Super Sunday Run

I went to the Saturday morning bike class yesterday, for the second week in a row. It’s okay, and challenging, but I feel out of place, because the instructor is big on putting on lots of resistance to emulate going uphill, and standing up from time-to-time. But all the recommendations on cross-training for runners says, keep resisatnce low, and keep spin rate high.
Today, Scott and other guys from the tri club are coming to my house for a long run. I have 18 miles at 8:45 pace, Scott is 1 week ahead of me in the program, so he has 20 miles at the same pace. I told him to get here at 7:45, and run a 2 mile loop around my house, then I’ll join him
We are starting a little later than usual because we went out last night to see an Irish band at Gaelic Park. It’s a wonderful center promoting Irish sports (hurling and Irish football), music, dance and theatre. They have an impressive banquet hall and a quaint pub. In spite of the proximity to us, and my Irish heritage, we have only been there a handful of times in the 20 years we have lived in the area.
It was fun, we met our friend, Rich from the triathlon club, and his wife, Louise, who is from Ireland, and a couple of their friends. I managed to hold myself to 2 pints of Guinness.
Gil shows up right after Scott starts, and he is going to try to run 18 with us. He hasn’t been out for a long run since the first week of January, when he ran 15 miles. Rich jogs up with a backpack full of bagels he carried from his house about three quarters of a mile away. Rich and Laura will wait afew minutes more, in case anyone shows up a little after 8 am. Gil, Scot and I take off.
It was warm the day before, but while the snow that was left on some streets melted, it got froze again last night, so there are patches of a really thick frost you have to watch around corners. I lead these guys on the 8 mile Riivendell loop, and we are keeping a pretty good pace. It’s actually sunny enough that I’m glad I have my sunglasses. I dressed a layer lighter today, and I am glad that I did. We do okay, and we get back to my house in a little over an hour. Some bathroom stops are made, and we compare notes with the other group, who ran 6 miles. Another husband-wife couple joined the group, with another woman. The marathon training groups heads out to move into the double-digits.
On the first loop, Scott said he had a cold during the week, and while he ran some, he did not do the planned speed and tempo workouts. But he seemed to do fine for his first 10 miles. On this loop, however, at about 2 miles in, he slows to a walk at the end of what my wife calls “The Neverending Hill”. We get onto flatter ground, and just when we are about to hit a long gradual decline, he urges us to go on without him. Something in his leg is bothering him, and he is going to cut it short, and “find his way back”. Gil and I run ahead, but I don’t feel right leaving him. If he wants to cut is short, I know the shortcuts better, and ever since Bill collapsed on the trail 4 years ago, I have been nervous about leaving people on their own.
So, I figure Scott turned around, andi walking/jogging back. So I convince Gil to try to catch up with him. We keep running, and we don’t see him – until about 1 mile from my house, we think we see someone running the end of the route we did on the first loop. I keep leading Gil on shortcuts, thinking that we will head Scott off. I’m thinking- okay he had a head start, but if we can’t even see him, he must be feeling okay. We don’t see him back at my house, so we finish by running about 1/3 mile back to the end of the route. Still no Scott. I let Gil into the house with orders to stretch, because now he feels some pain in his knee/IT band. Now I think Scott went another way, and is walking. (I did try calling his cell phone, but I did not have his number.) I tell Laura that she should get in the car and go look for him, so he is not cooling down, all sweaty in the cold. Gil and I have run about 14.5 miles, so I need 3.5 more. I run back on the route for the 3rd time, and on the fist street, I see a runner. I head that way, and see it is Scott, like I suspected. I call home and cancel the rescue operation. After I drop Scott at my house, I have exactly 15 miles in the bank. Just an easy 3 mile loop that we have marked off in my neighborhood. I’m glad after the first 1.5 miles to turn around and get the wind at my back. My pace has picked up for this last leg, but I start to flag, and drop to a 10 minute-mile pace.
But I finish strong, for an 8:40 average time. Much better pacing than last week.