Central Phoenix 13 Miler

Barry and I agreed to run Saturday morning. Unfortunately, our taxi got stuck in some RIDICULOUS traffic on the way to BWI and Rich and I missed our flight back to Phoenix. Barry and I then agreed to run on Sunday. Just as I was getting ready to leave the house at 4:30 AM, he called me to tell me that it was pouring at his house. One thing I don't do is run in the rain. I mean, I might melt! So it would have to be Monday. When Barry called me Sunday night to confirm that we would be running, he sounded like a crack addict that had gone a day without his pipe. :) When I stepped out the door and felt the humidity, I thought we should keep the mileage to 10 miles or so. As I drove toward the Canal to drop off some water and Gatorade, I said, "What the hell, let's do at least 12." I dropped our water where the Canal crosses 16th St. and headed for Barry's house. I queued up the latest Podrunner mix, called The Pound. It features a guest appearance from Ibiza resident DJ Rufus, and it is definitely already one of my favorites. I particularly liked the remix of Baz Luhrmann's "The Sunscreen Song." (The lyrics of the original track are based on a Mary Schmich column in the Chicago Tribune, and isn't a graduation speech. It's a really cool tune anyway.) As we turned off Barry's street and onto Central, I could feel that the extra day or two of rest was good. My legs felt really strong. There were lots of downed limbs along the Bridle Path, the debris from a historically violent thunderstorm on Thursday night. Navigating through the mess was made trickier by the fact that it was still pitch black. Still, we made it to the Canal without incident, and I still felt good and strong as we turned onto it. For a good distance along the canal, there was a pleasant breeze in our face. At one point, I stretched out my arms to let the breeze hit as much of me as possible. Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! The breeze was particularly nice as we approached 16th St., so when Barry turned and asked "13 miles?!?", I nodded and said "Yeah!" So we kept right on going at 16th St. We turned around under the SR51, and headed back to pick up our water. After a quick refueling stop, we started up again. We ran all the way down the Canal without feeling the breeze again. Darn! But just as we turned onto Central Ave., it picked up again. And it was even stronger than before. So much so that I actually felt... what's the word... CHILLY! Just that little break from the heat and humidity was like a jolt of electricity. I felt my pace quicken and my spirits soar! Unfortunately, it only lasted a couple minutes, and then it was back to hot and muggy. As we crossed Bethany Home, Barry surged ahead at a 8:00-ish pace. I usually refrain from picking up my pace to match him, but this time I decided to pick it up just a bit. I did the last 3/4 mile at about an 8:45 pace. When we finished, I felt hot and tired but really good. We finished at about 2:00 even, which beat my previous 13-mile time by about 6 minutes. I am definitely excited by this run, and Barry was, too. A dip in Vicki's pool helped ease the post-run soreness. Moab is only 7 weeks away! Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1215 ft Location: Phoenix, AZ Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 09/01/08 Up/Downhill: [+147/-147] Time: 06:16 AM Difficulty: 3.2 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 80 F temp; 60% humidity 82 F heat index; winds SE 7 Performance Distance: 13.00 miles Time: 2:00:32 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 16 /mi Calories: 1947 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 26 +0' 10 6.3 -0.1 +19 ft 2 9' 45 +0' 29 6.2 -0.3 +26 ft 3 9' 27 +0' 11 6.3 -0.1 +29 ft 4 9' 15 -0' 01 6.5 +0.0 +19 ft 5 9' 02 -0' 14 6.6 +0.2 +3 ft 6 9' 11 -0' 05 6.5 +0.1 -4 ft 7 10' 20 +1' 04 5.8 -0.7 +3 ft 8 14' 48 +5' 32 4.0 -2.4 0 ft 9 9' 39 +0' 23 6.2 -0.3 -3 ft 10 9' 06 -0' 10 6.6 +0.1 -23 ft 11 9' 14 -0' 02 6.5 +0.0 -26 ft 12 9' 14 -0' 02 6.5 +0.0 -29 ft end 8' 44 -0' 32 6.9 +0.4 -16 ft Versus average of 9' 16 min/mile

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