Finish Strong

And now, I'm alone. It's been a pretty good Saturday-morning run, with a pretty good group. We've come and gone from the Medina Square, time and time again, all for the purpose of dropping people off or picking them up. But this is the last time. It's a little before 8:00, and everyone else is done. Except me.

My watch tells me I've got four and a half miles to go in order to hit that 20-mile mark. I'm hot, sweaty, and very tired. How the heck am I going to make it all that way? I say goodbye to everyone and start my slow, dragging slog for this final leg. Suddenly, a thought occurs to me: I can head over to the track and finish up there.

Tracks are wonderful things. A quarter-mile of soft, bouncy surface where you're never too far away from home: just what the doctor ordered. Best of all, I can better concentrate on my pace to ensure that I'm not losing form or function. I wind up running my fastest three and a half miles of the day. 

Of course, I slow way down during my slog back to the Square, but I'm very pleased with the way this run wound up. It feels great to finish strong.