Rain, Rain

Well, I meant to blog last night but just didn't ever get around to it.

I met Chuck and Jim down at APSU for an evening run. All the Titans fans were coming in to watch them practice but we had the front of the parking lot to ourselves. A couple of ladies from CRC showed up as well. It was gray, we could hear thunder but no lightning so we set off on our four mile run.

The route started the same and it was soon clear that we were two groups. The gazelles, Chuck and the ladies, and then the penguins - Jim and I. Jim and I had a nice conversation as we ran along. We run normally at about the same pace but when running together, we tend to go a little faster.

Naturally, it started to rain really well about half way into the run. Despite that, this was one of the nicest runs I have been on in some time. It was so nice and cool! I think it dropped the temperature significantly.

As we rounded the corner of Riverside to go back up North Second, we were crossing the entrance to MacDonalds. Since we were already in the entrance, a car that wanted to come in waited for us to pass. As he waited, another car rammed him from behind. That caused a chain reaction of the second car being rammed by a third car. This caused the lead car - the one waiting for us - to be shoved forward several yards. It narrowly missed Chuck, who was on the outside and leading, by less than a foot. The rest of us jumped sideways and yelled a few things. No one was injured but boy, my heart was going.

We cut across and went up Emerald Hill. It is a deceptive hill, it doesn't look that awful but my legs told me the truth. Jim and I made it partially up before we walked. Jim did say the last time he had run the same route with Chuck that he had walked several times by that point so both of us were doing well to have just this one walk break. Once we crested the hill, we picked up running again.

We finished the 4 miles in 48:08 - a new record for me! Of course, I have loads of room to improve so I have to expect to see my times get better but it is still thrilling to see.

I went and registered Greg for the R3 5K run. I also found out the Cricket's Running Wild 5K at the zoo has been postponed until January at some point. Bummer! There is still the Sango Scamper in October, I will talk to Chuck and see if he thinks I would better off running the 10K or the 5K...I am thinking at that point, I would be better off with the 10K only because my daily runs will be about that.

This evening, I got out the bike and did 7.4 miles around the neighborhood.

Got another 4 miles planned for tomorrow morning down at APSU. I am not sure if Anita will make it or not though.