8 miles

I went to Target yesterday during my lunch hour to buy Sport Beans, since I was out of Shot Bloks. I can never find Shot Bloks, but I knew Target had the beans, plus I was looking for a potty seat for Max. I ended up with a box of beans, no potty seat, a $20 Aquadoodle, and a new pair of shorts and a shirt.

I sat down last night with Google Maps to get some good directions to this morning's run, and discovered that Keene is way the heck down Route 20. It would take me 45 minutes of driving through nowhere to get to the middle. So rather than wake up at 5 to be on the road by 5:30, and then inevitably get lost somewhere, show up late, and have to run an unfamiliar route in the middle of nowhere by myself, I changed my plans. I slept till 6:45, and drove 18 minutes to the Monticello Trail. It's two miles uphill, and two miles down. I did two roundtrips.

The uphills are pretty relentless, but the downhills make it all worth it. I had some weird pain in my left arch, that slowed me to a walk on mile 3 (the first downhill mile) and again for almost the whole of mile 5 (first uphill mile on the second lap). But overall, I felt pretty good, and vowed to make it to the shop on Monday to buy a long overdue pair of new shoes. The last two miles, I flew downhill, did the last two miles in under 20:00, and it felt great. I finished in just over 92 minutes, again, an 11:30 pace. So, eh, not great, but better than I thought I was going to do when I hit mile 3. The arch doesn't hurt now, but I might just be distracted by the huge chafed area that the new shorts left on my lower back. They have a clever little zipper pocket for gels or keys, except I had my Camelbak strapped on right over it. Ouch.

Oh, and I saw a giant crayfish with one claw.