Last 20 Miler DONE

OK, 20 miler number 4 is done and in the bag. Today was a tougher run for me for some reason, I think the wind (about a 16 mph headwind, depending on which direction we were running) had a lot to do with that. John Y was there, the dude is an elf, he might weigh 160 lbs, nothing but leg and muscle, he spent most of the run just chatting away. I was of course struggling to keep up with him so I didn't have much to say out side of "yes" "no" "too fast" "uphill, woohoo". I of course did not say that last one too often.

The third guy did show up - - Dr. Mike. Dr. Mike is a real doctor for one of the units here on post, his specialty is, drum roll, Sports Medicine. How very convinient. He and John spent the first 8 miles chatting about gatorade, other sports drinks, supplements, gu, etc. Scintillating. John and Dr. Mike were into it so I didn't really say much, just listened. After a while, Dr. Mike wanted to slow down some so he fell off and it was just me and the fast elf. My theory is that if your talking a lot, your probably not running fast enough, unless your an elf.

The run was a very disruptive one, we had our route set up, our water and Gu stops planned and the Air Force messed up the plan. Every saturday morning for the past year couple of years the Manna Multisport group has run from Lee Field House on FT Bragg, onto Pope AFB to run around the airfield and back onto Bragg (about 8 miles). Normally, just one person in the group has to carry an ID card and can vouch for the rest of the group. I never carry mine (an extra 1.7 ounces will make a difference when your running with an elf) John Y always carries his (let the elf carry that 1.7 ounces). When we ran up to the gate this morning I knew we were in trouble: There was a brand spanking new airman on guard and he wanted to see EVERYONES ID card. Normally, you can talk you way past an older guy because he has seen us several times, but a brand new airman has no history or knowledge of the crazy folks that have come onto Pope AFB for the past 2 years on saturday mornings. Brand spanking new airman would not budge, he wouldn't let us on Pope AFB. Doing his job, but disrupted our run. Of course, my Gu and water strategy was messed up, so I had to actually had to think that.

We ended up running our basic route, except we added an extra 6 miles to make up for the airfield. We had to go up some more hills and were really effected by the wind. All in all, it was a good run, I kept it a bit slower than last weeks 20, but it was a bit more challenging. 7:25 minutes a mile was my pace for the day, pretty respectable. For the rest of the train up time, I will be focusing on speed some and maintaining my condition without over doing it.

The USASOC group has smoked it's $5,000 goal - - one person raised 2500 bucks and two other ones are over the $1,000 mark, so doing real well. Thanks a ton.