What was I thinking?

April 6th Day 6: The actual route was 9.7ish. What the hell was I thinking? Today I was visiting my Alma Mater and decided I probably should get a run in. I contacted a friend that is still attending Keuka and who happens to have run cross country with me and is currently training for the Buffalo marathon (along with 2 others)! Did we ever go for a run…

The weather was beautiful for a run, just about 50 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze. Keuka Lake is a beautiful place to run but choose your runs wisely as they can turn out to be a bit hilly. I didn’t realize my friend Liz was training for a marathon as well. Too bad she’s been running a lot more than I have! Just before the run Liz asks me how far I was planning on. Let’s just say it was about half of what she wanted to run.

Seriously, if you’ve never been to Keuka Lake you should check it out. Besides the fact that that there really is nothing to do out there except drink and run it is beautiful. However, it is ridiculously hilly which makes you want to hate your life. The first 4.6 miles was great – the sun was beating down and there was a slight breeze. In fact, I thought I was over dressed wearing a long sleeve shirt. The four of us agreed that we would walk up Brown Hill road, good idea. That is approximately a 6.3% grade and .4 miles long. I did not count the .4 miles of the run since we walked it and I stopped the watch. We get to the top and stretch quick and start going again.

I kid you not, once we started running on top of Brown Hill road it seemed that a wind storm decided to come and it felt about 30 degrees. Not fun. The last 4.4 miles was brutally cold and windy. Pretty sure I could have cut diamonds at this point. On the last 4.4 miles we all realized that we are in fact in the middle of no wear. I am also sure that there is a lot of incest and toothless people on the road we were on. Liz told us that the last time she ran this loop a goat chased her for a few minutes – thankfully that goat didn’t show up today. We probably could have died today…

Anyways, I’m assuming it was about 9 total miles of running. My legs hurt and it requires some beer. So far I have had a Corona (choke), a Brooklyn IPA (delicious) and a Smithwick’s (amazingly delicious). I’m going to continue drinking some Smithwick’s because I thoroughly believe I need to intake some calories.