Twitter Road Race #3/training run w/Britt

Yesterday I did my third Twitter Road Race.  I had forgotten about it until Friday night, but I've done the first two, so why not do the third?  Plus Doug Cassaro donated $1 per finisher towards Hurricane Sandy relief.  I mean, all I had to do was run 6 miles.  Plus, I'm tapering for next weekend's San Antonio Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon.  I had planned on doing a 5 mile run today (Sunday).  Well, as things are turning out I did the 10k yesterday and running with Britt on a 5 miler in a little bit today. 
This run was an ego check.  I listen to the Trail Runner Nation podcast regularly and I was reminded of a recent episode while struggling through. An ultra runner on there said that you have to respect the trail, always.  Because if you get cocky and think "I've done this before, I don't have to worry" that's when it comes back to bite you in the butt.
That is exactly what happened.  It was a combination of a bunch of things that led to a horrible run.  There was the dumb decision to buy Taco Cabana at 1 am after picking up my wife from work.  There was the fact that I only drank 1 bottle of water the day before. And, I also decided to wait around the house until 11 am before running.  But, I digress, let's start from the start.
If you have never been to San Antonio, you have never been lucky enough to see the greenways we have here.  San Antonio is a sprawling city, taking up more land area than even NYC. The one closest to me follows the dried up, overgrown Leon Creek.  Obviously, it's been a long time since there was ever any creek there.  However, it's a nice swath of green running through the city.  You can actually run up to 25 miles without having to do laps and they have run 100 mile races out there. The longest I've gone there was 15 miles. I chose the mainland entrance because that's where the mileage posts start in both directions.  Here are a couple shots of the entrance:
... well this is frustrating, it keeps refusing to accept my pics.  Guess you'll have to go to my Anyway, so I started off great. My goal was sub 56 minutes, which would have been a 7 minute official PR.  My unofficial PR is 55:50, but that was on a muddy, rocky, hilly, trail.  So I figured that I could comfortably come in under 56.  I started off strong, too strong.  My first mile was 8:01 and I felt great.  At 1.75 I was at 14:07.  And then everything went downhill.  My calves seized up.  I ended up taking breaks to walk to try and work them out and it just wasn't getting better.  But, I was at 29 flat at the halfway point.  I didn't think it was too unrealistic to still get my 56 since my calves were starting to feel better.  But, that Taco Cabana reminded me of its presence. It turned out that I struggled through most of the second half, finishing it in like 39 minutes. Add to the fact that I got the famous bloody nipple.  I must have looked a hot mess shambling those last two miles with blood running down my white shirt. overall, I ended up in 29/41.  Nowhere near what I was hoping.  While I'm not happy with my result, it's good that it happened.  It will help me keep a smaller ego.

Today went better.  Britt burst in the front door at 9 am singing "Happy Birthday."  After sitting and talking for a bit, we went on a five mile training run.  She's a bit slower than me but I enjoy our runs because we talk a lot.  It makes the time go by.  We ended up running 5.04 miles.  My brother has gotten her to change up her stride a bit so she had to run a little bit slower to concentrate on how her foot was landing. Next week should be fun!