~3 miles @ ~7.6 min/mi

Lake Artemesia is paved with ducks, and clouds of midges float in the sunbeams. I try to dodge them but at least one gets into my left eye—a gnat, not a duck, that is. With a 5k race coming up in a couple of days I head down Paint Branch Trail from the UM engineering bldg parking lot ~4pm, running hard to see what sort of pace I can sustain. By GPS the first mile is 7:58, swerving past young joggers and pedestrians. Mile 2 around the lake is 7:20. I'm definitely winded now, and intermittently am blinded by the light as I round the north end of the lake and head back. The third mile is 7:31 in spite of an effort to accelerate. Pulse is ~180 during the walk/jog return to the start. Daughter Gray isn't done yet so I grab a water bottle from the car and, heart rate now ~110 and falling, walk half a mile upstream, scanning the woods for deer without success.

^z - 2010-11-23