1:59:05 (1:02:25/56:39) (8:55/8:05) - last 2 miles were about 7:55 pace. I was supposed to run the last 20` hard, but as usual, I just ran the last 7 miles hard-"er" and tried to finish at least a min/mile faster than the first 7 miles. It was 89F when I finished ... it felt a little warmer than that, I have to admit ;-). I was surprised to see my time at the turn-around. Today was not one of those "nice run" days. I felt like I was struggling the whole time. My split for the 2 miles after the turn around was about 8:30 and I thought for sure that I was going to miss my "1 min/mile" faster for the last 20` goal -- but, my brain took over and pushed my old, hot, tired body to the end. I took a 1/2 of a day off yesterday (and will pay for it today as I have to finish my lecture for tomorrow before bedtime) ... Dean and I went up to Phoenix to see the ART guy, John. He worked on my adductor and hip flexors -- and scraped my knee (he said I have some "arthritic changes" going on -- I told him to jump in a lake ;-). The coolest thing was that on the way home we stopped outside of Tucson so I could get my 2nd run in before it got dark. We went about 10 miles from the highway to this mountain range and ran on a dirt road around this Indian Site that has thousands of rock paintings (petroglyphs). It is amazing, some of them are from this very ancient group of Indians (the Hohokam tribe who lived here in the Tucson basin from 300 - 1500 AD) and some are from a more modern tribe, the Tohono O`odahm (their reservation is here in Tucson, about 2.8 million acres of land - they are the second largest Indian nation in the U.S.). I can't tell you how amazing this place is ... you look up this mountain side and there are literally thousands of these paintings ... it is a very intense thing. Plus it is surrounded by beautiful desert, saguaro forest (mountain-sides covered with huge cacti) and scrub-brush. I was both relieved and disappointed not to see any snakes on our run -- but we saw a huge one lying in the middle of the road on our way back to the highway -- it was dark, but I still found him!!! It was a hard run last night, first off because I was running with Dean - which means it was too fast -- and it was all uphill for the first half --into a stiff headwind -- but then the wind died down for our nice downhill back (because the sun had set). I can't complain though - it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen ... and only 1 hour from our house! I am so impressed with everyone's racing yesterday -- you guys are so awesome!! Congrats to all of you - especially Allie, Carolyn, Jun, Becca, and JD!! Happy Sunday bloggers!
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