Notes
Alicia, Lance, McCullough and I started off with the plan to basically run 7 min. miles. L Train took off a bit faster than that so we pretty much stayed with him. I was eagerly awaiting the water stop at mile 2 and when I went to reach my hand out to take the water, his hand was empty. I was pissed, to say the least. Then I started to increase the pace because, of course, it felt good through 4 miles. I looked back and the rest of the crew was a good bit behind. That's when I started to heat up. The pace slowed a bit and my head and face were simply on fire. At about the 6 mile mark, I saw Alicia out of the corner of my eye. I slowed a bit to allow her to come beside me. We had a brief discussion about how, "no, I was not going to run in the rest of the way with you". She went on her way and progressively I watched the gap between us grow. I was content to just slow down and cruise in. I could not wait to be done and get some fluids. There was not nearly enough water on this course for a hot day like this. The rest of the way, there was no one near me at all ,not in front, nor behind. Except for the guy (X?) pushing the stroller with his teenage son in it who came beside me at mile 11. I talked with him for a minute about how I must be in trouble if he is passing me. I decided to use him for motivation and run the rest in at a decent pace. That wasn't good enough because he picked up the pace and was runing sub 7 for the last 2 miles. Unreal. Truly. This was a really tough day but it does not sway my confdence any. This kind of weather is a game changer and irrelevant. It will not impact my ability to do my best at Lowell in a couple of weeks.