Nine is Fine

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For my last long run before the half marathon on the 1st I had a difficult time deciding what distance to run. The Runner's World plan said 11 miles. The Hal Higdon plan said 12. Last year I did 10 before my first half marathon and 8 before my second one. I was personally thinking between 8 and 9 this time. So, I asked on another online forum and the advice I got was to run for an hour and a half. That's usually about 9 miles for me so I made 9 my goal for Saturday.

I already know a 9 mile route that starts at my front door but I thought that for this run I'd drove over to the bike path and run there instead. I mean, the 9 mile route from my house is the same as the 8.5 mile route (just with an extra loop on the end) that I ran on Wednesday. Variety is the spice of running so why not spice it up?

I also let myself sleep in so I didn't start running until after noon. The air temperature was great but DAMN it was humid. I was dripping sweat because it just wasn't evaporating at all. I began to think I should have just gone running as soon as the dogs woke me up bright and early instead of going back to bed.

Other than some annoying girls at the start of the path (aside: why do some people think it's hilarious to mock runners?) it was lovely. The woods surrounding the path are so lush and green right now and I saw deer both on the way out and on the way back. On the way back I stopped and took the photo above.

I didn't really have a pace goal in mind. Although, after stopping to take the deer photos and almost immediately after having to stop for a traffic light (which is why mile 6 looks so slow) I decided I'd try to run the last miles at near race pace just to see if I could. At one point I settled into a totally awesome groove. I realized that I wasn't even thinking about running, or how much longer I had left, or my form or anything. Instead, I was thinking about plans for some future tattoos :-) Once I realized that, though, it started to feel hard again. Oops.

Sometimes I get to the end of a run and I am glad to be done. After this run, though, I felt like I could have just looped through the parking lot and back onto the path for a few more miles. That's a good sign :-)

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 621 ft Location: Brookfield, IL Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 04/24/10 Up/Downhill: [+239/-236] Time: 12:18 PM Difficulty: 2.8 / 5.0   Weather: Fog/Mist   58 F temp; 86% humidity   58 F heat index; winds E 7 Performance Distance: 9.01 miles Time: 1:26:52 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 38 /mi Calories: 1080 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 01 +0' 23 6.0 -0.2 -7 ft 2 9' 50 +0' 12 6.1 -0.1 +10 ft 3 9' 50 +0' 12 6.1 -0.1 +10 ft 4 9' 43 +0' 05 6.2 -0.1 -17 ft 5 10' 11 +0' 33 5.9 -0.3 -3 ft 6 11' 41 +2' 03 5.1 -1.1 +7 ft 7 9' 12 -0' 26 6.5 +0.3 -7 ft 8 9' 00 -0' 38 6.7 +0.4 -7 ft 9 9' 10 -0' 28 6.5 +0.3 +6 ft end ** ** ** ** ** ft Versus average of 9' 38 min/mile ** Insufficient data to calculate this split

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