I didn't run yesterday and don't know how much time I'll have to run tomorrow so I did my long run today. I left at 5:45am and ran alone from my house up to Vivian Park in Provo Canyon and back.The weather was great. I actually got a little chilly (it felt good) early in the run with the headwind as I was heading up the canyon. I didn't hit sunshine until after mile 13 and it
never did get really hot before the end of the run...only up to around
70. I completed the 18.25 mile run in 2:43:23 (8:57/mi). This does not include a couple of bathroom stops, but does include a few quick water stops. I didn't take any gels on this run like I normally do, but still felt pretty strong at the end. The best part is that I don't seem to have any blisters, chafing, or other aches or pains to speak of, other than just tired legs. My mile splits were 9:56, 9:00, 8:55, 9:04, 0.28 mi in 2:28 (8:54/mi), 9:07, 9:26, 9:44, 9:31, 0.97 mi in 8:51 (9:08/mi), 8:53, 8:20, 8:34, 8:47, 0.91 mi in 7:37 (8:21/mi), 8:32, 9:16, 8:53, 7:42, and 0.09 mi in 0:44 (8:08/mi).
With about a mile to go I noticed that my average pace to that point was 9:01. I decided I wanted to break a 9:00/mi average. Having already run 17 miles, I knew I might have to beat a 9:00 pace the last mile by at least 34 seconds to drop the average to 8:59. I had a pretty good downhill stretch and I managed to run 7:42/mi and drop the overall average to 8:57. I realize this is a snail's pace to many on this blog, and a few seconds doesn't make a big difference, but this little victory at the end of a long run still felt good to me.
| 