BROTHERRRRRRRRRR

I wanted to run the two days after Marine Corps, to follow through with JARRIN's post-race recovery plan, but I found that my 25.2-mile run had suppressed my immune system a bit and gave my cold a chance to regroup, so I ended up taking Monday and Tuesday off.

By Wednesday, I had enough sitting around, and went up to B-CC to be around runners again. For one thing, I hadn't seen any of them since Jake left me to fend for myself on Sunday.

I planned to do the warmup and some sedate laps around the track, but Lindsey needed some help pacing her mile workout. So I helped her out by running 6:16, 6:13, 6:10, 6:03 and 5:56. I kept my breathing easy and my body relaxed. Texas Paul and I hit a pretty speedy cooldown, and before I knew it I had 9.5+ miles, and I was feeling great.

Thursday evening I came home and headed out on a new loop, first returning a book to the library in Falls Church. I headed up Sycamore to Williamsburg, which sports bike lanes on both sides of the road and great rolling hills. I turned onto Albemarle, which was the darkest street ever. Eventually a car drove by and illuminated things, but otherwise it was pretty awesome. It had been raining all day, and my shorts were a little too light to keep my appropriately warm, but luckily I don't have to deal with 2.5+ hours of being wet and cold.

After that run I felt fantastic- my legs were looser than they had been in weeks,

like I hadn't even run either of those marathons.

I am starting to get some seeds of regret that I didn't push through to finish, but the birds of my renewed confidence swoop down and eat them before they begin to sprout.

I'm aching for a short race, but will have one soon enough. If Molz doesn't do the Richmond marathon, we will drive to Louisville to watch Richmond run the regional meet. If we don't go, I will either do the Candy Cane City 5k that Saturday or a 5k in Vienna on Sunday. Then, a five mile in Pittsburgh on Thanksgiving. I can't wait to not even think about carrying GU in my shorts pocket.

Fatty Z had a great guest column in the Collegian.