A whole lotta loving that running

I had a lazy week, skipping three workouts. Intuitively, I translated tiredness into a “recovery” attitude, on the back side of the half last weekend and the 10-miler the day after. My recovery wasn’t quite as meek as Dave’s but we’ll get to that later.

I found myself with Carolyn to start this morning’s run. We had a nice two mile chat about the OUC Half before she upped the pace.  I followed until we caught Seth at the second mile and I let her go. Seth detoured to his house to put out some Gatorade and Ed was backing up to me as I headed down the Pine Tree loop.  We went a mile together and discussed the feasibility of running faster than when we were younger.  I said yes. He said he hoped so.

We allowed Jen, Leslie, Chad and Rick (?) to catch us along the loop and fell in with them. I have a habit of baiting Leslie so at the first hill I charged it and she charged me with the “show off” tag. Of course, that didn’t stop her from chasing me up the hill just as fast.

We all bopped along for the next two miles with more hill charging and a water break. When it came time to declare how far were each running, Dave started wah-wah-ing about recovering from the OUC Half last weekend and only going six miles. That earned a robust round of abuse and he conceded to run 10 with us.

At Seth’s house we downed Gatorade and he told us how he’s a little beat up and not running well. I attribute it to 20 marathons this year including his 50th state. On top of that, he conquered Space, the final frontier marathon a week later (Space Coast Marathon, Cocoa).

As we all chided Dave some more, Cheryl showed up after a late start, taking short-cuts and catching us. On we went, four guys and three gals. Cheryl shared stories of her wedding plans, ever changing. I charged hills and heard the show-off tag a few more times.

With two miles to go I decided to exercise my two-mile closing speed gear and took off, leaving everybody behind. I paused for water and Todd, Dave and Rick caught up. The last half mile was a high heart rate race to the finish with Chad.

So went an episode of running with the Orlando Runners Club Sunday bunch. Lots of different folks to talk to, pace with and laugh with. I topped the morning off with brunch at the Briar Patch. I was joined by my sister Anne and we were served by NOS Trevor’s girlfriend Tara. Good service. Good chow.