Against myself

I overslept.

Rain swept through town. Sun was predicted but so were high winds in the 20 mph range. It was in the high 40s. I put away the tights and pulled on gloves and an ear warming band.

I had a bagel with my secret blueberry jam from Maine. Sadly, it is almost gone.

I drove to Park Avenue knowing what was ahead of me and that there was no one to do it with but myself. The Sunday bunch were already 30 minutes into their run.

The first half mile was nothing to be excited about. It was cold. I was stiff. My form stunk. I was not fired up. I implemented running Plan B.

I took the first turn and advantage of a tail wind to run the 11 mile course in reverse. That allowed me to cross paths with my usual Sunday crowd. Kim and Mary came by, asking how far I was going today. "22," I hollered.

Then I ran into Chris and Bob at their 7th mile and my 5th. I declined their invitation to turn and run with them. I was not inclined to recalculate my running route for the morning.

As it was, I ran 22 miles on my own in 3:27:44, a 9:07 pace, not counting the time wasted to eat Blox and drink water.That was just as fast as two weeks ago when I went 20.2 miles.

PIT ROW NOTES: My right calf had some tightness for awhile and restarting after water breaks was not easy. Plus I didn't use enough body glide today. Still I finished fast and set my mind on the late miles as being the last miles of the marathon.