I've done this run before, almost a year ago in fact! This time I wasn't looking for friends in their race, I was sharing the run with friends preparing for their race!
I'll back up a bit and quickly review dinner last night. I was so tired I was falling asleep, so hungry I was ready to eat the grated cheese soaked in olive oil, yet having fun and enjoying the high-five atmosphere our group had. Everyone had bonded on today's ride. At first we weren't a cohesive group, but by the end we were. I had more of a chance to talk to LR from Cincity. I was his "date", haha. He was such a serious athlete yet had a fun sense of humor and was so normal and down to earth. To me, he was like a pro!
I'll back up a bit more to say that the camp meeting Saturday night was a great bonding hour for us. The veterans helping the rooks. And all the veterans just normal people, no attitude, no entitlements, no snobbery. Triathletes are just awesome people :)
I thought I ate too much for breakfast and had some worry there. We left the hotel under a beautiful sky and more of yesterday's cooler weather. A storm blew through last night and made a mess of tree branches, though. We viewed the bridge, turned around, and headed back towards town. Previewed the tent site from last year, previewed the 4th St Live area, then headed out on the course.
We split up into groups a lot, but still stuck together. For a while, I was running with LR. I had worked to increase my cadence in the past few weeks but running with him I realized I had a ways to go. His run was smooth, fast, easy, effortless, and had a quick turnover. While running with him I tested it. I couldn't maintain it since it was so different, but I liked it. I fed off his technique a bit, his effortless experience and loved the energy. Like I said, he's like a pro to me and here I am running alongside him!
Well I didn't last long aside him, but I had a few miles. I'm looking forward to seeing the pace through that section! We turned around and headed back. LR took off (there was no question that our pace on the outbound was slow and easy from him) and the group reformed more tightly. I was flying along. This felt great, my run form still strong but slowly unraveling as we approached mile 13. By this time, I was starting to flag a big. But we reached 4th St Live and I heard the Luke Bryan song "All My Friends Say". I started dancing to it just a little, and realized the lyrics were kinda fitting to this weekend:
And all my friends say I started shooting doubles when you walked in, all my friends say I went a little crazy seeing you with him, ... I was a rockstart party-hard gettin' over you comeback kid, yeah I must have did, what all my friends say, yeah yeah yeah.Yup, I must have did. The ride home went by fast. Once home I just crashed energy wise, but woke up enough later to talk 90mph about the weekend, the friends, and the sudden urge to do IML and Triple T and 50M ultra's next year.
I was alive! I love this stuff! Piggie is just 6 days away and it's going to ROCK.
How can I go back to work tomorrow?!?
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