Notes
Calumet Striders. Joined them at Opportunity Enterprises for their long-run. Mike and Taylor met me at the location before anyone else arrived. Since the group was doing 12mi that day, Mike wanted to do 3mi before they started. Probably because of my questions, or Mike's attempt to hit the toilet, we got a late start. On the 8:00/7:50 warmup Taylor was huffing and puffing. She's a 3:30 marathoner. Mike is a 3:20 guy. The pace seemed a little quick for a warmup for these folks. Mike said he was aiming at 12mi @ 7:20 pace. Again, seemed a bit fast for the long run. In any case, we returned to the start about 2mins late and the rest of the runners had already taken off. Mike went straight for the john. I chased the pack.
Finally caught up with the lead pack, after cruising at 7:20. Apparently, they don't go under 8:00 pace. So, I passed them and chased after the shirtless guy running solo up ahead. He was slightly faster than my 7:20, so I didn't catch him.
The route was supposed to be "the hilly route". I only spotted one hill. The rest were small inclines -- in Charlottesville we'd call it flat. The run was mostly housing-development followed by corn field followed by another development. The weather was great and the run was pretty serine. I didn't look at the pace on my watch until I started the MP miles. Everything felt great.