4.03 miles in 33:03

connect.garmin.com/activity/84150283

"62 degrees. no wind. light shoes. amazing four miles. flying!" that's what i tweeted seconds after i got back from this run. i was in salina, ks, to watch my two older girls perform in the state speech and drama championships, so i took along the green swarm. they'd been begging for some new scenery. running the same streets over and over in argonia is dull for these adventure seekers.

after being awakened around 3:00 in the morning by the fire alarm in the hotel, i was surprisingly alert when i woke up around 5:30. i dressed quickly and headed to the lobby where i found a few fellow drama contest participants milling around the breakfast goodies. i put my garmin in the window to sync up with the sattelites while i talked with them. turns out the organizers of the entire tournament were staying at the same hotel. lack of sleep and that big of an undertaking are not a good combination. still they seemed happy enough.

after my garmin finally found the links it needed, i strapped it on and headed out the door. in my imaginations before hand, i was running all over salina checking out parks and waving at fellow runners. that was not the way things turned out. instead i did a straight out and back along one of the busiest streets in town. not that it was all that busy at 5:45.

the first thing i must say is this: salina's sidewalks are crazy! they're elevated a bit so there are huge dips at every driveway. when i hit the first ramp or two, i nearly fell over. i adjusted and was soon undulating with ease. my legs felt great. my lungs and heart were happy. i knocked off an 8:11 first mile. i wasn't trying to break any records, just enjoy the run. i ran out to just past the high school where the contest was to be held, a trip of just two miles, then circled around in a car lot and headed back toward the hotel.

up and down, up and down i went, floating along. i didn't stumble or trip once. when i came up behind a man walking on the sidewalk, i glanced down at my garmin. i was shocked. i'd been running easy, pretty much ignoring my garmin and i wasn't pushing it at all. my pace readout said 7:26! no way! "that's not my easy pace," i thought. i surged past the guy and kept going till i reached the hotel.

i walked around the parking lot a bit, cooling down and then went in, tweeted, grabbed a few breakfast items for my wife and i and went up to our room.

when i finally was able to look at my garmin info, i just shook my head. after a slightly slower second mile, all my splits for this run were negative. i ran 8:11, 8:22, 8:16, 7:59. makes me wonder what the next mile would've been if i'd had time to go on.