Hospital Hill, revisited

When my alarm went off at 4:45 this morning, I wasn't exactly thrilled to get out of bed, but I also wasn't grumpy about it. After all, I only had to run 8 miles. No big deal when compared to what I've done recently, or what I'll be doing in the future.

I weighed in (down 1 lb. from last week!), ate a banana, and put on my Hospital Hill sweat-wicking t-shirt. I chose that particular shirt because today's route started and ended in the same area as the Hospital Hill run. Eerily, the temperature and humidity were about the same as they were that day, too.

When I got to the meet-up area, I noticed every bench in the park was occupied by a homeless person. When the coach of our group got out his bullhorn at 6:00 a.m. and started talking about the route, the folks on the benches stirred, angrily looking around for the source of the noise.

I started running with the 12 minute mile pace group. At one point, we saw a group of runners ahead, and all of them were standing around another runner. Something was wrong, and as we approached, I noticed there was a LOT of blood on the sidewalk. The poor guy had stepped on a nail or some glass, and was bleeding profusely. Someone was already on the phone with 911, and there were plenty of people staying with him, so our pace group continued on.

It's become clear that the 12 minute pace group is not fast enough for me, which makes me sad because I really like the people in the group. Still, I don't want to sell myself short and train too slowly. If I can finish faster without burning myself out, I definitely want to do that. Today, I ran ahead and caught up with the 11:40 group, then later I caught the 11:20 group. Next week, I may try to stay with them the whole time.

By the time it was all over, my face was the color of a tomato and I was dripping sweat. I felt great, though. This coming week, my mileage will be increasing. Bring it on, I say!