Long run. Average pace: 9:32. 43-60° F, humidity 55% going down to 32%, winds calm. I don't know what came over me today. I fully intended to run 16 miles. That's what was on my plan. It was going to work out very symetrically, because Carly joined Michelle and Michelle and me for our standard Saturday morning on the Highline Canal Trail. Carly ran 4 miles, and Michelle and Michelle doubled that for 8, and I was going to double that for 16. But after Michelle and Michelle dropped off and I was on my own, I was feeling good, the weather was perfect, the trail was in good shape and was nice and soft, I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, and I thought that maybe I could run 18 instead of 16 because that wouldn't be much harder. And then I thought that if I was doing 18, I might as well do 20. I was only at about 9 miles when I made that decision, but I stuck with it. I hadn't done a real long run in a while, and it just seemed like a nice thing to do. I would have had the highest weekly mileage that I've had in a while even with the 16. As I said already, the trail was very nice today. Several stretches were covered in leaves. I would estimate that a little less than half of the trail was covered in leaves. It was overcast and shady for the first several miles, but was sunny by the end of my run.
Splits were 9:36, 9:28, 9:37, 9:48, 9:45, 9:46, 9:47, 9:38, 9:52 (this was my first mile by myself and I stopped for a bit to mess with my MP3 player, which I had not used while running with others, and I forgot to pause my watch while I was stopped), 9:21, 9;44, 9:30, 9:36, 9;26, 9;18, 9:33, 9:44 (at this point I realized that I was getting slower and I realized that with a little extra effort I could keep the pace up), 9:13, 9:02, 8:54. I had invited the Michelles to run the full 16 with me and if they had, I would have stopped at 16. I talked to Michelle #1 afterwards and she said that she wished she had done 16 with me. Maybe she'll do 14 with me next Saturday.
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