"Just take me to the backseat, where no one else can see." - The Donnas, Take Me to the Backseat (Spend the Night)
At 5am, I was up. I pretended like I wasn't up. I kept my eyes closed and tossed and turned in bed as if I was sleeping but I was up.
At 6:20am, I was getting gas. On a Saturday. 6:20am. Wow, it's early. I was surprised by how many people were out and about before 7am on the weekend. 7am.
Heh, at 7am, I was walking down the steps into the outdoor auditorium of Santa Monica High School as Cool Ass Photographer yelled my name. You remember C.A.P. right? Yeah, she's my marathon coach in an effort to remind me again how small a world L.A. is.
At 7:22am, I was running down Pico boulevard towards the beach. Passed by Shutters and considered hanging a right right into the restaurant and ordering up some vanilla flavored waffles. Considered long and hard about it. Even as I ran past and onto the boardwalk I was thinking about those waffles. I ran for about 6 minutes straight which was a bad idea. Just like Marathon explains, you should take your walk breaks often and early. I took them a lot more often late and wasn't getting as big a benefit from them, although I took the incline back up Pico from the beach really well.
At 7:58am, I made it back to Santa Monica High School having run 3 12 minute miles. I opted to go in a slower pace group, though, for a few reasons: 1) I don't think I can maintain that pace over longer runs yet and 2) the 12 minute mile group is filled with a lot of A-type personalities that I think would get on my damn nerves and 3) the 14 minute mile group is a lot smaller and filled with cool chicks and me. That's so my regular scene.
I felt great after the run. I also had the most excellent thing to ever come out of a McDonald's after the run. The McGriddles are ridiculously good. So Good. Scrum-diddly-umptious. Too bad it's terrible post run food. Where's my power bar again?
My first maintenance run was this morning. I wanted to do 30 minutes. I did 24. It's a lot harder running without people to pace yourself against and to cheer you on. The 3 minute/1 minute or 3 minute/2 minute pace is a good pace for me though.
And so it's begun. Only a babillion more miles to run.