Very happy with today's run. Dawdled around and didn't leave for the trails until nearly 10, started around 10:15. Didn't have the Garmin again (but at least it turned on this morning; I was already looking for a replacement on eBay last night), but the new watch did what I needed given that the trail has distance markers. Felt like I started reallllllly sllooooowww, but it couldn't have been that slow. Before long I was clipping off 9:00 miles, and felt really comfortable doing it. Got a little confused on the outward section and ran an extra loop of maybe 0.1 mile, so I added about 30 seconds before the turnaround to make the inner and outward halves about equal.
The original plan was to run a comfortable pace for the first 9.5 or so and then pick it up for the last 20 minutes. Didn't work out that way. Felt so comfortable that I picked it up immediately on the turnaround. That last 6.05, according to the $9 Walmart watch, took 48:18. That, folks, is GMP for me. I was sucking wind pretty good for the last mile or so, but kept going at a pretty good clip. I'd bet I was well under GMP for the first five miles after the turnaround. Definitely a confidence builder for the half marathon in six days. | 