40

Way back in day, I worked at Sunday River. One of people I worked with had the all time best/worst way to measure snowfall. "Forecast calls for 6 to 8? OK, say that 14" fell. I just add the two numbers together. Close enough." (And ski industry types wonder why people don't trust ski reports.)

Today, my plan was to run somewhere between 5 and 8. So I ran 13. Just add the two together and call it good. Why not?

I (barely) dragged myself out of bed to meet the Trail Monster crew at Pineland. After almost getting a speeding ticket on the way there, I arrived a couple minutes before the 7:00am start time. (These people get up waaaayyy too early.) Good sized group, about a dozen. Including Mindy, who despite being unable to run due to injury, came out to walk on the trails. I have to admit, I admire her drive. There's no way, I'd be able watch the group run away as I went out for a walk...especially not that early. Hopefully, she gets the green light to run next week!

Run was great. I found myself all over the place in the group. I chatted with Ian for a bit, but mostly ran with Jamie and Jim. (And some guy named Kyle?!?!?) Both Jamie and Jim are running the MDI Marathon, so we chatted about that quite a bit. Jamie has run it the past 3 years, and he kept using the phrase "gargantuan hills" to describe the last few miles. Yet he also kept saying that it's going to be a blast. I don't think he's right in head.

I hadn't run at Pineland since the race in May, and I have to say the more I think about that race the more I've come realize that I really sucked that day. Big time. Don't believe anything I wrote in that post in May. I sucked. Payback is coming next May. (I wish the movie announcer guy could say that for me.) To illustrate that point, my watch read 2:00:29 for 13 miles today, and it felt pretty easy. That's 9:16 per mile. In May, I ran 8:59 per mile for 15.5 miles and was near death. I sucked.

We ran the lower/bigger loop first mostly following the race course, just avoiding the unmowed fields, which was fine with me. We arrived back at the parking lot, and it was starting to rain. So, of course, I decided to keep going. I was feeling great, and I really like the Oak Hill Loop. So, off we went.

I was running along with Jim and Floyd talking about the fun and suffering that is the Mt. Washington Road Race, when all of a sudden I was on my back. I had almost reached the bottom of Gloucester Hill, and both feet went right out from under me. I hit pretty hard, and I was simultaneously laughing and trying to catch me breath. It sort of knocked the wind out of me, and it took me a minute to get up. I didn't realize it at the time, but I have some pretty sweet "trail rash" on my back. After we finished Jim said to me, "Yeah, when your back hit the ground, it made a really loud thud." I actually remember seeing my feet in the air. That was pretty much the end of the excitement for the day.

By logging 13 miles, that put my weekly mileage at 40.5. (Plus a 14.3-hike on Sunday.) That's a great week for me. It's the most mileage I've done in single week since college (seriously), and best of all, I'm feeling good. Well, hungry, right now. So, off to eat lunch.