Extending it to Mt. Bonnell

Today we extended our mileage a bit to 13-14 miles. The route was up to Mt. Bonnell, to the stop sign on Balcones and back to Bonnell and home. The weather was really humid and warm and there was some lightning in the distance. All of my training posse was MIA today so I speeded up and ran with the group in front of me. It included Alex, Rich, Patrick, and a couple of new folks, Jennifer and Michael. I was able to hang with the group for most of the run. There were a couple of times Jennifer and I dropped back a bit, but we were always in contact. It felt like we were going faster than the pace on my watch, but that could have been the warmth and humidity. When we got to the top of Mt. Bonnell, I was peer-pressured into going to the top and down the trail. It was a really pretty view today with thunderstorms in the distance. We went down to Balcones and just kept going. We all decided the beating on our legs of going down Bonnell wasn't worth it. We started to get rained on heading down Exposition and it turned into a pretty steady rain. It was nice because it cooled things off a bit. It didn't stop until after I left for home. I was able to pick it up the last 3 miles with times of 7:53, 7:47, 7:51, and the last .6 miles at a 7:43 pace. When I got back I did 8 strides and skipped stretching with the group due to the weather.

We stopped for water at the Rock on the way out, the cleaners, where I ate a Carboom, the top of Mt. Bonnell, and at O'Henry on the way back.