Fork in the Road

For the last three years, the First Lady and I have reserved the first weekend in February for a church retreat north of Jasper, Alabama. It's a terrific weekend and we enjoy spending time with our friends.

I ran here last year, bagging a five-miler in some chilly conditions, and I brought my Adrenaline 11s for a scheduled eight-miler, lacing up and taking off around 1:15 pm. The terrain is unspectacular for the most part, with one exception:

This fork separates the road to the girls cabins from the road to the boys cabins. There's also a pretty serious downhill on either side, and conversely, the uphill was a challenge. I needed eight miles and had to add distance however I could, so I went down and up twice. With not a lot of camp road to work with, I ran to the camp entrance (Alabama 195) and back a few times. Pretty dull, except for the rain that started about halfway through. I wound up getting a pretty good soak, but I kept my tempo pace of 8:15 for six miles pretty well. Thankfully the temperatures were mild.

So that was the last run of any sizable distance before the marathon. This week is 3-4-3-3, with some intervals during the four-miler. I ran this morning's three-miler in my Adrenaline 12s and had no foot pain as I've had the last three weeks. The thing is, these are the shoes that just made my feet hurt during the 16-miler.

We'll get these things figured out. T-minus five days until I toe the line.