Justice Run done

Saturday I ran in the Justice Run at church, which I mentioned here.  I did a poor job of recruiting pledges, overestimated my readiness to put in big miles, and underestimated the heat factor.  In spite of that, we had a good time and raised some money to rescue young girls from the sex slave industry.

I started the day early, rising before 5 to leave the house and run to church.  I took an indirect route and got in about 15.5 miles before I got to church.  I took it slow and easy, maintaining a 10:30-11:00 pace, so I would have plenty in the tank for the run itself.  I got to the church with a half an hour to spare to get registered and rehydrated for the run, which was scheduled to start at 8:30.  I was waiting around for the start before I realized there wasn't really a start, just an open invitation to run whenever you want, so I took off a few minutes after 8:30.

I still ran pretty slowly, taking time to visit with friends who were running and to tarry at the aid station.  This was certainly more social than competitive, and many of the participants weren't runners, so there was a variety of paces and a lot of walking on the course.  It was nice meeting a new friend from NTTR, who came with 2 of her friends and her daughter.

After a few one mile loops, I realized I did not want to keep running in the heat to hit my 50K goal, nor did I think I could finish before 11:30, the stated stop time.  So I quit at 11:30 after having run 11 1-mile laps, bringing my day total to about 26.75 miles.  It wasn't a certified course, but using my Garmin mileage I'm putting it down as a marathon-distance run--a very slow marathon run!

Sorry, no pictures.  I should have at least taken a couple.  Many thanks to David Moore who organized the run, and especially to Kelly's parents for sending me my one and only pledge--and a generous one at that!  (If you still want to contribute, you can!  There are plenty of slaves needing redemption!)