This morning we woke up and headed out to the Wolf River Trails (WRT) and met up with other members of our running group. I ran the 8 mile option and Drew, Michael, Patrick, John, Vinnie, Chris, and Patrick's dad ran the 18 mile option. I woke up feeling surprisingly good. I've been very diligent about icing, stretching, and taking celebrex or Advil, so it was nice to finally feel my legs loosening up some.
The race started at 8 and all runners ran an 8 mile loop first then the 18 milers went on another trail for a 10 mile loop. I ran the first couple of miles with Michael and then we met up with another runner named Laura and we began talking with her. Michael dropped off to wait on the other guys so I stayed with Laura from about mile 2 to mile 6 1/2. That is one thing I love about running - you always meet some great people at these races. We chatted about all kinds of things and she helped me push my pace some. I wasn't planning on going that fast, but I didn't want to run alone, so I decided to stay with her until about mile 6 1/2 and I told her to go on. I got lost briefly and then pushed in to finish in about 1:19. So a big thanks to Laura for making the race go by faster!!
Overall I felt okay. My calves and hamstrings were a little tight and now my quads and groin are a tad sore. 8 miles is the most I've run since the 50K a month ago. I'm going to rest up for the remainder of the day and I should be okay for tomorrow's half marathon. Again, I'm not racing it at all - just going to use it to train.
Here are a few pics from after the race of our group who now are so official that we had shirts printed up!! Here are the founding members of the Memphis Ultra Runners:
