Every Race is an Adventure!

Lindon route with Kent in the dark, cold early morning. Around a 9:30/mi average.

2000N route with Larry, Wayne, Kent and eventually Kevin. We were late getting started, hence late getting back. With 1/2 mile to go I was already 2 minutes late for morning scriptures with my family. I pushed hard, but it felt like running uphill in mud with lead legs. I was pleased to see that I averaged a 7:20/mi pace for that last half mile. It seems hard to believe that I may try to average near that pace for a half marathon a week from Saturday...emphasis on the words 'may' and 'try'.

Larry, Kent and I ran the first of big hills twice then looped through the old WP campus. I decided to push the last mile hard and ran it in 7:19.

We actually got 5 out this morning: Larry, Wayne, Kevin, Kent and me. We ran the first two miles together at about 10:00/mi pace. Kevin then asked if I needed to be back at 6:45, which is my target time to get home. We decided we needed to pick up the pace so the two of us pulled ahead. The splits for the last 4 miles were 8:22, 8:28, 8:02, and 7:51. This felt quite a bit easier than it has all winter. I think a lot of it had to do with the temperature being 30° and me wearing shorts for the first time in a long time. It felt pretty good.

I ran the Orem library route solo. I couldn't manage to generate any speed this morning and only slogged along at an average 9:44/mi pace. Oh well, at least I got out.

We actually had 6 of us out this morning! We had all 5 of the normal group of Larry, Wayne, Kevin, Kent and me, and then Grant joined us.

Kent and I played in a church bball game at 8:00am, so we didn't start our run until 9:30am. I had some pancakes before the basketball game and another one before the run. I was worried because I don't normally eat before I run, but I think pancakes work well for me.

We started on the canal road heading north, but by the time we got into Pleasant Grove we were tired of that surface and switched to the roads and ran our Lindon loop route back home. This was only about 7 miles, so Kevin, Wayne and I decided to loop up to 800 E, down to 1200 N and back home to get to 10 miles. Kevin had to turn back at 400 E to get back to a bathroom so Wayne and I pushed on alone.

Our first mile split with the group was 10:14, but we eventually sped up to where I averaged 8:59/mi for the 10.1 miles. Not super fast, with the last mile in 8:06 being our fastest mile, but it was still a pretty good workout and, if I count a mile for the basketball game, I managed to get in another 40 mile week.