Rough Go to Lake Ilsanjo

Time: 86:24

Distance: 20.22

Pace: 4:16

Map

After yesterday's struggles during the 200s, I felt really good on today's run. I would like to be able to pinpoint the cause of why I felt so nice, but it may have just been one of "those" days.

Last night my mom and I surprised some friends that we hadn't seen in quite some time. It was over Facebook that my mom was contacted and invited to a neighborhood bbq that we attended. The husband of the couple didn't know that we were coming and he's a big time jokester. I had to come up with something clever on the spot to grab his attention. The best I could do was angrily ask if, "that was his dog over there?" He turned apologetically before realizing it was me and gave me a big hug. The reason I bring this up is because his wife told me one of her favorite trails in Annadel is Rough Go.

Rough Go is a great trail, but it's exactly how it's named. She mentioned that she sometimes does a fartlek up it which really intrigued me. She got me interested in venturing up Rough Go on my next run in Annadel which was today. It had been several years since I ran the trail that is always a challenge to run up or down. In today's run, I hit Rough Go at about 4.8k where the elevation is 112m. By the time I hit the top of the climb, I was at 258m and had only traveled just over 7k in distance. I had to find a certain exertion point and maintain a steady clip on the ascent so as to not redline and completely falter.

Once I crested the top I quickly found a rhythm and was splitting some faster kilometers. At one point I was certain Mr. Garmin was being mischievous as I didn't run slower than 4:16/k from 8k through the end of the run: 4:16, 4:04, 4:09, 3:58, 4:05, 3:59, 3:44, 3:44, 3:48, 3:44, 4:05, 3:48, 3:42. Here is your metric lesson of the day, 3:45/k is 6:00/mile pace.

I ended the run with some dude named Jacob who came sprinting up from behind. We ran the final 3k together and chatted a little about Santa Rosa running. He is new to the area and is an English teacher at Slater Middle School. I attended Slater and probably set some records that might stand to this day. Sara Bei (Hall) #namedrop also attended Slater and used to race in the boys distance events. I was the only one who could beat her too. It was a good way to end the run, though a little annoying to get caught from behind and listen to Jacob struggle to keep up and hold a conversation. He was not invited to my Sunday long run. #elitist #thisisnottwitter