It’s back to the grind as my recovery week ended with the IE8 run (recap to follow).

At the Nike Run Clinic in ULTRA last Tuesday night, a few hardy participants braved the rains and ran their drills. Coach Rio handed me my next 5 weeks of workouts including my taper before the July 5 Milo Marathon Eliminations. I ran 6 x 800m and 3 Km at my 10 Km race pace thru a downpour.  

I woke up at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday morning to find the weather virtually unchanged. I put on gray colored socks in lieu of the easily muddied white ones. I put on my wet shoes from the previous night since there was no sense in getting another pair wet. I ran 18 Km thru the heavy showers.

I knew what to expect at this morning and I wore the same shoe for the 3rd time. When I left the house the sky was cloudy but the weather seemed to be holding. As I was in the middle of my workout, it finally came. My heart rate went down and I speeded up.  I did a 14 Km tempo run thru the rainstorm.

When I got home from my run, I knew that God was truly just. For the past 2 mornings, I had arrived at the ULTRA oval earlier than the lady guard. Since she was not around, I never gave the ticket I carried in the pocket of my running shorts even after my workout. However, when I got home and I tried to fish for the ticket out of my shorts, I found out that the ticket had become soaked and virtually disintegrated in my fingers.