I managed to finish a pretty good week of training after missing most of the last two weeks so that was a pretty good accomplishment. I had a plan of doing somewhere between 10 and 13 miles this morning with the return trip as a fast finish. I didn't go out of my way to wake up extra early since I didn't have any specific meeting plans with other people, the weather was going to be good and it wasn't a super long run. I ended up getting to Starkey park at almost 6:30 and for the first time ever had to park in a different parking lot since the one right next to the trail entrance was already filled up. Almost everyone had left already. I saw Karen and Alpana heading out to walk Karen's dogs. I headed out with them and when I got to the main trail I saw Eudair. It was pretty unlikely to see her at that exact time. I sometimes go months without running into her but have seen her a few times these past few weeks. She was going to be doing over 20 miles but it was good to have the company for the 5.5 miles I'd be going out before heading back. At about 5 miles I saw a bunch of the other Striders heading back from various assorted lengths (I'm guessing anywhere from 13 to 18 miles). After turning around, I started to pick up some speed and once I was at the 6 mile point decided to pick it up to what should have been about a 7:00 pace. I ended up going a bit faster than that for all but one of those miles and averaged about 6:45. It was good to know that I could still pick it up when I needed to. Cooled down after the fast miles to get back to the parking lot. The left leg felt great the whole way and afterward also, however the right foot was maybe a little bit worse. I'll need to do the best I can with it this next week before the marathon. Average pace: 7:27 Chatted with a bunch of the Striders at the social hour before heading home. It was a great morning for running and gives me some hope for next week.
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