Week 12 - Saturday

Trever, Lorin and I were planning to meet up with Brent, Ryan, Trina and Kerry at Barber Park for a 16 miler. However, it had rained all night and was still raining this morning as well, so the dirt paths out of Barber were going to be a mess. So, on the way into downtown, I called Ryan and we made a last minute change to Municipal Park so we would have pavement for our entire route. However, we also had a small mutiny brewing, led by Brent, due to the rain. Rather than an Ironman-like run in the rain, he was lobbying for a mocha-frappa-foo-foo at a coffee shop instead. I assumed he was following this up with a Calgon bubble bath. Anyway, I was opposed, and a great debate ensued under the covered picnic area at Municipal. It was touch and go as the swing votes went back and forth, but in the end the group reached a compromise on an 8-10 miler. I think what put it over the top was that while we debated, we saw at least six other runners, all ladies, pass by who were obviously tougher than our bunch.

We finally headed out from Muni going west on the Greenbelt. Since we were running short, we started off at a stronger pace than we would have for a longer run. Ryan, Kerry and I ran together for nearly all of the run, with the rest of the BFRs not far behind. Somewhere along the way, our 8-10 miler became a firm 8 miler, so when we reached the 4 mile mark just east of the wooden bridge leading to Willow Lane, we turned back around, grabbed a quick drink and started the return trip.

It had been raining lightly for the entire run, but sometime around mile 6 it started to rain harder. It didn't matter though, we were all soaked by this point anyway. We continued along and I reached Muni again with Ryan and Kerry in 1 hour, 2 minutes and an average pace of 7:47. It was a good run, and I had to admit that shorter was a good idea since running further in wet shoes and socks could have caused blister problems for us. However, everyone made it in safe and sound and we packed it in fairly quickly due to chill. I think Brent headed off for that bubble bath...