Plan was 12 mile run with last 6 miles at marathon pace. Marathon dress rehearsal. Wore the shoes but not the clothes since I've worn my race outfit many times and know it works. Met MacK, Holly and Aub and ran from the Salem Stake to Payson and up Payson Canyon a couple of miles. This gave me some half downhill miles, half flat. I figure I need to practice the transition from downhill to flat like in the marathon. Even though the run is short enough to not need a gu, I planned to take one at 9 miles and take water to practice doing both at a fast pace. Ave pace up was 7:55, took a potty break then turned around. Holly did the first three miles tempo with meet then peeled off. it was great to have her. Could even talk quite well for about 1.5 miles. Splits were 6:02 (nice downhill), 6:02 (nice downhill), 6:09 (some down and up, includes choking down a gu and grabbing a water bottle, opening it with my teeth and choking down some water), 6:16 (very gradual uphill, almost flat, after a short downhill at beginning of mile), 6:40 (had a bathroom break in this mile w/o stopping watch, didn't go quite as quickly as I hoped and was so hard getting back into rhythm), 6:12. Last two miles were going north on salem canal road so pretty much flat but the elevation does creep up a bit. My last mile I was at 6:25 pace at .5 to go, so picked it up for the last half mile. Drove back on the run to grab my trash, bought some ice, did ice bath, then family started arriving for our bbq. Core in evening. | 