13.8 miles at 6:30am. Weather=63 degrees at start, 69 at finish, 50% humidity, 5 mph wind, dark then sunny. Average pace=7:45/m.
mile 1- 8:39
mile 2- 7:55
mile 3- 7:59
mile 4- 7:51
mile 5- 7:49
mile 6- 7:48
mile 7- 7:38
mile 8- 7:27
mile 9- 7:17
mile 10- 7:43
mile 11- 7:44
mile 12- 7:44
mile 13- 7:44
mile 14- 6:59
Great day today!! It started out Jody, Melissa and I. Melissa is a 24 yr old girl who was new to our running group in June and ran with us a few times but then she went out of town for awhile. Today she was back and she brought her two older brothers who are also her roommates. The brothers were the only people ahead of us. It's funny because before I knew they were Melissa's brothers, I was running behind them and thinking, "those two guys have like exactly the same gait"... later in the run she told me they were her brothers and it made sense.
So the first 3 miles, I was having trouble with the pace. I was keeping up but I thought maybe Jody and Melissa had much more energy than me. I felt like I couldn't keep up, but I did anyways. By mile 4-5 I started to "wake up" or the caffeine started kicking in. We caught up to the brothers and passed them in fact. Melissa hung back with them. Jody and I went ahead.
At the turn around Jody and I ran until our garmin's said 7.2 miles because we thought that would get us closer to 14 at finish. The second half of the loop was shorter than the first. However, Melissa and her brothers, who were behind us, turned around at 7.0 miles. When I realized this, something clicked in my brain. We were now 1/2 mile behind them, whereas before we were ahead. Before this happened, I didn't think I could maintain our current pace... but once I saw that 1/2 mile gap, I got this huge second wind. I was like DETERMINED to catch up to them.
This will explain the really faster times in miles 8 and 9. By the time I closed in on the mile 9 water stop, I was about 150 yards behind the brothers (Melissa had already fallen behind and was now running behind me). But those brothers took a 5 second stop at the water stop and kept running. AHHHHH!! I had to stop. I needed gu and water... geez!
So I waited for Jody and Melissa who were just behind me and we ran rest of it together. Melissa was falling behind in between water stops because she was having stomach trouble. I was feeling really energetic today though. Moreso than normal. So that last mile I just let it loose and it felt GOOOOOD! I was on fire and I knew it! My ipod was playing just the right songs at just the right time too. Oh, and I wore some older shoes today and my blisters were not bothering me in the least. I figured that would be a gamble but it worked out in my favor. So lots of good stuff. Where was all this energy last week for the race???!
Well, one thing that helped other than the lack of blister pain ---> today I was taking gu!! I could be a gu representative after these last few weeks of experimenting with and without it!!!! GU is so important to my performance!
Anyways, so I finished really happy. I had fun talking to Jody after the run. She gave me alot of good ideas about structuring my training during the week. Then I drove over to the Rahr Brewery 5K and watched Tim and Ashley run. It was fun to be a spectator for a change! THEN I came home and got ready in a hurry and went to the TCU football game!!!!! My mom babysat. We rarely get babysitting so this is a rare treat!!!
GREAT DAY! I'm very happy!! | 