterfall, the best decision I’ve made in a long time.  Kerry wussed out on that idea.  We then ran back to the cars over the hills for a total run of about 8.5 miles in 1 hour and 20 minutes or so.  It was a fantastic time.  Kerry’s on vacation, so she fueled up with a powerbar and an energy drink, refilled her water bottle and went out for a second loop in the daylight.  I was soooo jealous of her, but alas, come of us have to work.  She sent me an email at 9:09am: “Just finished the second loop.  You were right, sitting under that waterfall was great!”.  She made me sad that I wasn’t able to run a second loop with her.  All in all, a great great run though.

This morning I met Julie at 5:30am, after going to bed at 11:30pm.  Went to a Happy hour and a High School Lacrosse game (our friend is a coach for the team) to cheer them on.  They won 12 - 6 as the visiting team against Westlake which was great.  We then went to Billy’s for a couple more drinks as it was Carri’s (not Kerry) birthday.  Anyway, 4:20am came around very quickly, but I got up, and looked at the weather radar: Big rain coming our way.  After some text messages where Julie tested my interest in running in the rain, we both ended up at the MoPac rock at 5:30am for a 12 mile run.  It started raining exactly at the time when we started our run.  Great timing!  Loyal readers know that I love running in the rain (provided it’s not freezing temperatures).  We ran west on Cesar Chavez, up congress and speedway all the way up to 45^th street, then back down to Town Lake and around the southside of the Hike and Bike trail back to the rock.  Total run time (incl bathroom break and water stops) was 1 hour 40 minutes, and after mapping it out, we ran about 11.6 miles.  (channeling Krissy) “God Dammit!”  I knew we should have run an extra few block to maybe 50^th or 51^st.  Oh well.  I’ll still call it 12 as my legs felt like I’d run 14, and the pace we held and time we ran didn’t math out to only 11.6.    Oh yeah, about the rain, it rained on us for about 1 hour and 20 minutes, but never any menacing lightning, or really hard rain, just the perfect running rain.  Just perfect.   And we got a free shoe cleaning out of it!

So that’s 30 miles in 3 days => not quite sure how I’ll get to 100 miles in 7 anytime soon, as even 60 in 7 seems barely feasible in the shape I’m in these days.  Quads are quite sore, and legs feel like bricks.  Foam Roller and a short nap at lunch sounds real good.

 

Note: Today is apparently “wear your Austin marathon finisher shirt day”.  Out of the few (maybe 25 runners) we saw all morning, a good 8-10 of them had either the ’06, ’07 or ’08 finisher shirt, and Julie didn’t disappoint, she was wearing her ’06 shirt too.  .  So if you’re not a hobby runner and will get out there and run, be sure to sport your finisher shirt.  I went with the “less clothing in rain is better” and wore my sleeveless trail series shirt but honestly was holding my ’08 finisher shirt in hand when choosing attire!