Lakefront

This morning several of us volunteered at the CUW water station for the Lakefront Marathon. We handed out hundreds of paper cups filled with water and gatorade, cheered on the seemingly endless horde of runners, and then cleaned up. It's something I've done four or five times in the past (my high school runs a water stop a few miles earlier in the race) and still enjoy. I also got to see Dr. Paavola and a former teammate run by on their way to personal glory.

Around 1:30 Ben, Ash, Danny and I set out to do our long run. Danny made it about 100 meters before having to quit due to knee problems. He first noticed the pain yesterday while we were helping out at a high school meet at Lake Country Lutheran. Russ has him biking until it stops hurting, which hopefully should be very soon.

For the other three of us the run went fairly well. Ben complained about feeling sick for the first half and Andy seemed to have an urge to use the facilities, but I felt great and we all managed to survive the thing without any major problems. We averaged under 7-minute pace overall, partly due to a certain runner in a red shirt that we felt obligated to chase down around miles 8-10. The guy was first visible from far out when we were approaching 2 miles from campus (we ran 5 miles out and back to the south and then finished on the grass), but it wasn't until a little later that we kicked it in. We had been commenting for several minutes about how this fellow fitness junkie apparently wasn't willing to be caught when Andy pointed at him and said something about "getting" him. The man turned around to look at us just at that moment. I could almost feel a sense of fear pulsating through his veins as he saw us tearing down from behind. We decided to charge up the last hill in an attempt to finally close the gap, but ultimately ran out of room and were unable to catch him. We arrived back at CUW and had to turn off the road just short of victory.

One quick bathroom break and a couple of miles later, we were jogging out north to the half mile mark and ran into the same guy on his way back. Both parties waved.

I hit a wall the last mile and a half or so but was easily able to finish my 14 miles, putting myself around a bit over 70 for the week. That breaks my previous record of 60 by a solid margin. Next week...80? 85? The more the merrier, as long as my knees and shins hold out.