33rd Street Loop

I measured the 33rd Street Loop moments before its inaugural running tonight. It's five miles, and uses streets common to the Park Hill, Levy, and 35th Street Loops. It avoids the climb into Park Hill, but includes Levy's longest and steepest hills (which, granted, are less than severe). I ran it through an unusually strong wind and soft rain using a technique I used a handful of times last fall and winter, alternating hard five-minute runs with easy three-minute. I finished in 46:01, with splits of 8:35, 8:44, 8:54, 9:46, and 10:02. My hard runs decreased from about an eight-minute pace to probably 9:30 over the final couple of miles, and the easy intervals from about nine to probably about 11 or 12. I was whipped. However, I was not so whipped that I could not have broken 10 minutes for the final mile or 46 minutes for the loop had I bothered to look at my watch the last block or so.

My fuel for this run was a pound of oysters I fried last night at about 10 p.m. Central, and an eight-inch pepperoni pizza and a supreme salad eaten at noon today at American Pie in Maumelle, far from ideal.

Sunday I ran about four miles through Hillcrest and Alsopp Park on Tom Zaloudek's Hash run. I walked the Levy Loop on Monday, yesterday, and this morning.