WOW! What a run this morning. I felt so good, about 3 hours after it was over. We started at BHS and did a nice slow 3 mile warm up, then met the group and did another mile or so. Cheryl then had us do some 'striding' (?) where for a 1/2 a block we tried to pick up pace and stride out to tempo. I thought it was silly (isn't all of running anyway?), because I couldn't understand how doing a short sprint 4 times could help me run faster over 4 miles - I always think I should save it! There were 2 groups the chasers and those being chased. I started in the 'being chased' group, because I didn't feel like I could push it; however, after about a 1/2 mile I decided to kick it in. I just went as fast as I could at 'comfortably hard' where I couldn't really talk while breathing, this is much harder than I was breathing even once in my race. I soon noticed I was in the front of the group, then I heard those footsteps, I was so impressed that even with me pushing all out there was someone in the back group (that ran an extra .6 mile) that had already caught up to me. Thankfully, it was Eric who had started in the group with me. Then we hit a little hill and thanks to BSROOLS I picked up the pace up the hill and I think Eric decided to leave the crazy lady to her own devices. I pushed through the whole route and even when I saw those who had cut out some of the loops and gotten ahead of me, I pushed to catch them and pass them, luckily it was downhill. I got to the finish first (with NO ONE passing me, even those short-cutters) and decided to take the extra chasers loop. By the time I got finished with that everyone was back and I got only a few second rest before we took off to do a 2 mile 'cool down' loop. Those miles my legs felt done, but my breathing was undercontrol (the opposite of when I was pushing), I was excited to see that even those last 2 I was at a good 8:30 mm or so, helped me rationalize my tired legs anyway. I was ready to stop and walk at 10, but those wonderful people I run with pushed me to finish the last .5 back to the car. I was exhausted and my shin bone on my left leg is flaking apart, or thats what it feels like! Ice and stretching this weekend with rest Friday and Sunday should kick those in the butt (hopefully). Back to good eating- I've had a good week off and made the most of it (the scale shows!) so now I'm going to get back to putting GOOD fuel into my body so it can perform better, I will, I will, I will (trying to convince myself I don't want diet Mtn Dew and chocolate today). Here are my splits that I am so proud of today, especially because this was me pushing me and I felt good in the run, no one but myself pushing myself... I LOVED IT!!
10.5 miles overall AP 8:32 best pace 6:02 -- 1= 9:30 2=8:57 3=8:57 4=9:03 5=7:52 6=7:47 7=7:47 8=7:54 9=8:51 (mostly cool down after the 'race') 10=8:35 11=8:56 (.5 mile finish)
Then I finished with a great 60 minutes of stretching at Yoga at the gym...MMMM, time for a nap! | 
