It was a Thursday night, with a spot of rain and solidly in the taper zone. No five miler tonight, I was concentrating on getting some rest and recovery.
Nonetheless, I ended up going out with the 10ish group and running with Tom. Tom is a superb runner who has racked up hundreds, maybe thousands, of RACE miles. A couple of years ago, I did the Boulder Beast, a tough 25+/- mile race through technical terrain, up boulder fields and through streams. Tom did it as well. That race was on a Saturday. The next day was Pittsburgh’s Great Race 10k and 5k. My son was racing the 5k, so I did the 4 hour ride back to Pittsburgh and felt very proud to be getting up so early after the Boulder Beast to take him to the start line. The start line where I saw Tom, with his pacing sign, all ready to run. Damn, so much for martyrdom! I was inspired to run the 10k, myself, that day.
At any rate, Tom and I trotted along chatting about running, races and upcoming events. On Liberty Avenue with its big uphill, we had to hold it in check to stay close to the “advertised” group pace . Then the group started to break up. Running partners shifted and I ended up running with my friend, Brittany, for the next couple of miles. She is a lot younger than I am, but has conquered a 50 miler already and has some interesting runs coming up.
One of the draws for this Thursday run a free drink at the end. Apparently my internal, route taking skills unconsciously aligned with that promise, as seen below, in a slightly twisted version of the route.
