Buggy but Good

I can't decide which day to start with. Both Saturday and Sunday were great runs for different reasons. OK, I'll go with chronological order. Saturday I headed to Pineland where I knew a lot of TMs would be running, but I was looking specifically to meet up with George and Four to run the entire 25K loop at a relaxed pace. BJ, a non-TM that has run with us before, also joined in our loop.

The temperature was near perfect for running, which to me means a little cooler than you'd like to hang out in a tee shirt. There was a pretty stiff breeze that really was only noticeable when we were in the parking lot because the woods seemed to protect us from it otherwise.

I was amazed (though knowing George, probably shouldn't have been) at how strong George was given that he'd run 50 miles the Sunday before. We went out a little faster than I thought we would, but it's hard not to when the lead people are Ian, Jeff, Jim, and all. The idea was to go our own pace, but we still felt that pull at the start. Somewhere around 2.5 to 3 miles we settled back into a more relaxed pace.

I could tell the guys were stronger on the hills than I was, but I felt stronger in the fields (most likely cause I've run our fields so much). They were not very fun since the path hadn't been mowed yet and the grass/hay was over knee high. In fact, at one point, I noticed what I thought was stinging nettle. A few seconds later I was asking George and BJ if the grass was cutting them, too. BJ said no, but his knees were stinging. Duh, it was the nettles. Instead of cuts, when I really looked, I had teeny welts. Kind of reminded me of my childhood! My brother and cousins would play sword fight with nettles.

After the first side, we made a brief stop at the cars to refill fluids. I made use of the break to change my very wet shoes and socks. And then we were off across the road. The only field we skipped was the first one on the 2nd side since it had been freshly plowed and looked like it had been seeded. The Oak Hill side is so much easier than the first. How can it be more down than up?!

When we got back to the parking lot, Four was refueling for more. George said he'd done just what he wanted. When I said I was good, but .8 short of my plan, George said he would be happy to finish that up with me. Yay! I like writing the proper number in the book! BJ joined us for a very (sorry, John :) )easy .8 cool down. I never heard from Four, but hope he got in the mileage he was looking to do.

That brings us to today. Rick joined me for the first 4 miles of my 10 mile day. We ran about a 9:15 pace chatting the whole way. It was when I noticed my first bobolinks of the year. I love those birds! After Rick left me to the rest of my run, I had a few more firsts. I almost stepped on a snake. That's never happened in May before. Then I came to a little "pond" that I planned to stop at to figure out what the little fish were that were swimming around in a barely overgrown puddle. While steeling myself to bushwhack through what was no-doubt tick territory, I was shocked to have a horsefly land on me. Now I'll never know what little fishies were swimming around. I HATE horseflies - probably cause I'm also allergic to them.

Oh, yesterday, even after all the fields, I just had one tick. Today, I had one dog tick and one deer tick. Buggy, but good.