15,000

Today I went over 15,000 miles on foot since I gave up cigs on June 1, 1998!!  It was a great day.  Marc G and I started at the Mopac footbridge at 5am.  I tried to hold back but went thru 8 miles in 1:30 and 10 miles in 2hrs.  Marc and I decided we had time to do the 1st street loop instead of the 3 miler and make it back to the car by 8am.  Marc went on ahead but I walked up at exactly 8am.

Misty, Justin and David were there waiting.  After a toitie break we ate and drank and also had some of Misty's awesome peanut butter squares that tasted great.  After eating and drinking we hit the trail.  Misty went her own way and all us guys went the opposite direction.  We headed for I35 and the 7 mile loop.  I was surprised when I found myself doing a fair amount of slow running and feeling pretty good.  We met Misty when we came down off the I35 walkway.  We chatted for a minute and then Dave and I carried on by ourselves.

Dave and I mixed in running and walking all the way back to the car.  I was really happy about going thru 20 miles in 4:30.  We took a pretty good break at the car and just as we were wrapping up Misty, Justin and Marc showed up and were done.

Our plan had been to do all the loops but it occurred to me that we could run over to Rick's spot so Dave could see it.  We knew there was a chance the gate would be closed restricting access because of the rain we've had the last few days.  Well, we got there and sure enough the gate was locked.  A couple of women were there and said a biker just got busted putting his bike over the gate.

We turned around agreeing that we would leave it for the future.  We then headed back and did the 3 mile loop and when we were close to finishing Dave said I only had about a mile left to get in a marathon.  So, we did it!!  6:10 marathon!!  I'm very happy with that time considering how few miles I've put in the last few months!!