BRUTAL BRUNCH RUN

At the 20 mile finish, see me back left in orange. The enthusiasm is a lie. I proceeded to stuff my face. Food was good.

On Wednesday I actually ended up doing a tempo run. I've semi-declared Wednesday as "Old Thomas Day," meaning the Thomas that cared about running. That means if New Thomas is in a good enough mood on Wednesday he might run fast. And with the marathon approaching and the weather cooperating, I figured I might as well book it. I ended up running the almost seven miles at a 7:42/mile pace. Not the most fun run during, but afterwards I felt great and it was good to get some speedwork in.

That's easy, just reuse this from 2013.

I didn't run again until Saturday (my legs were kind of trashed after twelve Monday and then the tempo run Wednesday). On the schedule? The Portland Marathon Clinic Brunch Run. I was really looking forward to it this year. I knew they wouldn't do the Springwater Trail again since they did it last year, which was good enough for me. They did surprise me by taking us back to West Linn to run that same route we ran in 2013 for my first ever run with PMC. I figured they wouldn't take us back there so soon, but I was okay with it, having good memories of that run two years ago.

Well, I'm not sure what was different this year, but I did NOT enjoy myself this time around. Mostly I think I forgot how hilly this course was. Maybe I was still in "running is fun and magical and this is a new experience" mode two years ago, but holy crap this thing had some climbs. I was sort of expecting it while re-going over the course in my mind, but once we started running I was reminded just how hilly it was. When I got home I looked it up and the run ended up having 1150 feet of elevation gain. Bee tee dubs, that's a lot!

Another reason I think I struggled a bit was we were going a little faster than we should have been, registering some 9:20s on those uphill miles. Whatever it was, this was the most difficult training run since that first marathon cycle when I was breaking in my legs to the idea of twenty mile runs. Looking back though, I remember the last few miles of the 2013 run really sucking, me lagging behind the group a teeny bit, my legs screaming at me to stop. Same thing this year. My legs probably recovered faster though, as I was able to do some light physical activity later in the day.

Sunday was a rest day for sure. Today, Monday, I took the opportunity on my day off to try something old and make it new again. I was hemming and hawing about doing my run, knowing I should do it, but not wanting to do it. Normally I'd do PMC, but it was Labor Day, so I wanted to just run during the day and get it over with. Finally the idea popped into my head to drive to my old apartment complex and do a route from there I used to do when I first started running. For some reason this sounded really fun in my head so I jumped on that and drove there before I could talk myself out of it.

Good to see you again old friend.

I plotted my old 5.5 mile route I ran back in the day and put my watch to the time of day. This was going to be an easy run I was going to try to enjoy. Funny how I haven't ran there in years but pretty much remembered exactly where to go and what everything looked like. Part of the run is through a 55+ community and just about everyone was out today. They were super friendly and I even got a "go get 'em tiger!" shout as I ran past one man. Overall the run was fun and a good trip down memory lane, as I used to run there from December 2011-June 2012. Not a super long time, but it was the start of my running journey.