Location: Memorial –> Waugh Bridge
Distance: 5.5
Avg Pace: 10:14
Temp: 66

Another night of great running weather.  Temps were in the high 60s, and at that perfect place between too chilly and too warm.  Maureen was at the packet stuffing for the Houston Half this Sunday, so I ran with Michelle, Loren and Richard.  Half the group did the Sabine 8-mile route, and the others did the Waugh Bridge 6 miler.  I stayed with the Waugh Bridge crowd, since the Sabiners were all really fast and I would have had to run the route alone.  Plus, my hatlamp thingy was still broken, and running along the Bayou in the dark is creepy enough, even with a working lamp and a running partner.  

But it was a really good workout, and I kept a pace a little faster than my usual.  I started out running with Michelle, who is really fast.   Then, I heard Loren and Richard talking about the NY marathon behind us, so we started talking about the course, etc.  The whole time, though, I'm trying to keep up, thinking, "if I don't keep up with these folks, I'll have to run the bayou alone…"   I was actually doing better than I expected, thanks to the weather.   

We did have a minute of sheer panic trying to cross Shepherd back to Memorial.  Runners familiar with the Memorial/Shepherd/Allen Parkway routes know that intersection isn't the typical 4-way setup.  Lots of streets feed into that one block area, from all different angles, making crossing at any point a little hairy.  Anyways, I think someone miscalculated there timing of the traffic lights, and within seconds of reaching the middle of the street, cars were coming at us from all directions.  Someone yelled, "stay in the center lane!"….which might have been OK, except that the center lane was actually the left-turn only lane.  So, a few times, cars wanting to turn left started driving towards us in the lane before realizing we were in the road.  Cars were whizzing past, and there aren't any lights where we were (except for car headlights) so cars wouldn't spot us until they were close.  Not good.  Finally there was a break in traffic, we sprinted over to the sidewalk and it was over.  The whole thing probably lasted only 60 seconds max, but it felt longer.   "I just saw my life flashing before my eyes," I said.

We got back to the Park, and I pretended that I didn't want to collapse after keeping up that faster pace.   Later, Loren said "You guys were killing me" because it was a fast pace for him too.  I told him I was SO happy he said that, because I was totally dying too.  

Aftewards, Loren and Judith shared their past NYC Marathon experience, including tips: take it easy on the Verazano, expect a pick-up in energy on 2nd ave and Central Park because of the huge crowds.