Unintended PR

We had a great group run at Clinton Lake trail this morning. A bunch of ChiADeads came down and were joined by a bunch of buffalo. And the combined "dead buffalo" herd ran well...even in the cold and rainy conditions. We started in overcast and cool weather, but as the run went on it got cooler and started to sleet. Maybe it was hail. All I know is it was wet and cold! I started to pick up the pace around half-way so I would stay warm and relatively dry. Finished in 1:23:13--an unexpected and unintended PR by about 30 seconds. I escaped the worst of the rain and wet leaves--see my fine Teva X-1 shoes above--they aren't that bad. After a crazy week of running (5 tough trail runs in 4 days), and eating more than I should, I still felt great on the trail today. I hope all the newbies had a good time. Everyone finished and seemed to be smiling at the end. Hmmm...maybe it was "the end" that made them smile? Anyway, then it was off to breakfast at the Farmer City Cafe. We drank lots of coffee, shared a few running stories, planned out some future races, and then headed on our respective paths home. The Irish-Australian-English guy (Ian) didn't even embarrass us too much--although tickling the waitress at the end was close! It'll be nice when the ChiADeads come back for some more Clinton Lake training. We'll post an official training run schedule on the Second Wind web site in late December or January--runs will likely start in mid-January. Those registered for the most awesome race in the universe (that's the Clinton Lake 30-Mile Trail Run) will receive a note from the almost equally awesome race director (that would be me) about training run opportunities. If anyone can't make those runs, feel free to contact me and I'll give you a personal tour of the course.

After this week's runs, I'm finally feeling like a real trail runner...and I think I'll run well at Da Deer Run 8K in 2 weeks. Hurdles or not, that cross country race won't get the better of me. Can "Injury Prone" Pat say the same?