A Run in the Sun

After my epic little weekend - 17 and 23 miles on back to back days - I rested on Monday and went for a very easy 10K on Tuesday.  I was working like a dog all day and after twelve hours, mostly just wanted to make sure I had some circulation.

Vancouver is in the throes of a week of utterly splendid weather, the kind of days that make all memories of winter rain and damp seem faint and distant.  Yesterday was hot and clear and the sun beat down on beach-goers and runners alike.  At six in the evening it was still 76 degrees - at least according to the Molson Brewery thermostat as I drove across the Burrard Street Bridge - and the pavement on the Seawall around the perimeter of Stanley Park had been well-baked by early evening.

This Marathon Clinics group of diehards is keen to qualify for the Boston Marathon or set personal bests this Fall, so they can reliably be counted upon to chomp at the bit during every training run.  We set out to do a 10K at a 3:30 marathon pace, and we even discussed adjusting our time for the heat.  But once we were underway all such considerations vanished like water evaporating on the pavement.  We maintained a pace of 7:50 and banged off the 10K in a hair over 47 minutes.

Interestingly, there was much complaining during the run about the pace, the heat and the lack of shade but not a single person backed off...  No competitive juices in this group, no Siree!   A number of runners commented afterwards that last night's run was one of their best workouts of the Clinic, myself included, and I usually do not fair very well in that kind of heat.

My weight had jumped up over two hundred pounds over the weekend, but this morning I hit the scales at 198.  Fruit and vegetables, fruit and vegetables!