The Last Eight

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Well, OK, not the last, but the last eight mile long run before my Half Marathon this Saturday. I will be putting in a 4 miler on Tuesday and then another 3 or 4 miler on Thursday.

I was going to post this earlier, but we took advantage of the gorgeous day and went to the park to fly kites and toss around a baseball a bit as a family. When we got there we couldn't fly our cheap kites because it was too windy. Who has ever heard of it being too windy to fly a kite? At wind gusts upwards of 22-35 mph, and probably even higher in the open fields at the park, it just wasn't going to happen.

I have not run on Sunday in a really long time, and have never run my long run on Sunday before. Today turned out to be my long run day because of my messed up schedule this past week due to being sick.

I set out for my 8 miler figuring I would try to run the 8 mile at where I wanted to be for a pace on race day. I know, I should have done this long ago, but this is my first time, and I really honestly didn't think about it. I never worry about pace running with the shorter distances, because if I go out to fast the race is over soon enough.... not so with 13.1 miles!

The weather was gorgeous at 61 degrees, and sunny, but it was very windy. This is the first time I have had to deal with this much wind where it actually affected my run, but I am glad because they say that the Reagan is really windy. It was gusts up to 22-35 mph according to www.weather.com. It was so windy the headwinds even messed up MY hair!

I took off for the first mile at about where I wanted to be, but then the next couple miles I was faster than where I wanted to be. Overall I pushed myself hard, and know that if I take off like I did today that I will not be able to maintain it too far past the 8 mile mark. If I slow it down a tad and everything goes well on race day I think I have a chance at a sub 2 Half Marathon which would be AWESOME!

My splits can always be found at www.runningahead.com when I take that watch with me, todays splits can be found here.

I was so happy with todays run, it gave me a lot of confidence. I ran the best 8 miles of my life at an 8:44 pace, and I still had more to give at the end. Probably not at that pace, but if I can keep my pace right at 9:00 or 9:10 for the 13 then I will be absolutely thrilled. That extra .1 can go at a 10:00 pace for all I care, but when I see that finish line it will probably be at a 7:30 pace if I still have it left in me :)

I got home from my race and sat down to log my time at www.runningahead.com and I checked my feeds to find that Marion over at her blog Shut it and Run had just posted her 8 mile run at almost 3 minutes better than mine. She did an awesome job, and she is still sick to boot! I gave her a hard time in her comments, but I do have to say that I am honored to come that close to someone that is in such better physical shape than I am in! Her being sick and the wind she had to deal with gave me a chance to shine in comparison! I will take it any way I can! :) She is running the Myrtle Beach Marathon this coming Saturday. Go Marion!!

OK, I know you can find them on my log at Running Ahead, but I got to list them...... I am soooooo proud. :)

Mile 1: 8:54
Mile 2: 8:37
Mile 3: 8:21
Mile 4: 9:05
Mile 5: 8:42
Mile 6: 8:53
Mile 7: 8:42
Mile 8: 8:30

Mile 1 pace is where I should have stayed throughout, and is still about where I want to be for the 13.1. Mile 4 is a steady climb throughout most of the mile, and mile 6 was one of the places that the wind blew my hair a bit too much! :)

Thanks for reading!

oh.... and today's run ALMOST caught me back up to the 1,000 mile pace bunny. I am down by .2 miles as of this posting.