It is dark out!

I will try to recap the past week or so since I have been blog-slacking a bit.... Last friday I used my last vacation day and ran a lap of the Run With Scissors course. I managed to run the correct course! and also managed to shave approx 30 minutes of time off too! I will not run the race at that pace but my estimate of sub-10 hours seems realistic, depending upon the weather/trail conditions. A nice 10 mile follow-up run Sunday went very well and I was able to hold a great pace throughout.

I have been running in the mornings before work and this means that my headlamp is required. My pace is a lot slower in the dark, but I don't have to worry about crowded trails either! An interesting encounter this morning occurred as I exited the woods onto the bike path. There was an elderly couple standing on the bike path looking back towards me. Of course, I turn to look behind me to see what they were looking at! The gentleman stated "That is what we saw in the woods!" They were looking at me! They had seen my headlamp as I ran along the ridge and could not figure out what it was. We had a short walk/talk together and I turned off into the woods again to complete my 8 miles.

Life just keeps getting crazier and crazier this fall. School activities for the girls, home projects, work, etc. are all adding up to make training very challenging. Denise and I are becoming more creative than usual in an attempt to get the miles in. Fortunately, there are only a few short weeks left before Columbus(Denise) and Run With Scissors(me). This is both good and bad: Good because we can take a break, bad because we never feel like we have trained enough!

This is where experience comes to play: Trust the training, have a plan, and be prepared to adjust/adapt when things don't go as planned! Because rarely does a race, or life, go as planned...