8.97 miles in 1:30'22"

i tried to deny it this morning when i ran with the west side wackos. a couple of people called me a wacko as if i fit in with the weird folk who regularly run and puking pace. "i'm not a wacko!" i insisted. "winston is a wacko! patrick is too! not me. someone else did the nose and the hat!"

i am wacko! i admit it. my wife invited me to run along with her tonight after we got back from watching our high school girls lose a heartbreaking volleyball match at sub-state. i said, "sure, why not?" we talked our middle daughter into going along too.

we started out with a plan to run once around town. "it's only three miles," we told our daughter. "you can do it." she fell for it. we ran a complete circuit and everyone felt like running a bit more, so we kept going. we were together for a little while then the young one decided she was tired of running mom's pace and took off. i let her go until my wife said, "i think i'm ready to finish." (she ended up running 3.99 miles total. her longest run to date.)

"i'll chase down shanny then," i said. i picked up my pace considerably and caught up with her in about four blocks distance. daughter and dad running together! it was awesome. her pace was pretty fast considering this was the longest run she'd ever done. we circled around by the elevator then she said she was ready to head home so we turned on walnut and headed that way. several times she wanted to quit and walk, but i made her keep going to the corner of pine and vine. (she finished with 4.43 miles total. her longest ever run.)

from there, believe it or not, i kept going. i found a moderate pace that felt comfortable and i settled in for the long haul. i did another complete loop with a few odd variations to avoid running on as much gravel as the first time. i took every spur i could and returned againg to pine and vine. my watch said 1:18'34" and i thought, "i can't stop now! i need to make it an hour and a half." so i ran across pine and kept going.

a little meandering here and there got me what i wanted. my total time when i stopped the clock was 1:30'22". my total mileage for the day: 18.17 miles! by far my highest mileage day ever and it came at the end of what is now my highest mileage week ever - 41.33 miles!

yippee! i'm a wacko!