Today’s run was in the morning heat of Alpharetta, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. I ran with my younger brother and my dad. It was great to get them out to go on a run, especially since my dad had a toe problem come up a couple days ago that was trying to stop him. We all got out in what was around 80-degree heat with close to 80% humidity. Pace was not the interest here since I resolved to run with them.
Before the run, my dad and brother responded to my question of at what pace should we run, with “a 10-minute mile.” So I set Garmin’s Virtual Partner to that but I couldn’t really imagine going that slowly.
We started off with a very steep hill, and since I ate cookies for breakfast, well, I thought I was going to “toss my cookies.” My stomach survived the initial assault. We stayed together for a while with my dad lingering a bit. With the aid of Garmin, I called out the 1st mile, then the 1.5-mile mark. At the 1.5-mile mark, my dad decided to jog back. My brother and I jogged out to the 2-mile mark and jogged back. Coming back, I had not realized how long of a hill we had descended! We hovered close to a 10-minute pace climbing back up that hill. For me, I was just trying to stay with my brother but I wanted to go faster. I had the energy for it!
Once we hit my brother’s subdivision, I decided I’d lose him and go my own pace home. I picked it up a bit. Of course, I hit that steep initial hill again, but this time going down. WHOA! What added to the “WHOA!” was that there was an open manhole cover in the middle of the downhill. Um……
I ran today in new shoes. Because my Mizuno Wave Precision 10 pair was feeling small on my feet at size 10, I asked my brother to see if he could get me a pair of Precisions in size 10.5 to compare. Immediately they felt better. But he didn’t give me the Wave Precision 10; instead he gave me the Wave Precision 11, which isn’t even out yet!! They come out in maybe a month. This feels cool! I have a race next weekend and I’ll hopefully get to wear these shoes as I’m in the first corral. I wonder if anyone will wonder …
As for pain, my thematic medial lower right leg issue is still there a little bit. I didn’t stretch much before or after this run (my brother and dad were eager to just start), and I could tell that despite feeling really normal the rest of yesterday after my 12.31-miler, I lacked strength today when I woke. Weird how things change around like that!