I'm a little worried about not doing enough hills, so I decided it was time for a trip up to Brooksville to run on the section of Suncoast trail which has some rolling hills, nothing too big but definitely enough to feel. I was a bit disorganized this morning so I didn't make my goal of getting on the road by 5:30, it was closer to 5:45, which got me there just before 6:30. One I got out of the truck it kept making this beeping noise like I had left the key in the ignition but I could see the keys were not in so I was thinking the electrical system was just misbehaving. It was doing this yesterday also when I got to work. Eventually, I noticed that the lights were in the "On" position rather than the "Auto" position. Must have happened during the oil change yesterday. I'm not sure why my battery didn't drain yesterday. Turned off the lights and got on my way. I started out really slow but not on purpose, about a half mile in I started to finally wake up my legs and finished the first mile at 9:38, then gradually sped up to about an 8:00 pace as I reached the halfway point. Since this was the latest I have ever started at this location, I was able to see more details that I usually miss in the dark. Nothing too interesting, just different. A big dog ran out toward me but was fortunately behind a fence. Saw the usual rabbits and squirrels doing their morning routines. Ran past a house with a goat in their backyard. I saw a yellow diamond shaped road sign that had a picture of a bear on it. I was a bit worried that it was for a bear crossing. Luckily it was not, although there are supposedly some black bears not too far from this area. The first other person I saw on the trail was a woman running in the direction toward me by herself, then about ten minutes later saw a guy, maybe they were running together. Sometimes I don't see anyone running. Saw a decent number of cyclists. Looked for alligators in the ponds along the trail but did not see any. One section of the trail, which passed through a fieldy looking section, had a big flock of dragon flies that I had to run through. I thought I was going to run into some of them there were so many, fortunately they are probably the nicest insects you would ever want to run through (if you have to run through insects). For fuel, I had 4 8 oz bottles filled with Accelerade (orange flavor) and I took two PowerBar gels (one chocolate and one strawberry/banana). I had my iPod with me which I listened to for about 10 minutes early on but it died on me, so mostly no music. I did get a lot of thinking done but unfortunately have already forgotten most of it. As I was approaching the 15 mile point, I some how that I had done 16 miles and was looking forward to having only two miles left. A bit disappointed when I realized I was 3 miles from the end, but got over it quickly. Finally, I was done and satisfied with a good solid run. Not everything went perfect, but it was pretty good run overall. Average pace: 7:57 (1:14 first 9 miles, 1:10 return trip)
I drank a whole bunch of water and a soy chocolate milk. Chatted with some of the cyclists. I saw a guy run by with two women. I sort of recognized the guy, then he said hi to me. It was Dan F. who I hadn't seen for a while. Chatted for a couple of minutes before he continued on with his friends, then I headed back home where there was a plate of delicious sourdough blueberry pancakes waiting for me!
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