Drats, Drats and Double Drats!

Twilight Pond 30 minutes after sunrise on a steamy summer morning.

The road march this morning went well enough. I had it planned for 5.2 miles and I think that the hills got to us all as we were just over the 15 minute per mile mark. We started about 40 minutes before dawn, and it turned out to be a steamy morning.

Sunrise over Twilight Pond as Soldiers "hump" through the trails of Fort Benning.

Last night, I took my time before dusk running the fitness trail by my house with my GPS. I took efforts to watch the screen the entire way to ensure that my Garmin 120 was tracking satellites through the whole run. There are places on the trail where the trees almost obscure the sky. I was able to keep the unit tracking the entire route. "Drats," is probably one of the milder curses I said to myself as I got done completing my lap. Overall, I still love the trail, but it is now very apparent that the route from my house, to the trail, twice around and back is only 3.8 miles ... not my first plotted 4.16 miles. Ouch. Drats.

The paces seem to fall back into line with other paces of the week, and although the paces are usually pretty good, they have come down to earth a bit. I have always loved this trail and as long as storms keep knocking the trees down over the trail and making it exciting, I'll continue to run it. Now I'm encouraged to run an extra loop around it to make it about 5.5 miles.

Drats!