Chasing the Pack

OBJECTIVE
15 mi. Easy w/last 3 mi.@ marathon pace

ACHIEVED
13.76 mi.@ 8:21/mi : no pickup

6:18 AM 55° 88% 5 mph

I am very disappointed that I didn't make it out to California for today's Rose Bowl half marathon. Alex and I had loosely planned to run it (he still is) but I was a last minute scratch due to my lousy cold and the lack of good flight options.

This ended up being a weird run. Stephanie is recovery from her 50K age-group victory last Saturday so it was a recovery run for her. A few other group regulars were out for various reasons. Steph routed an 11-miler. I wanted to try a bit more since I was scheduled for 15. My plan was to run a loop at Memorial Park before the group started at 6:30 AM. However, I stayed up late last night and didn't get to the park ready to run until about 6:10 AM. The loop is 3 miles so off I went after sending them a text message not to wait for me. I figured if I was feeling good, I'd catch up. The feeling good part was questionable based on my the lingering impact of the sickness I've been dragging around with me for the past 3-4 days.

The morning air was cool but comfortable for running. I made my way around the loop in the dark. The park was busy as I'm sure there are a bunch of runners prepping for next month's Houston marathon. There's almost always an "energy" in the park when I run there and this morning was no different. I was running "easy" but still clipping along at an 8:24 pace (it felt much slower). I figured the group had about a 10-minute head start on me. The chase was on. I tried not to think about them somewhere up ahead but invisible forces were pulling me toward them. My pace was faster than it otherwise would have been. After about 4 miles, I started running some numbers in my head and started wondering if I'd even catch them before they finished. I thought they were probably running 8:30 and I was under 8:20 but with those paces the run didn't seem long enough for me to catch them. I tried to stop thinking about it. If I ran alone today that would be fine. Finally at a water stop somewhere around 7 miles into their run, I caught them.

Today it was only Stephanie, Stuart and Randy. It was good to hear Steph's race report from SunMart. She had a fantastic run finishing 6th overall and 1st in her age group ... all of that after falling ... TWICE! ... and finishing the last 8 miles of the 31 miles run while battling severe cramps. Josh also ran and had a good day finishing 4th in his age group.

I was so happy to have caught the group that I bypassed my scheduled pickup for the last 3 miles of my run. I'd expended some energy in catching them and am still generally fatigued from being sick. The pickup can wait for another day .

PRE RUN
FRS liquid concentrate, oatmeal w/brown sugar & 1% milk

POST RUN
2 SlimFast
Later, water, multivitamin, oatmeal w/almonds, flax, brown sugar & 1% milk