Eight Miles With Fogged Glasses

Saturday morning I made up the postponed eight mile run. At this point, the pace is 2:30 run/1:00 walk which ended up with a pace of around 13 min./mile.

The reality that I'm aiming toward a fairly long run is starting to sink in. The College of Coaches told me to stash water along the route ("don't carry a bottle of water, you'll look like a dork") as the outdoor fountains are starting to shut down with the approach of winter. I was also informed that I should have some sort of "carb" snack along the way, and my running jacket was duly loaded with four three-packs of Malted Milk Balls left from Halloween.

After getting started and getting through the first mile and a half, it almost felt natural. 29 degrees at the start caused my glasses to fog, and I mis-identified nearly anyone else who was out running, walking, or driving; however, dressing correctly made the run comfortable, though the accumulated smell at the end frightened the house pets. By the way, Runners World has a very intelligent website that discusses dressing appropriately for weather conditions click here.

The run was uneventful, with spots where one knee would complain for a while and then the other and both eventually settled down, but nothing abnormal occurred. Two of my water bottles had disappeared necessitating a pause at Kwik-Stop for more water. The slow service let me heat up a little more than I would've liked, but the cool morning and the inspiration from the smells of breakfast wafting from the West Dubuque Tap kept me going.

So far so good. It's all good.