CHANGE OF SCENERY

After running with my team nearly every Tuesday and Saturday for the last 8 weeks from the St. Paul YMCA, we got a change of scenery. Tonight we met near mile 19 of the Twin Cities Marathon (only a runner would describe it that way). For those of you familiar with Minneapolis, that’s the corner of the Franklin Ave. Bridge and the West River Road. From there we ran a bunch of the hills up from the Mississippi River, along the U of M campus.

What a difference a week makes. A week ago I skipped my hill workout and went to sleep early because of a cold. Tonight I felt really strong and pushed the pace for most of the 10 miles. For some reason the stronger runners haven’t been showing up lately. I can think of 3 guys and 1 gal that usually push the pace, but weren’t there. Instead I ended up chasing Jenna all night. Her PR is 2:50, but I’d guess she’s in 2:46 or 2:47 shape. A gal she recently beat by 18 seconds in an 8k just ran 2:48 at the women’s 40+ marathon in NYC.

We talked a little about our Grandma’s goals. I got the feeling Jenna wants to keep her time goal to herself. That’s fine. I’m sure if I was running near the men’s Olympic Trials standard, I’d keep things to myself too. I told her about my 2:53-2:55 range and she said that "shouldn’t be a problem" (famous last words). She thought I’d be shooting for sub-2:50, based on our training runs. While I take that as a compliment, I also have to keep things in check and make sure I set a realistic goal. Then again, I don’t want to be overly conservative.