My friend Lisa asked me to run. She wanted to do either part of the VIA course or the cross country course at Lehigh. She is doing races at each place. I wanted to do the cross country course, since I don't run it. However, I sort of know it.
It was a fairly hot day. We've had better and we've had worse. I ran shirtless, since we were running mostly in the sun.
We agreed to meet at the parking lot. Lisa was about 15 minutes late. I was about to drive around and see if she was in another location and then she pulled up. We jogged over to the starting line to begin the run. I didn't start my watch until then.
This course is nice and wide and can be fast. It's a great course for spectators too. I'm not all that crazy about it, because it is kind of flat and mostly grass. The USATF Club Cross Country Championships are taking place there in December. I might run it.
I know the starting area well. We took off through the wide parking lot. Then, it was in between some fields of corn. There are signs at a lot of the turns. There are several different distance courses. After we came out of the cornfield area, I kind of didn't know where to go.
We went around some soccer practice fields. That was sort of correct. I knew where the first mile is, near the football stadium. When we came to that point, it was just over a mile on my watch. We were close. That first mile ended up being a 9:04.
We were chatting a lot, particularly me at this comfortable pace. Lisa was breathing a bit hard at times. Even with the talking, this run seemed to go by very slowly. Probably because we were looping all around the Goodman Campus.
We went across the road and ran alongside of it. Then, we crossed back over the road again. The course went between some fields and around the back edge of the property. Then, we were back near the starting area.
The course then goes out and between some more corn. I knew this part. Mile 2 was a 9:15. After we came out of the corn, I wasn't quite sure where to go again. The different courses go through this area several times.
Since I realized we weren't at 3 miles yet, I figured that we probably went out and did the loop. This part again passed through corn and bushes. There was some slight uphill. At least this part was easy to follow. Mile 3 was an 8:50.
We came out of the corn and were near where we had got confused earlier. I headed back the direction I thought we'd going. I knew where the finish was, but I wasn't 100% sure how to get there. Once I saw the sculpture, I knew we were going the correct way.
It finishes with a bit of an uphill. It's nice and open in this area. Passes is very possible in a lot of this wide course. I was glad that the course hasn't been used yet this year. Later in the fall, it may be muddy. The final distance we ran was 3.85 miles. A 6K is 3.72 miles, so we were very close. I'm happy with that.
This was a different run at least. The company was good. I'd much prefer a wooded cross country course, but I could see why they would choose this one. It is good for a national caliber race. I may run it, but I probably won't decide for some time. This run was an easy effort for me, so I'm well rested.
Tomorrow, I'm hoping to make it to the track in the AM. A few of the women from the BCR are doing a track workout at 6 AM. If I can sleep, I'll be there. I'm thinking I'd do 6X400 with 200s of active recovery in between. That would be a solid workout that wouldn't be too taxing. I'd like to run in the afternoon or evening too. Lisa suggested going to an Aardvark run. We'll see what I do. I'm trying not to plan too much this week.
3.85 miles - 34:13 (8:53 pace)
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