Catch me if you can

I just love running on mornings like this.  The weather was perfect.  My first and last miles were pretty slow.  I picked up the pace a little for the middle miles.  I ran three good sized hills, up and down.  I have no problems on the uphills, but can tell I really hold back on the down.  Average pace 8:45.

I had planned on running with my fun running group today.  Last night my car broke down and had to be towed to the dealership.  So I ended up running from home.  The one nice thing about that was I got an extra 30 minutes of much needed sleep.  I ran out 3.5 miles and back.  It took me 33 minutes for the first half and 29 minutes to come back.  Average speed 9:00 miles.  

I felt very tired on this run.  My lower legs felt stiff and achy throughout the day.  Average pace 9:11.

I was so relieved when I woke up and my legs felt just fine.  I met with the running group.  We ran an easy 2.5 mile warm up.  Average pace 9:49.  Then I ran a continuous 5 miles including hills.  My mile times were 9:30, 8:25, 8:17, 8:26, and 8:15.  We got rained on the whole time.

My shins and my left ankle were really bothering me.  I decided not to run.  I took a yoga class at the gym.  It felt great. 

I went into this race not really knowing what time to expect.  I had been having shin pain and my left ankle had hurt all week.  The morning of the race, the pain was gone.  This was a very small race.  Within a few minutes I passed several people who started out too fast.   I ended up being the first female finisher and about 6th place overall.  I'm jealous of all you fast people who get to finish in the front of the big races.  It was such a great feeling.  My husband also had a great race.  He hasn't been running much, and still came in 2nd place overall with a time of 19:35.  This was a PR for me.