A Redeeming Run

Just stopping in to say hi and show you the results of this morning's 7 mile training run :)  I am really proud of myself on this run!!  The morning started out just fine, got up at 6 ate a piece of bread with peanut butter, my typical - pre-run fuel.  I left on-time & then a block from the high school where it starts, I got stuck by a train that never ended.  There were a ton of other people who got stuck by it also.  However, I knew that I wouldn't be able to run if I didn't visit the bathroom first... well, they didn't have school open, so they had 2 porta-potties out behind the school.  So I ran back to them immediately and encountered 14 people in line ahead of me... oh boy.  Well the run started and I was still in line... I hauled booty in the porta and sprinted to get my route cue sheet.  I was a good 1/3 - 1/2 mile behind my "pace" group... So I gave it my all and pushed myself to catch up.  Over the course of the first two miles I would say I caught up nicely to where I should have been.

It was a pretty flat route today... we had to run back and forth over the De Pere bridge, but other than that we were on the Fox River Trail - which is awesome to run on.  No wind until about mile 3(ish) - and then once we got back on the trail, it felt like the wind disappeared.  I made it my focus today to push my pace in 1/2 mile increments and periodically I would pick someone ahead of me and tell myself I had to push past them.  It worked!  I was back to the school, got some Gatorade and back in my car - seeing people still running that I had passed on my drive out of De Pere, that was a good feeling :)  Overall a great run!!

I never had a mile over 11 minutes and I finished with my fastest average pace to date!!  Next Saturday is my first race of 2012... the Dick Lytie 15k (9.3 miles) - Even though I've never run more than 8 miles, I am ready... because I could have kept running today :)  Happy weekend all!!  I'm very excited to see one of my best friends tonight for dinner... I haven't seen her in FOREVER!! :)