Keys

I locked myself out of the house today. I walked out this morning carrying too much stuff and forgot to get my keys, but I had everything I needed with me. So I called Pat and he came to pick me up. We only got to run 35 minutes before getting Matt and Justin at 7:45, but it was no problem.

We did a pretty good job of getting under 7-minute pace before too long and went over into Stafford for an extended two-bridges backwards. Justin was anxious to get back because he only wanted to run 8 miles. That's a crock because his weekend long run should be longer than his weekday easy runs. But he was bamboozled and we got him to run 10 miles. Then he stopped and had to walk back to his car at Matt's house.

I took Gu a little after 5 miles and then at 15 miles, after getting water in Chatham at our new water fountain. After the 2nd Gu, we went towards the hospital. Pat started to fall back going up Cowan and Matt came with me, but then we grouped back up at the bottom of the hospital and I pulled away. My goal was to run my last 3 miles faster than my last 3 last week in the half-marathon. Last week those were 6:11, 6:10, and 6:10.  When I pulled away, I still had 5 to go and ended up running 6:03, 5:57, 5:55, 5:55, and 6:01. The last mile was uphill from Kenmore to the top of Hanover. I hit 23 at the crest next to the alumni house and stopped. I put my head in the fountain and then jogged back to the car.

I'm pretty pleased with the last 5 miles because the 6:03 was the same both weeks but then my last 4 were all faster than the last 4 in VA Beach. Granted the run only averaged 6:48 and I didn't do anything at race pace, but today was still a good easy effort for 18 miles, and even the last 5 weren't necessarily hard.

One spot on my back was a little sore sometimes when going up the hills when I was running fast. Not sure what that's about... Next week I'll run 18 on Sunday.