Flat hills = oxymoron

Yesterday's hills in the race weren't enough. Gimme more. Grasshopper phoned shortly after noon to say he would stop by today for a Gatorade break during his long run (mileage undecided) in about 90 minutes. That gave me enough time to finish folding laundry, eat a small lunch, rock out on Guitar Hero some more, and map an 8-mile route that I would pretty much throw out the window at Mile 1-1/2.

I joined his run-in-progress (wearing the new long sleeve technical shirt from yesterday's goodie bag) after a few sips of the blue stuff. While I was putting on my shoes, I left Grasshopper with a magazine with tips on hill training. One tip was to "visualize a flat hill" as you run up, keeping head up and arms swinging, or something to that effect. He pointed out that hills couldn't be flat. Terrain, yes. Hills, no. Oxymoron.

Anyways, I was able to keep up with Grasshopper nearly stride-for-stride for most of the run (except on a couple of uphills), leading me to declare that he and I should only run together after he's done at least 7miles already and is just a bit tuckered out by this distance completed. That improves my chances much more of keeping up. We made a stop at the running shop for water and some candy. We also made a good decision to head north from the store. He was tiring (this being his longest run in a while), and my energy was starting to wane a little (probably because of a second day of faster-than-normal pace). The yummy berry blue sport jellybeans were probably a key reason for making it up the next five hills (these were definitely NOT flat but these did not defeat me. The second and fourth ones almost though) on the way back home. Mmmmm sugar boost.

Reached home and immediately kicked off the shoes. Laid out a small buffet of lavash, Vinta crackers, smoked gouda, peanut butter, carrot sticks, granola bar, and more Gatorade. Mmmm, replenished. I later mapped out the actual route -- I'm a bit shy of the goal distance, but I'm rounding up from 7.6 miles.