So I made it through the Garden of the Gods 10-miler with virtually no damage to the old machine. The distance doesn’t bother me, the hills don’t bother me. It’s the pavement. About 3 weeks before this run I came down with some painful achilles tendinitis (self-diagnosis) after running 7 miles of this course so I assiduously stayed away from it until the day of the run. It is a beautiful run to be sure but the surface is brutal for a bod with as many miles on it as mine. I ran my pace, I was comfortable, I had a good time. However it is a bit embarrassing when the motorcycle cops, sweeping the course, are right on your tail. Then you know you’re pretty much in the end of the pack. One of them even barked “Move along sir, nothing to see here,” an indication that I was moving so slowly I looked like a curiosity seeker at a crime scene rather than a “runner.” If you’re someone who has never run this course and are considering doing so in the future or if you just ran it and thought it was really tough, I’ll say it again, train on hills, LOTS of hills. Steep hills. As previously stated here, I don’t run hills just for endurance, I run them, in large part, for perspective. If you train on steep terrain, I guaran-darn-tee ya that you’ll be able to handle anything the Garden throws at you. Two days after this run I took a leisurely jog around my 3 mile neighborhood loop and the hills didn’t seem bad at all after my jaunt through the Garden. It’s all a matter of perspective. No my PPSTCR teammates and I set our sights on the Summer Roundup 12K run on Sunday, July 6. In one way this is a tougher course than the Garden because the first half of this out and back course is almost entirely uphill. Blessedly, for me, most of it is on dirt. So, hit those hills. Work ‘em hard. Then when you’re plowing up through Bear Creek Park and High Drive you can tell yourself, “It’s not as bad as what I’ve trained on.”  Or am I the only one with voices in my head when I’m running?