Funbearable

Suddenly Thursday night runs are fast again. For the third time in as many weeks the run ended in a race down MLK from Montgomery to the Art Museum. Another large group headed out into a windy and cold Thursday evening. The route took us behind the zoo and up over South Georges hill in Fairmount Park, down Belmont Mansion Drive and Montgomery Ave to MLK.

I took off at the first 1/4 mile marker, Steve K, Ian, and Ben followed. I hoped to run about 6:20 pace but from the first split things were already to fast. With Steve and Ian pacing things, I knew the pace wasn't going to slow down so I just figured I'd hang on as long as I could.

The first mile in 6:10, we had lost Ben and I could tell that Ian and Steve were slowly picking things up. I held onto the increased pace for about a quarter mile, really making an effort to keep contact, but they started slipping away. It's nice to have a couple people in front of you to really force the pace and make you work harder.

For the last 3/4 mile I just ran as hard as I could. Mile 2 went by in 6:00 flat, much faster than last week and I just pushed until I got back to the museum. 8 miles in 57 minutes. As Alex put it after we finshed, a funbearable trip down MLK.