Triangle

Saturday. Cool but little or no wind and finally no rain.

I made an on the spot decision to run the club Triangle Run which is 4.76 miles with a long, long uphill between 2 miles and roughly 3.5 miles. It seems to go up forever. Even the mile before the big hill is gradual uphill.

I ran with Joe starting behind him and gradually catching up at about a mile and half. Then I just hung with him staying in a relatively comfortable tempo run-like zone the whole way. With about a half mile to go Joe, who was breathing hard throughout, began to make it a race and I declined letting him pull away to an 8 second gap at the finish.

He ran 32:54 and I ran 33:02. It was a faster per mile pace than my Xmas Relay 4.46 mile leg back in December run on a much easier and shorter course. I was much closer to Joe in this workout than I was on my Xmas Relay leg (he ran his leg about 40 seconds faster than I did).

So I guess I am getting close to being there with the faster 60 plus runners on the club. I wouldn't say I am there yet but I am close. I might have caught Joe if I had sprinted the last 400 meters but I just decided this wasn't the day to reach down. I wanted something else. A hard steady run to test my endurance, something that told me I can eventually hang with the club big boys and a decent age group time.

I got all three.

It is step.

This is not the end. It is not the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Winston Churchill

3 plus miles warmup: 4.76 mile club workout. About 8 miles total.