Whole lotta love

The double secret training schedule called for a 15 miler this morning, which posed a problem because the running group had organized a 7-mile Valentine's Chase run from the Loveland Running Spot. (Alex, I'll take cheesy for $1,000 please.) To get our mileage in, some of us met at 7 am to do an additional 8 miles before the "chase".

I'm pretty useless before the sun comes up and was really struggling to keep pace. We were supposed to be doing a MP +30 sec run - should be about a 9:36 for me. I was running with the 9:00 group though (there is no 9:30 group really) and they decided to run sub 8:30 minute miles. I almost threw up, ha ha. My saving grace(s) were my running pals who were very entertaining this morning and also very encouraging. Somehow I managed to make it back to the Spot for some Gu and water and a quick break. Average pace for the first 8 miles ended up being between 8:25 and 8:28 (there was some debate among the Garmin users over exact distance and speed :-).

We then had to put our watches back in the car (I'm rockin a regular ol' Timex, which came free as part of the Fall program) so that we could run the Valentine's Chase. The purpose of the chase was twofold:

1) You were supposed to predict your finish time BEFORE the run and then run without a watch to see how close you could get. Closest predictions = mega cash prizes (actually I have no idea what the prizes were)

2) The girls got a seven minute head start so that the boys could chase us (hence the name of the run). Sigh.

There was about a 10-minute break between my eight miler and the chase - very cool because I got to meet up with my half marathon buddies who were also doing the run. Yay! What was not so cool was when we started moving again and I realized my legs had locked up from standing around for 10 minutes. Doh.

The chase (and the eight miles before it) was on the bike trail, which is MIND NUMBING. Out and backs are tough for me anyway from a mental standpoint and the trail was making it worse. I had predicted I would do 1:03 - a 9:00 pace - for the run, but I think I started off at a 10:00. It was freezing cold and I just wasn't feeling it. Then people started passing me. Then the boys caught us. Finally my competitive side kicked in and I was able to pick it up. The back half of the run seemed to last forever but I managed to finish in 60:08 - about an 8:35 minute mile. I attribute this to the fact that the bike trail is flat as a pancake...

The best part of my day (aside from running with my buddies and seeing my old pals) was that I managed to convince two of my non-Running Spot friends to meet me for brunch, even though I hadn't had a shower (if that's not love I don't know what is). We had a magical, greasy breakfast in a smoky Newport hole-in-the-wall restaurant. Total euphoria. I plan on sleeping the rest of the day.