Back in the saddle?

I ran 6 miles with my friend again.  I'm glad she's back in town!  My garmin battery died, so I don't know our pace.  I am doing a 4-mile race called the Luminaria Run on Saturday night.  The entire race is run through luminaria-lined streets!  I have wanted to do this race for years, and now I finally get to do it, because I'm not training for the marathon.  Yay for no marathon training!

I ran with my friend, as usual.  We didn't do the last 1/3 mile because both of our stomachs were not feeling well.  I picked it up for the last quarter mile or so to 8:25--the race pace I need to qualify for Boston.

This is crazy, but I'm actually thinking about running PF Chang's in January.  It would be fun to pace my friend, who is running her first marathon ever.  If I can get up to 18 miles in the next few weeks, I'll do it.  Otherwise, I'll do the half.  The final contingency plan is to pace her for the last several miles of the marathon.  It will depend on....lots of things!

Well, I am very pleasantly surprised at myself.  This was a beautiful race in the high desert about 30 miles north of Phoenix.  The entire run is lined with luminarias, which became very visible when it started getting dark around mile 2.  it was beautiful! 

The race is advertised as a 4-mile race, but it was actually only 3.57 miles.  I went up there with my friend who I have been running with lately.  It was her first race ever, so we did our own thing for the race.

The course went through a residential neighborhood and had lots of rolling hills.  It started on an incline, but, thanks to the out-and-back course, it finished smokin' fast!  My mile splits were 8:37 (hilly), 9:18 (BIG uphill and water stop), 8:33, and 7:39 (yeah!) for the last .57.  My "gold" goal was to finish with an average pace under 9:00, and I would have been okay with anything under 10:00, given the fact that I took so much time off and have been running about 11:00 pace with my friend.  So, I ROCKED my goal, and I am a happy camper!

We went to In n Out Burger afterwards-yum!  My friend finished with a 9:43 average-I am so proud of her!

Update: I finished 6th in my age group (30-34) out of 38, and 139/592 overall.  Not too shabby!