Luke - 13.6

13.6mi, 1:42:55 (7:34)

Hahahahahhahahahahha yes I'm so good.

My work schedule has changed again, and is now 4am-4pm Mon-Thurs. I'm pretty happy with the change since I get a whole day off, but the 1½ fewer non-work hours each day is tough. Last night I didn't get to bed as early as I'd hoped, and was pretty tired all day. When I got home from work I was absolutely dead and took forever to drag my ass out the door. I was not optimistic for the run. My first mile and half was a couple seconds from being the slowest such split this month. Picked it up a little bit on Rexius. Going into Fox Hollow I decided I'd give it a good effort; the main reason was probably because Zack said he was going to run Fox Hollow today (he was going to run a bit later than me) and I figured trying for a better time than him would be good motivation (I'm a dick like that). A minute or so up the hill I thought I heard something behind me, and I pretended it was a runner for extra motivation. At first I thought it was a bird, then thought maybe it was my own echo...thought for a bit it might be a bike but it didn't seem like the right sound for that either. Also entertained the idea that it was just my imagination. I was going pretty fast, really pushing it up the hill, and finally stole a glance behind me around a switchback, and it was a runner. Keeping up with me as I sprinted up Fox Hollow. What the hell. He was about 15m behind me and I think it ended up being a lot like this run, with me going slightly ahead then him almost catching me, the whole way up. I got just a couple more glances the rest of the hill, and thought it might be Ritz or Ian Dobson or something. I managed to stay ahead the whole time, finishing a few seconds in front of him. My time was one of the fastest I've ever had. At the top I stopped and turned around to see who it was, and it was someone I've seen before who I'm pretty sure is fast, but I don't know exactly who he is. I asked "Who are you??" with my hands on my knees, but I don't think he heard me because he responded, "Are you doing the next loop?" and pointed to the 1.6-mile loop that I've often done before. I told him I was going to the top of Spencer's Butte and he said "Okay!" and ran off into the 1.6 trail. I said, "Good job man!" after him and then went on to do the rest of my run. The uphill went pretty well, definitely stronger than usual, and my time at the top was a couple minutes faster than usual. Downhill I got faster and faster and just killed a few of the sections. Checked my watch when I stopped for water and saw that a PR was quite possible, so of course I went for it. Passed Zack on Rexius and gave him my best rendition of the second half of "One Last 'Whoo-Hoo' For The Pullman", and tried to get out "7:26 up Fox Hollow!" but I don't think he heard me since we passed each other pretty quickly. Probably for the best, since I see now that my time was actually 7:16. Anyway, felt pretty good the whole way back, mostly around 6:40 pace but a bit faster at the very end. Four (4) pull-ups. Splits: 13:06, 15:00, 7:16, 6:51, 8:00, 4:06, 3:33 (57:55) / 3:44, 2:56, 5:42, 4:50, 6:26, 11:53, 9:25.