Tonight Thomas and I ran the 5.2 miles again. Tonight was much better than Tuesday night. During the day I drank enough water to make a fish drown and this helped me out a lot. It wasn't any cooler tonight than Tuesday so there wasn't much relief there. I kept up with Thomas for about half of the run and then he left me. The only time I walked was shortly after he left me. We were on one of the hills and I had to stop. I couldn't catch my breath enough to really run effectively so I stopped and walked about 100 yards in order to catch my breath. After this I continued to run and did not stop for the remainder of the run.
The real issue tonight was the war that I got into. I had more horse flies and bugs attack me while I was running than I have had in all of my previous runs combined. I think it was the devil. It had to be. They kept landing on my head, one bit me on my left shoulder, and I think one bit my back because it kept feeling funny the entire run. I was swinging at them like a mad man, trying to get them off of me and out of my face. I'm sure if you would have seen me it would have been a sight. Here is a guy running about as fast as someone can walk swatting at the air. My form was shot. I took the form of a dying person more so than a runner. It was ugly.
During this final half of the run my pace was extremely slow. I bet a good walker could have beat me. But, I kept on a trucking. A funny thing did happen. I finally got back to the blacktop and there was someone else out exercising. This person was going the opposite way right when I got to the blacktop and I ended up getting about fifty yards ahead of them. At this point I kind of caught my breath, with only a mile left, and started to pick up my pace and felt better. But, I kept looking back and I wasn't pulling away from this person. I really thought that it was going to be a race to the finish line, but I edged the person out. Really though, it was a woman that was walking and I don't think it was very fair.
My final time was 58 minutes and change and Thomas' was 53 minutes and change. Watch out Kenyans here we come.
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