Yesterday I set out to run my 8.25 race as part of my 11 mile training run. (I plan to run 4 miles on my actual birthday. I will not be doing 40k, unless you want to add all my miles for the week together LOL)
It was supposed to be 63 degrees at 6:30 am, so I planned to get up early and run before church. Instead, my dad offered to run the last five with me if I waited and ran after church. I decided to wait.
After church, I ate a banana and headed out into the very sunny day with my handheld. My hamstring and ankle were feeling tight, so I ran a slow warm up mile.
I turned on to Main Street and picked up the speed a little. There was some shade in the downtown area, but I quickly ended up out in the sun. Mile 1: 9:36
I kept going until I ran out of town and sidewalk. (1.4 miles into my race LOL) I hit a few sidestreets to add some mileage and finish mile 2: 9:32.
As I turned around, I discovered I'd been running downhill the whole way. Ugh. I also got honked at by an old farmer (not sure if it was approval for wearing a running bra and shorts or disapproval for running like that on a Sunday morning. Gotta love small towns.) Mile 3: 10:00
By mile 4, I was dripping sweat and about halfway through my bottle of nuun. It was only about 82 degrees, but the sun was intense. The worst hill of the run was ahead of me. Needless to say, it was not pleasant. Mile 4: 9:57
Mile 5 was pretty flat with a little bit of shade. The only hill was going up over the railroad tracks and then cutting up through the church parking lot to my parents' house. Mile 5: 9:50
First 5.1 miles done in 50:00. I ran in, used the bathroom, refilled my bottle, and headed back out with my dad. I'm pretty sure I would have stopped and not run anymore if he hadn't been going out with me.
Mile 6 was ok. My stride and my dad's tend to fall perfectly in sync, so I just let my dad set the pace for me. He did a good job of mixing up the hills and flats in their neighborhood, but their was absolutely no shade. Mile 6: 10:00.
I started to fall apart in mile 7, but just made myself stick with my dad. I focused on breathing and staying in sync with him and just let him lead me around. I had moments of being able to pick up the speed, but all in all, I was dragging. Mile 7: 9:52
Mile 8 was more of the same. I was counting each .1 mile and struggling to keep going. I managed it, but just barely. Mile 8: 9:59
The last .25 of my "race" was part of what was actually mile 10 of running. I was so done, but determined to at least finish 10 miles. It could easily be this hot on race day in September in Virginia. I finished that .25 in 2:30.
My overall time for the 8.25 was 1:21:20. Not my best time ever, but not my worst either. Considering the sun and the hills and the fact that my overall distance was the longest I've run since May, I'm pretty happy to average under 10 minute miles.
I kept going to the end of 10 miles of running and then decided to walk the last mile home. My dad headed off to do a faster mile and I turned back towards their house. Since I was a mile from home, I ended up deciding to just run slowly as far as I could. As I knocked off each .1, I made myself a new goal. Once I hit 10.5, I knew I'd end up making the whole 11. Surprisingly, even though it felt slow and awful, my last mile clocked in at 10:22. I finished the whole 11 miles in 1:49:13.
Glad today just calls for an easy recovery run.
(I've started getting emails of race reports. If you are running, please get your report to me by August 28th. Reports received after that date are not eligible to win any of the cool prizes.)
