I was going to back off this week and decrease my mileage to 50 since I've done 60 miles per week the last three weeks and that's about 10 more miles per week than I've ever done. But on Saturday morning I already had 45 miles so I decided to do 15 more to make it 60 again. I ran 7 miles with my running friend Troy and another runner by the name of Dusty who lost 117 pounds 9 years ago by running and dieting and has kept it off since and plans to run 5 of Utah's marathons this year. What an inspiration. After I left them, I embarked on my last 8 miles, but I felt so good that thoughts started creeping into my mind to run 26.2 (my wife was busy this morning, so there was no pressure to hurry home), just for the heck of it. I began mentally outlining the course in my head, sweeping south into Farmington, running north all the way through Kaysville and into Layton and then circling back into Kaysville. I continued to feel good and switched from breathing 2 or 3 in and 3 steps out. I was comfortable the entire way. There were a few mild grade hills, but I pounded through them. At 1/2 way I was at an average 8:30 pace. At mile 22 I was at an 8:27 pace. I ran miles 23 and 24 at 7:57 and 7:29, then caught my breath during mile 25 and ran mile 26 at 7:24 ending with an average pace of 8:19. This was a fantastic experience for me. I felt comfortable the entire way, rolling hills and all and finished with a time that was better than three of my eight competitive marathons! I'm really surprised that I was able to accomplish this on a training run where my first seven miles were run with friends at a "conversational" pace. I feel very blessed to feel as healthy as I do. | 