I didn't try to get up extra early in hopes of meeting up with some of the 5:30 guys, instead I slept in to 5:55. Headed over to the Y and did some warm up on the arc trainer of about 12 minutes. Always make starting out on the run so much easier and I wanted this to be an enjoyable run today. Started my run with a usual starting up, not in a hurry to get anyplace pace. Second mile was faster but still easy. So, it didn't take too long this morning before the slow feeling wore off. 4th mile was just under 8:00 pace, then 5th, 6th, and 7th felt like what I want to run for the marathon, a bit slower than the comfortably hard pace of a tempo run but faster than "easy" training race pace. Added a little bit at the end for a cool down, then went back inside for some more cool down. Average pace: 7:53 I think my back problems are mostly cleared up now. Still a few remnants left from my bout of run down-ed-ness which started last Thursday night. | 