metronomes, beer, and pancakes

I'm so proud of myself. For the second week in a row, I got up early on Saturday morning and ran with the Running Spot group. They were doing 16-18 today from Crossroads, which I seriously considered doing. The plan was for me to run for at least 2 hours and take it from there.

Pace wise, my old group is all over the place. Coach Steve is now running with the 8-minute mile kids, no one can catch Tisha, and the rest of us are pretty scattered as well. I started off at a comfortable clip and caught up with Joan, my Winter training buddy, somewhere on Brotherton. Joan is like a metronome with a steady, even pace - complete opposite of me (I tend to run erratic splits). We were having a great time chatting though, so I kept up with her despite the fact that I knew I was running too fast to hold out for 16. :-)

The route took us on part of the Pig course - down Erie to Bramble, then through Mariemont where we did a few laps around what used to be my training loop. I was feeling pretty good...until we had to run back up Brotherton. Ugh. Once we got into Norwood, I knew I was only down for my original two hours. I ended up turning around somewhere near Floral and Smith and running back with the halfers, who happened to be trolling in the same area. I hit Crossroads at 1:59:34, about 13.75 miles at an 8:41 clip. I looked back at my training log from the Pig and this is about on target for me. At least I'm consistent!

Post run I hung around and waited for the marathoners to finish their 18 because I knew there would be...beer! And breakfast. Sure enough, Larry and Rich both had a delightful selection of imported beers. I enjoyed a delicious Lowenbrau in the parking lot of Crossroads, which is a church. Did I mention we were doing this at 10 am?? As the old joke goes, we are drinkers with a running problem. Afterwards a few of us went to IHOP for pancakes and chocolate milk. I didn't end up getting home until 1 pm! Long morning but totally worth it.