Now that was awesome

My running week was more normal. I went five easy miles Tuesday, had a race on Thursday night and ran my typical Sunday 10 today.

The race was notable because I ran on a team. 10,700 runners laced them up for the Run the City Corporate 5K. Most of the entrants were walkers but the purpose was to develop healthier corporate employees. CEOs and seeded runners got to start at the front. Then blue tagged runners in front of pink tagged walkers.

I knew the course and security weaknesses so did my warm up around the block from the stadium where it started and - Oh! - my warm up finished at the front of the race corrals so I slipped in the crowd with others I know and waited for the start.

At the gun the road opened wide for me and I fell in at my own comfortable pace. The first half mile looped around a lake where you could see back to the start where there were still hundreds of runners shuffling across the start line. I was grateful for my sneakiness.

I had a massage earlier on Thursday, the first in months. Running the race just didn't feel like what I wanted to do so I did not kick it hard. My Garmin died a mile in too. I crossed the finish with the clock reading 24:59.

I was the #2 male on the school district's co-ed four person team (2+2). We were good enough to win the division title with a combined 1:41:56. We beat five other teams!

Today. Today was awesome. I woke up late with less than 30 minutes to dress, prep and be downtown for the a.m. run. I made it in time and really had no idea how I'd feel. Charline asked what pace I wanted to go this morning. I said I had no idea; whatever the road gave me.

We headed out at a quick 8:30 mile pace and pretty much kept it up throughout the run. Every time we tried to slow down a friendly fastie would fall in with us and pull us along. We covered the route in less than 1:30 which is always a good time for me. I was impressed with myself. I also noticed that my hips were looser than they've been in a long long time. I credit Hank and the massage I had on Thursday.

The day got better after I came home, showered, woke up Mrs. T, had breakfast, walked the dogs and packed the car. We headed to the beach and had an absolutely glorious day in the sun and water. Neither of us went swimming (jellyfish) but there were plenty of surfers to watch. And, of course, every surfer scene has its requisite brigade of bikinis. For the record, I read five sections of the paper and took a nap too.

Driving over and back to the coast with the top down in the cabriolet was totally fun.