and "If you have a man servant, take advantage of him" ...
With an overnight low of 82* Sunday's run had the potential to suck. Six hours sleep, a 5am starting time after waking up at 4:45, and 15mph headwinds the first half hour made me wonder why I was out there. The surprising thing was that I saw five people running the other way before 5:30am, so my strategy was shared by other crazy people. But it didn't suck. It was fun. If you have company for two of the three hours an easy 38km doesn't even feel that long. Thanks, Zeke.
As we were coming out of Minnehaha Park towards the end of the run we were passed by a young woman moving relatively quickly (7:30/mile) with apparent ease. She slowed and chatted to us for a while, and was training for Twin Cities. She had the assistance of her partner/boyfriend on a bike carrying her water. Literally. Every runner's dream. A potentially gigantic waste of time for the person on the bike. Even if the runner is doing 6:00/mile that's not much of a workout on the bike. Now, maybe this is just me, but if I had a mule beside me with water I'd keep running when I was drinking.
After the woman with the water-carrier had passed us, and Zeke had left me to head back to his car, I passed her a mile later as she was stopped to take a drink. I thought maybe they were sheltering from the storm that was passing through to drop the temperature from 81 to 73 over the course of the run (a much better temperature progression for 38km than the reverse!), but no. Glancing around I saw that having taken the drink she was off and running again. Odd. Projecting marathon times from long run pace is rife with inaccuracies, but if you're doing a two hour run at 7:30/mile you're probably looking at doing a marathon between 2:55 and 3:15. Decent running. Locally competitive for a woman runner. If you're that good it seems odd to be practicing stopping for your drinks.
Posted by eroberts at July 17, 2006 7:17 AM