A new month and the last one of the year, so I wanted to get a decent longer run in. Notice I said longer, not long – a long run in my book is something in double-digits. A longer run is between 7.0 and 9.9 miles.

However, running longer around the house wasn’t that great an idea – downback is tough walking and since my bouncing days are long gone I am trying to be fairly smart and not run down there. Also Mary was busy so I couldn’t run to Augusta or Waterville and beg her to pick me up. Which meant that I could drive to Augusta and take a chance on the Rail Trail or head Waterville and have a variety of places to chug along.

I opted for the Waterville option.

However, on the way there I was trying to decide on which course would be the best one today and I kept going by all the usual turns and finally ended up out past Littlefield’s Gym, which made me thing that I would be running from the Alfond Youth Center, since that is the next right.

Sometimes Karma figures things out for you and sometimes it doesn’t.

Unfortunately, when I got to the AYC, all the parking spots were full – there was some kind of activity taking place, so I thought for a second and decided to head up to Colby and park in the Gym lot and take off from the gym. Good choice.

Karma does figure things out and I didn’t have to run up Mayflower Hill that way. See I am not completely out to lunch. 🙂

I got down the road a ways and saw Julie M (another Central Maine Strider and waved and hollered “Hi”, she waved, but seemed in a hurry to get somewhere, so I didn’t bother her. I later found out she was headed into town for an appointment, so she didn’t have time to stop and gab. Then I had to stop and adjust the tightness on the shoes, I didn’t them quite snug enough.

After that it was just a question of getting it done. Although I had to dash to Hannaford (risking life and limb crossing JFK Drive on a Saturday) to find their rest room. Yeah, I know where all those emergency pit stop places are – part of the business for me. Pun intended.

I did run a bit quicker along Silver Street – no added pressure to distract me, but today wasn’t about running faster, it was more about getting the miles in.

The last couple of miles were definitely slower, but I kept going which was the important thing. I even thought about heading down Mayflower and taking the back way back to Colby, but when I got back by the turn, I decided to just finish up 8.0 miles and call it good.

Once I rearranged the snugness on the Tempo 9s, I forgot about them, which is all I want from my shoes. I had other things to keep my mind occupied during that run and not having to worry about my running shoes is huge.

Overall, a very good run.