Steamy Run

I had seriously thought about taking Monday off after my Sunday long run, long bike day, but after discussing it with Michele we decided that a slow easy 3 or 4 miler would be good.
Kelly, Arland, Jane, Karen and I all met at Michele's house at 6:30. Abbie and Alex were also running with us which would ensure that we would take it easy, actually I should correct that Alex was running Abbie was biking.
It was a pretty warm day yesterday and at 6:30 it was 87 but kind of cloudy and looked like it might rain.
The first mile was torture, my left hip/hip flexor was really painful and that seemed to have an effect on my whole left side. My shin, hamstring and ankle all felt very tight, but I just kept plugging away and eventaually once I warmed up most of the pain went away. We did a lot of circling back for Michele and Alex it seems that sir Alex was not having a good night!! Once or twice the others would take a quick walk/water break but I was afraid to stop, I had this fear that if I ever stopped to walk I wouldn't be able to run again. I ended up doing a LOT of running back and forth and we ran around the cul d sac several times!! About two miles into the run it started raining, we were all cheering, so happy for a little relief from the heat and humidity. Unfortunately the rain didn't last very long, just long enough to cause the streets to steam and the rest of the run felt like we were running in a steam bath!!!
With all of the running back and forth, circling back and just the general feeling of slowness I wasn't expecting much when I checked my Garmin at the end of the run to see what our avg. pace was.. so I was THRILLED when I ended up with 4.4 miles at a 10:30 avg. pace :)
Why 4.4 you might ask???? Because of all my back and forth and circling back I ended up with more miles than Jane and Kelly so I kept running with them until they got to 4 miles. I had about a split second thought of finishing up 5 miles, but no one else wanted to and I really was DONE!!
We probably walked a good 1/2 mile if not more afterwards to cool down.... between the rain and the steam we were soaking wet!!!
I felt much better when I got home, the run really did seem to work some of the soreness out! I just wish I would have done a better job of stretching... I really need to work on that.