Yesterday turned out to be a decent run although it did not feel exactly wonderful at the time. I met Marty and Calhoun’s on the River right next to Volunteer Landing for an afternoon scurry down Neyland Drive along the Tennessee River and then onto Third Creek Greenway through Tyson Park. Given that Marty had soccer practice at 7:00 and we were meeting at around 5:30, we wanted to keep it short for the most part so that we could drink a brew or two at Calhoun’s before we left. What a great way to finish a run. The sun was out and was probably around the upper 70s, so when were in the sun it was a little draining only because we weren’t accustomed to it. I hadn’t been hydrating myself the past few days, so that didn’t help me out either.
We ran the first split rather fast. It was a nice comfortable but challenging pace along the river. When we switched over to Third Creek, I could definitely feel that I was running out of steam, partly because that last bit of the Neyland Greenway is in full sun, but Third Creek is not. It was all that I had to keep up the pace until we came to the turnaround point (split 2). I had to take about a 5 minute breather to catch my breath and to regain some saliva as my more was like the desert. Plus, with a little bit of stretching, it would make the return trip a little easier.
The return trip was a huge positive split for us and by the time we were halfway back to Calhoun’s Marty had pulled away from me. in the last 0.75-1 mile I tried to act as if it was race conditions and I was trying to catch Marty by the finish time and although I picked up my pace on the way back I was unable to catch him. Marty is just too fast for me. We made it back in 56:38 for an overall 8:51 pace and with enough time to get 2 beers before departing. But first, I had to de-gnat myself. During the run, I had found myself going through large clouds of gnats by Third Creek, yummy extra protein! Anyway, it was a good run and my legs are sore today. Tomorrow should be another good run and hopefully get my speed and endurance in check before the Expo 10k.
Here are out split times:
| Split | Distance (miles) | Time | Pace per mile |
| 1 | 1.9 | 15:51 | 8:21 |
| 2 | 1.3 | 11:09 | 8:35 |
| 3 | 1.3 | 12:19 | 9:29 |
| 4 | 1.9 | 17:19 | 8:51 |
| Total | 6.4 | 56:38 | 8:51 |
Here was our route:
PLANET3RRY 