Ten the Fun Way

I only ran three days during the week but none of the runs dipped below five miles.  I happily thought I would be up to at least twenty-five miles by the weekend.

Tuesday - 6.4 miles, 50:57, 7:58 pace
Wednesday - 5.35 miles, 43:13, 8:05 pace
Friday - 8.69 miles, 1:12:03, 8:17 pace

Saturday was my group run with my buddies, The Emerging Runner (ER) and The Petite Pacer (TPP).  ER's friend, Kin and TPP's boyfriend, JC joined us.  Kin is an accomplished triathlete who just completed his first marathon, New York City with a very respectable debut time.  I met him previously at the Brooklyn Half Marathon.  JC is a fast, yet humble triathlete who often earns awards in his events.  He has the right mix of experience from being a lifelong athlete and the positive attitude of the masculine version of a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.

We decided ahead of time to do our run on the campus of the State University of New York, Old Westbury.  This venue is well known among Long Island runners who want to get in some hill work.   We met in the parking lot of St. Paul's Church on Cedar Swamp Road in Brookville which is right across the street from the school's entrance.  It was 32 degrees and sunny.  I wore two long sleeve layers on top, my awesome Mizuno tights, a wool hat, and my fleece running gloves.  ER wore...well...his signature baggy shorts over tights to protect us from possible post-traumatic stress disorder.

JC, a natural leader, immediately took us on the one way road running with traffic which concerned me at first.  It also concerned ER and Kin who decided to run on the other side.   JC reassured Celia and me that the one way road only lasts a half mile and then we could cross over.  He was right.  However, regardless of what side we were on, the cars seemed to be going double the 30mph speed limit.  As we neared the end of our first loop, we decided to veer off onto the extension that would lead us to Empire State College.  This is a beautiful treelined road surrounded by horse farms.  I had run this route a couple of times previously, but thought it was only a mile out of the way.  It turned out it was two miles, one out and one back to the main road.  We met up with ER and Kin again on our way back to the campus entrance.

After some JC persuasion, Celia and I agreed to do one more loop without the detour.  This would put us at ten miles, total.  Yesterday I was patting myself on the back for doing 8.69 miles.  I thought all I had to do was a nice, little 5 mile loop today and my weekly mileage would be in the mid-twenties again after many weeks of slacking.   I was not mentally prepared to run ten this morning, and I wasn't sure I was physically prepared either.  I didn't eat much the day before and that morning I was literally running on empty.  All that said, I certainly wasn't going to be the one to say no to the challenge!  ER wanted to run a couple of more miles on his own, but Kin joined us for the second lap.   I thought about taking some pictures during the run, but didn't want to get left behind by the others.  I wouldn't have the energy to catch up to them.  The second loop was easier than expected mainly because of the cheers from our coach, JC.  We finished the hilly 10.12 miles in 1:34, a 9:19 pace.  I was grateful to have completed it, despite a bit of woe-is-me-ing on my part along the way.

We met back up with ER in the church parking lot which we are no longer allowed to use as per the warnings left on our windshields.  So much for the All Are Welcome attitude (Just kidding, God...ha...).  We went for our traditional coffee at Starbucks sharing a lot of stories and laughs.  Mostly about ER's "style sense" (Just kidding, ER...ha...).  I'm already looking forward to our next outing.  Thanks, guys.

ER, JC, TPP, Run DMC, & Kin

30.5 miles for the week.