7 down, 6.1 to go!

Michele and I flew back from Cleveland on Saturday afternoon, so I missed my 7-mile run with my training group on Saturday morning. The weather was really crappy on Saturday, and it was Rob's birthday, so I didn't run at all. I got up on Sunday morning and did my 7-mile run and still made it to church at 11 am! (I know 11 isn't that early, but I was proud of myself! :) ) The run was nice--I felt good and kept up a pace just under 11 min/mile. That's pretty good considering that I ran the Peachtree Road Race (10K) at an 11 min/mile pace! The weather was great, too. I am so happy that fall is here!

I love to run through Piedmont Park when I do long runs on my own. It's about 3 miles from our house, so it's the perfect destination for a loop route. The neighborhoods between our house and the park are great to run through, too! When I was entering the park on Sunday, I noticed people running a race down the street I was crossing. I thought, "hmm, I didn't know there was a race today" and kept going. But when I got into the park, I quickly realized that I was running toward the finish line of the race! There were racers blowing by me and spectators cheering them on to the finish. I was like "crap, I've got to get out of here!" But everywhere I looked, there were racers! I was able to escape from the park without causing any apparent disturbance to the race, but the whole thing felt like it was out of a sitcom! I figured out from the race numbers that the race was the Atlanta Ekiden Relay, which sounds like it could be fun. (Except that it's six laps around the same 5 K course...I guess this eliminates the need for a van to transport runners, though.) The team captain instructions say "Please be aware of non-race participants as they may not know a race is going on." Haha, that was me!