February 7 - Final Galloway group run (7 miles)!

Group 3 "Crazy Soles" - last time together after 6 months of 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. runs!

Blythe, Caron, Rachael, Sonya, Kristie...Sonya and Kristie at Metro Diner..the remnants of my 10-inch chocolate chip pancake.

As someone who has adhered to the rituals and traditions known as marathon training for the last six months, last night I went all out at Big T's restaurant for dinner - a Guinness, salad, buffalo shrimp (spicy!) and loaded baked potato. Typically this would be considered a risky night-before-a-run meal but I shrugged and figured it's only 7 miles, no biggie. And I was fine. Whew. This morning got up, ate toast w/ cashew butter, drank some water, checked the weather (41 degrees, 70% humidity) and dressed in shorts, long sleeves, and gloves. When I arrived most people donned pants and jackets but since I'll be wearing shorts for the marathon I wanted to squeeze another shorts run in. I spotted Rachael and Blythe, and made my way over. As I bent over to loop my car key onto my shoelace, a girl was walking over..."Kristen! Kristen!?!" and I stood up, puzzled. "Kristen!....oh!....you look just like my friend Kristen. She hasn't been here in awhile so I was so excited to see her." At first, she was so set that I was Kristen that Rachael and Blythe became concerned I had lied to them for months and that I wasn't "Caron" but indeed "Kristen." I quickly explained that I'm not Kristen and we all got a laugh. Group 3 took off, up and over the larger bridge, and did pretty much the same run we did last week. About 3/4 of the way through, Kristie, Sonya and I were huffing and puffing - which isn't typical. I glanced at the Garmin - 8:13 pace! - whoa, way too fast. The group slowed down a bit but was still faster than usual. A lady came up to us at the water stop and asked, "one of you has a blog, right?" and I said "well, Kristie does but hers is about food, and then I have a running blog." She'd come across my blog and loved it, which made me feel happy! We finished, and Rachael and I headed to meet a bunch of people at Metro Diner. The whole back room was runners. I went with the 10-inch pancake (only consumed 7 inches or so) and cheese grits again, and two cups of hazelnut coffee. Rach and I sat with Brian (?) and Ike, a 20-year veteran of the Jacksonville Sherriff's office. He patrols one of the worst, high-crime areas of Jacksonville — and loves it. Car chases, crazy people, 4-5 daily arrests. My inquisitive self asked him 101 questions and he answered them all, and peppered in his humor. I can't wait to do a ride along!