February 13th - Group Run - Chelmsford, MA - 22.5

Sunday morning was once again upon us and that means only one thing . . . LONG RUN! This week we (Jess, Linda, Dave T., Karen, Marli, and I) found ourselves in Jess' neck of the woods once again. We had decided on doing a triple loop around the Cranberry Bog to get 20 miles in. Well, most of us anyway. Marli decided she was only going to do 14 as here training plans calls for that amount this week. Slacker (kidding. . . maybe. . . )!

We left the Costa residence at 9:00 am for our grueling mission of the day. Our mission, that was unwanted, was to complete 20 miles before brunch back at the Cafe de Costa. I decided that I was running today's run at marathon pace (MP).

For me, my MP for Boston is 9 min./miles. So today, I would run with Marli for the first two laps of the triple loop course. It was a lot of fun once again this week as Marli, who I have never actually run WITH before, was very entertaining and motivating. We cruised through the first two laps with Dave and Karen right behind us the whole was.

This was the first time I was ever in the lead pack during a group run and it was a lot of fun. Even more fun when Dave T. kept trying to sneak up on me to be the first one across the town lines. He is a sneaky one if you are not paying attention or if your running partner's music is too loud to hear him coming. I successfully took every town line except for the last Chelmsford line. I let Dave have that one (unless Karen beat him?) as I turned around at the last water stop to go back to find Jess.

I figured she would be about a mile and half or so behind me and I would just catch up and run with her back to her house. I was getting a little worried as I was about back at the prior water stop with no sign of Jess. Did she just turn around and head home early? Did she change the route? Where is Jess?

I debated if I should stop at the water stop to get some Gatorade or just continue on to see if I could spot Jess. Luckily, I played it safe and went and got a drink. As I got around the church (where the Gatorade was) I found Jess! She had decided to add on a side road to add up the mileage instead of running the loop for a third time (great decision).

We both shared some water and GU and made our way back to her house where we would share brunch with the crew.

It was another great run with great friends. This made the longest run of the year and the first of three 20+ mile runs. One down, only two more to go before Boston. . . .

(Next time you're mine!)