Today the group had 8 miles on tap, the furthest distance we’ve covered so far as well as our first run at 6 AM. We’ve moved up the start times to try avoiding the heat as we move into summer. Of course, Vegas is running below average on the temps right now, so we probably could have lasted another week at 7!

We were running at Pittman Wash again, it’s a really nice path that is away from traffic. There are plenty of trees for some shade and nice undulations to vary the terrain. Plus there are bathrooms at the park where we started. We make certain to have bathrooms at all of our training spots as a courtesy to the team.

My contact lens was bugging before the run so I went into the bathroom to see if there was a mirror. No mirror to help me with my eye, but I could see the toilets in the room clearly… no doors to separate the toilet from anyone else. If you walked in and someone was going to the bathroom, you’d walk in and be able to look them straight in the face. Who designed that kind of bathroom and what was wrong with him? (It’s gotta be a guy… sorry gentlemen, but no woman would do that!)

The plan was to follow the path out for 3 miles, turn around, come back to the starting park then head out in the other direction for a mile, turn around and finish at the park. All of the turnaround points were at roads, so it was easy to say “Turn around at XX road.”

However, when we got 2 miles in we discovered that the path was closed for construction. I had to make an executive decision… so we turned around and ran back to the start then repeated the course. It’s a pretty enough route to do twice in a row, plus there were plenty of people walking interesting dogs along the way. We had interesting things to see! 😉

For the first time since I started doing this, I didn’t run much extra distance. I did 8.2 miles, just a couple turnarounds to communicate the course changes with people running at different speeds.

Most of the team was feeling pretty tired at the end, but that’s to be expected. It’s the furthest many of them have ever run before and they did great. Everyone had a positive attitude and nobody was grumpy this week!

I am coaching a group of runners for the organization Team Challenge. They are fundraising for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America while training to run the Napa to Sonoma half marathon in July.