The Devil fell in the Details

Felt the hangover from my weekend's efforts tonight. Did a slow recovery run around Walnut Creek when I really should have taken a rest day. Or maybe it's just that I had to keep stopping for the mountain bikers that threw me off. Who knows, but my heart just wasn't in it.

Anyway, yesterday I had a fantastic 10 mile run around the "so hilly your car may not make it up" Ladera Norte/Mesa/Far West Blvd neighborhood. I met Roger at 5am to keep him company for the start of his last mega-long run before Cactus Rose. It's a beautiful neighborhood, full of high end houses and lots of deer. And get this - it was actually cold when we started off (though the first big hill soon took care of that). Roger went on to repeat the 10 mile loop another 3 times, while I jumped in the car and headed up to the greenbelt to meet another friend. We haven't run together for a while and had a fun time catching up while enjoying a glorious Fall Sunday morning - definitely a "jazz brunch" kind of day. We did about 7 to 8 easy miles and it was a great way to start the day. While driving down 360 on my way home, I was tempted to stop off at Bull Creek and join up with Roger again, but my breakfast waffles were calling me. And I'm glad I listened - they were superb.

Back to race plans and I've been getting a lot of advice from friends about whether or not to run the Double Decker marathon the day after the Sunmart 50 miler. There have been good and bad angels on my shoulder, and it would have been an interesting challenge to make the 5 hour time limit on a very hilly course after such a long race the day before. Well, the decision was made for me today when I found out the time limit was 4 hours and 30 minutes, not the 5 I had thought. End result - I'm going to sign up for the half.