Bent Creek run w/Eric

Official training for Cooper River Bridge Run has started. One of my coworkers who is a triathlete (and 7 time Ironman competitor!) gave me some tips about cross training for running and riding events/goals, so I tried to get in a longer run and longer ride this weekend. I got a longer trail run in on Saturday, but the problem is that since I'm not used to running for that long my legs were pretty dead by Sunday so my ride was compromised. It'll get better with more practice and I plan on alternating days. Anyhoo, I was in class from 9-3:30 on Saturday then picked up Eric and went to Bent Creek. I know, you're sick of hearing about Bent Creek, but it's close and I love it so shut up. Eric had already ridden that morning with Malcolm, but I forced him to come run with me anyway.


All the snow from earlier in the week had melted, leaving behind lovely slops of mud everywhere. I hate riding in the mud (because it's scary) so I was happy that I was running. We started off on Homestead as usual, by the lake, over to and up Deerfield and left onto Pinetree.


Somewhere on Pinetree Eric stopped because his knee was hurting (that happens when you're an old baby) so I gave him my gloves and hat to take with him back to the car (I start COLD and get HOT).


"Pick up the pace!" Eric yelled and I won't mention my reply. I kept going to Explorer Loop and ran that clockwise. My goal was to get to the top of the loop and take a break and walk and then continue running after a rest, although I thought it'd be freaking awesome if I didn't have to stop. When I reached 45 mins (my longest run time yet) I could feel my legs getting tight but I decided to press on and see how far I could make it.

a dominated Eric sat by frozen Lake Powhatan and waited for his dominating wife

It took me 1:19:48 and I didn't stop once (except when I fell in 6 inches of mud on Pinetree)! I'm not sure of the mileage, but it was probably 5 or so miles (I never said I was fast). The good news is that I should be able to do the Cooper River Bridge Run in that time if not less since Charleston is flat as a pancake and Asheville is not. Woo hoo!

Hope you guys don't mind the running posts. I know Team Hoffenchard is a bike gang, but I will proudly wear my jersey at both running/riding events. I mean, somebody's got to post on here about something so take what you can get.