Weekend running reports

To me, chilly weather is PERFECT running weather - and this weekend was chilly, so there was much PERFECT running to be done! (Well, maybe not perfect, but pretty darn good.)

Saturday while I was running 6 miles through my favorite park, Edwin Warner Park, friends were going 5+ times as far in the Nashville Ultra Marathon. An ultra is anything over 31 miles. Walter, who was part of my winter running group in the beginning of the year, completed the 50K and can now add "ultra" to his race resume. Johnny, my first personal trainer here in Nashville and the guy who introduced me to the local triathlon community, came in 2nd male overall. Way to go, guys!

On Sunday, my client Dee raced in the Music City Half Marathon. She is competing in the Miami Man 1/2 Iron-distance triathlon on November 7th, and we've been focusing a lot on improving her run. We spoke on the phone last night and came up with a race plan. Had she followed the race plan she would've ended up with a time of 2:14. However, she was feeling frisky and the weather was great so she ended up with a time of 2:10. The course is very similar to the Tom King 1/2 marathon in March, and her Tom King PR is 2:11. We're counting this as a course PR. Woot!!!

I just ran 6 miles on Saturday then a little more on Sunday, but everything was pretty much uneventful except for the squirrel-carrying hawk I had to dodge in the first 1/2 mile of my run on Saturday. Yes, a squirrel-carrying hawk was flying directly at my head. A group of high school boys were running in the opposite direction and saw the whole thing happen. After I ducked and it cleared my head, there was a commotion in the bushes. Apparently the hawk dropped the squirrel (or the squirrel wriggled free) and it ran off. It was a very strange experience and definitely a running first. I posted about it on Facebook, and one of my friends commented that she also had a running first this week: she was running down a country road, and a pack of 20 pigs chased her! The image of that has made me giggle all weekend - a thin girl running down the road with 20 pigs on her heels! HA!!!

Have a great week!