As I drove away from the office, I decided that I would run on the treadmill, despite the fact that I had cold weather clothes with me (capris, long sleeve shirt, gloves). My office is never warm, and I was tired of feeling cold all week. Treadmill it would be.
But then I got to Gilruth, and as I walked in the door headed for the locker room to change, I passed a girl that I’ve seen and talked to before. I don’t know her name, but we started chatting a few weeks ago on the treadmills on a particularly rainy day. I mentioned that I was training for a Half Ironman, and she said she’d been training for Ironstar last fall, but then was out of town the weekend of the race (how sucky). Tonight, I passed her on my way in, and she was dressed for running and headed across the parking lot to the gate and the trail beyond.
“That’s it,” I thought. “The weather has just been too crappy lately for me to not take advantage of the fact that it’s finally clear, even if it’s cold.” Off I went, and immediately remembered that yeah, 40 degrees is my ideal temperature. Somehow I always forget that.
Since I won’t be at tomorrow morning’s Buffalo Wallow 6K, I decided to run “Sarah’s Buffalo Wallow Replacement 4-Miler” tonight after work. It was the same as the 6K, plus another quarter mile, minus the mud and hills, and plus the asphalt of the Johnson Space Center running trail. Not a great comparison, but you get the idea.
Sarah’s Buffalo Wallow Replacement 4-Miler, as I defined it, would be composed of me running 4 miles at something close to race pace — not all out, but definitely good and hard. I was cold at first, and ran quickly to warm up. I finished the first mile and checked my watch. “Not too shabby,” I thought. “Not shabby at all!” And I didn’t even feel like I’d been running that hard.
I got excited. I was looking into the sunset and thinking about how pretty Houston can be sometimes, and suddenly mile 2 passed even quicker. “Ooh,” I thought, “I’m kicking some butt tonight.”
I finally started to feel a bit winded in the third mile, but it was a comfortable winded. Now, I know that might sound like an oxymoron, but runners will know what I’m talking about. It started to feel hard, but comfortably hard.
By the time I began my final mile, the sun had set and I was racing through the dark. I’ve run on this trail so many times that I could probably do it in my sleep; I know all the twists and turns and where each quarter mile falls, even when I can barely see the marker in the dusk. I finished strong and spent a half mile walking to cool down, and basking in my “victory.”
The verdict?
37:57 !!! with splits of 9:56, 9:31, 9:18, 9:12
I ran 4 sub-10:00 miles. I don’t have anything else to say but WOW. I surprised myself tonight.
justjunebug says
KICK ASS!!
Steeeve says
And, the winner of the SBWR4-M…Becky!
Way to run, champ!
carter says
Wow! Great run!!
JohnnyTri says
Yea, running outside even in the cold is so much more enjoyable than the Dreadmill..
have a great weekend.
Crosstrain says
Missed you at the Wallow, but it looks like you tore it up last night. WTG
Jennifer says
Seize the day- you should definitely sign up for a couple 5Ks. It’s really hard to get in shape – and really easy to get out of shape.
Pony says
WOW!! Awesome effort and result! That’s way cool beans!!