3/20/10 - 19.5 miles - bugs galore

I really didn't want to get up when the alarm went off and a 1000 excuses went through my mind. Friday night I had finally opened up a box of thin mint girl scout cookies that Jace forced on me and I probably ate between 1/2 and 2/3 of one of the sleeves of cookies. They were so good friday night but my stomach felt so bad Saturday morning. After dry heaving once, I almost went back to bed, but I decided that I really needed the run and didn't want to have to do it later by myself so I finally pushed myself out the door. I was running a little late so I just ran from the house and decided I'd try to catch the group on TC Jester since they were running from the base towards my house. My timing was pretty good and I got to Washington and TC Jester within about 20 seconds of the group I usually run with. I threw in a quick surge and caught the group right before the overpass north of I-10 that goes over the railroad tracks. I had pretty bad gas most of the run from my girl scout cookies so it was kind of fun pushing the pace and being in front of the group - kind of like my college days. We were running on the bike path along the bayou and there were tons and tons of bugs everywhere. A couple of guys had ditched their shirts at the first water stop, but fortunately I kept mine. When you ran through the swarms of bugs, you could pull your shirt up over your mouth and nose and have a filter to keep you from inhaling the bugs while everybody else was hacking and choking. We were moving at pretty good pace on the way back and got back to base with the last couple of miles at sub 6:30 pace. I was right around 13.5 miles at that point so I headed back to the park for some additional miles. I ran into my friend Benson at the park and ran about 2.5 miles with him before heading home and finished up the 19.5 miles in 2:21. My adductor/groin was a little sore after the run and the rest of the day, but felt better after a good night's rest Saturday night. After finishing the rest of the first 1/2 of the box of girls scout cookies, I put my other 5 boxes of thin mints in the freezer to wait until after Boston is done.