~4.8 miles @ ~14 min/mi

Last week friend Bob Williams retired from Federal Service. Before he goes back to his home in South Dakota I have to visit him and his wife Glenda. Bob and I have long talked about walking around Burke Lake together, so this morning after a tour of Glenda and Bob's lovely home I follow their car to the boat launch parking area. The leaves are near peak autumnal color, and when we arrive a bit after 7am whisps of fog dance on the lake suface. We begin by taking photos of one another, then set off. Bob and Linda surprise me by running large segments of the loop — I thought we would just stroll leisurely along. Bob leads for the first half, then Glenda takes over. She tells me about growing up in Minnesota, a variety of winter blizzard tales, and some of her running experiences. Approaching the end of the trail Bob and Glenda lead me onto a side route to add a fraction of a mile, plus a nice hill climb and descent. They sprint ahead of me back to the start. Whee! (see GPS trackfile for details)

~4.6 miles @ ~13 min/mi

Mary Ewell phones to synchronize watches as Bob and Glenda and I are at the halfway point around the lake. She arrives just as we finish our lap. Mary's trainer has prescribed intervals for her today: two minutes of trotting, two minutes of walk-recovery, repeated 8-10 times. After the first 15 minutes of warm-up jog we start taking the medicine. Nine repeats and we're most of the way back to the start. The GPS pace chart shows a cute square-wave. Mary is working hard, and I try to entertain her with chatter and gossip about mutual friends, including a summary of Kate Abbott's and Jennifer Weiland's triumphant Marine Corps Marathon a week ago.

~4.5 miles @ ~9 min/mi

Time constraint looms: daughter Gray has a violin student with a noon lesson, and Paulette needs the car to get her there. When Mary and I finish our circuit I salute her good-bye, tag the MINI Cooper in the parking lot, and set off bushwhacking through the woods to the trail, since I miss the official entrance. It's a tempo run, and the GPS records my approximate min/mi pace on the trail as 9.5 ⇒ 9.2 ⇒ 8.5 ⇒ 8.5 and about 8.7 for the final hilly half-mile. At mile 1 I begin to overheat and unzip the vest, then roll up my sleeves. At mile 2 I discover the water bottle has bounced out of my fanny pack, but there's no way to go back and find it; presumably one of the many hikers will pick it up and either enjoy it or discard it. At mile 3 I overtake a pair of young ladies who are moving slightly slower than my pace. Competitive juices push me along until they're out of sight. (GPS trackfile)

(cf. 2011-01-17 - Burke Lake with Kate, ...) - ^z - 2011-11-18