12 As The Sun Rises

I love fall, but the downside is that we are losing daylight fast, on both ends of the day. This morning when I left to drive to the field house at 5:45am, it was still dark out. When I started my run at a few minutes before 6am, the sun was just beginning to rise and the sky was lightening. A month ago, I could start a run at 5:45 and it was light. It's going to be a bit tough to get in my early morning long runs in the next month as it gets light later and later. Luckily, I only have a few more mid-week long runs planned, as after we're back from vacation later this month, we'll be sticking to running on the weekends, and can get in our long runs then.

Anyway, I headed out this morning to do the Highland Road loop. The fields along Pleasant Hill were dew-covered and quiet. Only the crows were out, squacking away at each other. I hit the four mile mark in 33:00. I was feeling good, but figured I'd probably slow down, as I knew I had a few good hills coming up. Still, I soldiered on up the hills and hit Highland pretty quickly. As I meandered through the fields, I noticed a distinct lack of birds. With the fields hayed, the Bobolinks had disappeared. I saw what I think were four Eastern Meadowlarks flying and calling overhead, plus several sparrows. But no swallows or Red-winged Blackbirds. Only the cows kept me company as I ran past.

I had to take a bathroom break around mile 7. I tried the whole mind over matter (ha!) thing, but it was of no use. I had to stop. Ugh. But what can you do? I had packed some TP in my fuel belt so I was all set, but I did wish that a bathroom would miraculously appear! :-) After that brief stop, I continued on, and noted that I passed 8 miles at 1:06, give or take. Perhaps I would keep up the 8:15 pace. I headed down to Maquiot Bay, taking in the view out towards the ocean, and then climbed up the last incline before the flat stretch back into town. As I neared the high school, things got busy. There were cars everywhere. So much for a quiet loop...

I did a slight variation at the end of the run to get the mileage to 12. Slightly crazy, yes, but when I say I want to run 12, I don't want to end with 11.75. MapMyRun has been quite useful for figuring out runs around town, and I played with the Highland run last night to eke out those final 0.25 miles. I finished in 1:39:40. Snowman showed me how to calculate my pace exactly, but it involved all sorts of multiplication and division by 60 and I can't seem to get it right, but by my inexpert calculations, I think that puts me at 8:20 pace. Not bad.