I was on my way

10/18--Arrived early enough to stretch!  Whew!

Did the course in reverse.
About a mile in I learned that we would be doing a 5-mile pick-up in the middle of the run.  This, I said to myself, will be tougher than last week's run and the one the week before last.  The warm up leading to the hard run was comfortable but brisk enough with anticipation.  I hung back a bit.  And then it happened like that: they took off.  At leat if I knew where the starting mark was I would have had a fighting chance of staying with them for at least the first mile.  I trailed the top guns--I mean guys--from the outset and the distance between us kept increasing over the miles.  I worried that I was going slowly.  As it turned out, they were moving.  I ran 31:30 for the middle 5 miles. My pace was 6:18!  Theirs averaged about 6:00!  I didn't feel as dead as I did two weeks ago, but I was tired.  I caught up with them with less than a mile to go.  By that time, we were "jogging" at probably 7:20 pace.  We finished up the 7.9M in 53:30, or 6:46 mile pace overall, my best 7.9M yet. 

10/17--I went to the gym, running late as usual.  I decided to alternate between running and lifting.  Surprise, surprise!  I ran a 6:52 mile on the 16-laps-to-the-mile track, lifted on two machines, did a 6:42 mile on the treadmill, lifted on two more machines, then returned to the track for another mile in 6:30.  I was on my way.