12 miles in 12 hours. Not too shabby.

And just like that, I'm back on track. Moments after clicking "publish" last night, I hit the yoga mat for some quick downdogs, plank poses, child's (children's?) poses, and needle poses. It was a flow series that I did a zillion times and had committed to memory. Then, I was snoozing.

When the alarm went off this morning, I didn't even have the desire to hit snooze. Who am I? I practically popped out of bed and was ready to go. I think I'm learning throughout this training that the more variety in the schedule, the better. If I have to do another 6 mile easy run, I'll probably go insanity bananas. But 7 miles at a quicker clip, followed up with 5 easy miles? That sounds like fun!

I was out the door around 5:45am and you would've thought it was the middle of the night. The sky was lit up with stars, and it was beautiful. Since I live in the city, I usually don't get the pleasure of seeing the stars, so it was great. I picked out the big dipper, and pretty much kept my eyes on the sky until they started to disappear.

I almost got mowed down by a biker (S.O.B.) who was biking on the left side of the trail under a bridge. He yelled out "whoa!" before veering away from me, as if it was somehow my fault. Yes, I understand that it's early morning (at this point the sun had come up enough to see fairly well), but I'm wearing a bright WHITE shirt, and if you were biking on YOUR SIDE of the trail, we wouldn't even have a problem. So whoa, yourself.

Next up, I ran by Spencer Pratt this morning. Not sure why he was on the bike trails in SoDak, but he appeared to be struggling. No Heidi in tow, which is surprising, because I thought they were Siamese twins...hmm.. No, but seriously. There is a kid that went to the nearby college who played on the tennis team. I dated a tennis player from my school, and was best friends with him still after we weren't dating, so I attended many a tennis match in my day. When the Hills came on tv, I literally yelled at the tv, "Holy crap!! Isn't that ____ _____ who plays tennis for ______?" Turns out it wasn't (Shocker) but a lot of people think they could be twinsies.

Shortly after passing one half of Speidi, I noticed a guy running about 200-300 meters ahead of me on the trail. Being the competitive gal that I am, I decided we were going to race (no sense telling him about the contest, that would take away the fun!) At this point I had about 2 miles left of my run, and there are a couple places for him to turn off on the trail during this 2 miles, not to mention that he could turn around at any given point. It became a game: Catch up to him, but keep a steady pace in the process. You must beat him before he stops/turns off the trail/turns around, but you mustn't speed up your pace in the process.

Did I win? Of course I did. :) And guess who it was. None other than Mullet Man! He was rocking the same biker short under short gym short look, mullet flying in the breeze, with a SWEET "Science Rules" t-shirt on. I sort of wanted to quiz him on some science information as I ran by, but I decided not to. Within 30 feet of me passing him, he left the trail. Just think, if I would've been 30 feet slower, I would started the day with an L. Phew. Close one. Thanks for the race Mullet Man. Until we meet again.....

The run ended up pretty great (and obviously entertaining). I did 5 miles in 46:44 for a pace of 9:21 (goal pace 9:35).
1. 9:37
2. 9:23
3. 9:24
4. 9:15 (Mullet Man race mile)
5. 9:03

Post-run I stretched and did some Stress Management yoga. I reasoned that I might be more apt to do situps and pushups tonight if I didn't have 20-30 minutes of yoga looming over my head. I also have a delicious dinner swarming in my head, so perhaps I'll treat you to some photos on my post tomorrow instead of tedious text. Oh alliteration, I heart you.