Pretty tough run this morning, not cause I'm out of shape or wasn't ready, but because it was just a pretty tough course. Ran the entire perimeter of Central Park, pretty much a gradual downhill all the way out and a really steep climb all the way back. Go figure that!! The cobble stone side walks really beat up the legs and feet. Was disappointed when I finished the loop and saw that it was only 6 miles, I wanted 14 miles today so I new I'd have to run the entire inner long loop. Those rolling hills really start to take it out of you! The hills aren't as steep as hills in Utah but the way they keep rolling really makes it tough. They were setting up for what looked like a 10K race in the park today. My first sign there was a race is a taxi pulled up in front of me coming up 5th Ave and 3 elite Kenyans jumped out. You can always tell the elite Africans cause they always have on their way too over sized Asics warm-up suits and carrying an extra pair of running shoes by the laces. Pretty much ran the entire race course, which was cool cause I felt like I was winning. I was the first one through all the aid stations and was pretty much the only one on the road. No one was cheering for me though.
Anyway, I was pretty glad to just be done with the loop when I finished and didn't really feel like trying to figure out how to get an extra mile out of it so I just ran back to the hotel and called it good at ~13. 13 miles in 1:35 7:18 avg pace. I looked at my watch for distance, but never really let it influence how fast I went. Just kind of ran the whole time at a "comfortable" pace.
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