Saturday was a great run day. My friends A & D have been trying to get a running/walking group going at church on Saturday mornings. Both have been long term runners and are both currently training for the Austin Marathon in February.
The group officially meets at 7 am for a quick devotion and then run or walk, depending on the crowd, but A & D meet at 6 to get some miles in before the group meets. Usual route of 5 miles to be back in time for the others. The pace is generally a nice conversational 9.5min/mile.
Both A & D have 2 kids under age 8 and are used to rising early to run. I am not. Both A & D are extremely punctual. I am not, especially at 6. In the am. For the prior 3 weeks I had done well, arriving on time, or at least they were being polite and waiting a few minutes past 6 for me to get there, but this week at 6:05 when I pulled up, they were nowhere to be seen. So do I drive to another point on the course and wait for them. Nah, I decided to get some tempo in, at the beginning of the run, not in the middle after a warm-up, nope, I began hoofing it. It actually felt great. first two miles were both 7:59, and the third was 8:24 and included the catch. Kind of fun to be the catcher than the catchee.
Funny story of the catch. I being a larger sized male and A & D being smaller, but feisty ladies, and it being 6: 20am, I thought better than simply moseying up next to them. So when I was 25 yards back, I announced my presence by shouting “Good Morning”, to which both A & D jumped a few feet off the ground and shouted. But it got their adrenaline going, and we all had a good laugh.
Finished the 5 and then got another 2.5 miles of run/walking with a newish runner. Breakfast afterward of Panera.
We got the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin Saturday afternoon through today, so it got very humid and wet. I was considering not running today since I got a longish run Friday and Saturday and mowed the lawn Saturday as well, but the dog was restless and per Cesar Milan’s instructions, he needed some exercise. So pounded out a very warm 3 miles around 6:30pm.