Rest & Rain

No, I haven't been lacking Internet time to write about my running...I've been lacking running events to write about! That's right, I took the week off running to try to heal my sore ITB. It helped a bit, but not entirely.
This morning I got up to rain. I can count the number of times I've started running in the rain on one hand with fingers to spare. But after a week off, I was anxious to get going! And really, it was barely raining out. Baby steps of improvement! Next thing you know I'll be one of those hard core people who goes out rain or shine, hail or thunder. Ha! Not likely to happen anytime soon.
Back to the run!
It was a 20k loop and I discovered that I was the only person thinking of doing less. But then another guy on the so-called "injury watchlist" said he would be doing about 12-14k so we agreed we'd go back together.
The first part was really hilly and I struggled to keep up. Hills are not my friend. Then at the 5k mark the ground flattened and for some reason my fellow long-slow-distancers decided to take off. I was later informed the pace hovered just over 5min/km which is faster than my fastest. Needless to say, I started dropping back. But fear of getting lost in the new area pushed me that little bit harder. The group thankfully stopped for a water break at the 8k mark. I was feeling good, feeling strong. When my fellow injured runner told me he was heading back, I was a bit crushed.
I mean, new route, I was going hard, feeling fine...I so desperately wanted to keep going!
With great reluctance I ran back with him and it was like someone had pulled the plug on my energy store. I was shattered! We ran a slow 6.15min/km pace (did I mention I love people who have those fancy Garmin watches that measure your pace? One day I will get one and feel so hi-tech!) which was all I could do. Back up through the hills (unh!) to our start and up for some chill time in the cafe. Total time: 1.42.54. But I kept my watch going up some of those hills when I had to walk. Lazy, I know.
On the plus side, my ITB wasn't so bad in the end. And we had the greatest conversation about mountaineering on our slow jog back to the carpark. Still, when I saw all my fellow squad members arriving back from the 20k a short time later, I was rather sad that I hadn't finished it with them.