You must do the things you think you cannot do.
~
Eleanor Roosevelt

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Sweet run!

I'm coming down to the wire as I prepare for my next goal race, Freedom's Run 1/2 marathon. And you may remember that my last couple of long runs have been anything but stellar. Actually, last weekend's run was a big disappointment and my confidence was definitely lagging.

The roads near my house are pretty hilly so I feel like I should have the hill thing down pat, but they're still really tough if I'm running more than 5 miles. I was crying in my soup to a fellow runner and she suggested I do my long run on the flat-as-a-pancake tow path as a confidence builder.

What a great advice and I'm so glad I followed it. 

With the insanity that is our schedule, I had to get up at 4:30 this morning so I could run and be home in time to get Hank to his first football game at 9. Thankfully Jake was willing to tag along and ride with me since I would have to run most of the time in the dark.

Yea, I look rough, but then anyone who looks good at 5 am has probably been airbrushed!


I wore a headlamp whose batteries were slowly dying. It illuminates the road just fine, but that's a nice even surface so footing isn't a concern. Running in the pitch dark on a trail with roots, dips and rocks is a whole 'nother game.

BUT I'm really glad I did it that way. It forced me to run much slower than I would have ordinarily. And as a result I felt really good the whole run.

I'm still experimenting with Gu and broke out an orange one at mile 4. I don't prefer the taste or the texture, but I'm able to squeeze a little in my mouth and keep running with little interuption unlike anything that needs to be chewed. So far I like the lemon lime best, but I have a few other flavors in my stash to try out. I'm considering Gu a tentative pass at this point.

My splits were:
1 - 11:23
2 - 11:22
3 - 11:16
4 - 11:03
5 - 11:01
6 - 10:39
7 - 10:19
8 - 10:17
9 - 10:38 -whoops!
10 - 10:18

So I ran negative splits for the first 8 miles! I don't think I've ever done that on a long run. Very cool!
I finished in 1:48:47 which was a 10:49 average pace.


Happiness!

I messed up and wore this darn shirt again forgetting what it did to me the last time I wore it on a long run. As soon as I took it off, I saw the tell-tale raw spots on my chest. argh!  I'm too cheap to throw it away and can't imagine that anyone would want a hand-me-down from a sweat monster like me so I guess I"ll keep using it for shorter runs.

Great morning! Great run! Great beginning to a busy weekend!

1 comment:

abbi said...

Great job on your long run!

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