Go Speed Racer, Go!!

This past Saturday was my last long run before the Spinx Half Marathon. It was an 8 mile run in Birmingham. Jeff and I have come to love the small community of Mountain Brook, which is laden with runners and cyclists. Our first mile, Jeff set the pace and we were at 10:52, which I thought was a little fast, especially for a semi-long, slow run. At mile 3, we stopped to fuel and hydrate and I recommended we run the next 3 easy and then blow out the last two. Around mile 4.5, Jeff informed me the pace had not slowed at all. I have given up looking at my Garmin while I run. It reassuringly beeps to let me know when I've completed another mile, but I no longer am a pace-peeker. It's better if I just wait until the end of the run. It's almost like Christmas morning, you know the paper covers the gift and breaking through the tape and layers is the fun part. Another short stop at Mile 5 for water and we were on our way back to the car for the last 3 miles. We went by the golf course, where my mantra turned into, "Please don't slice, please don't slice..." I felt strong and even. No longer feeling like my form is clumsy is a confidence booster. As the Garmin beeped for Mile 7, I "accidently" peeked - 10:15. What? Could that be right? One more mile to go. We entered the trail portion of our run and I felt that my pace would automatically slow some, as we dodged some rocks and a dog that didn't seem to have an owner anywhere nearby. (He was a pretty golden retriever, in case you were wondering, content to just sniff the grass here and there and mosey aimlessly about his morning). We got to our parking lot and had just a little bit more to go, so we ran the perimeter of the lot. At Mile 8, I was actually disappointed that the run had come to an end. You can imagine my delight when I looked down and saw that my average pace for the 8.01 miles was 10:35. And the last mile, the pace didn't slow at all. Another 10:15. When I began training for Spinx, I thought I would do well with a 2:20 (Tybee was my PR at 2:37), but now I'm thinking that I may even be able to cut that down. Saturday will tell.

Flash forward to this morning:
My last day of speed work before Spinx. A 30 minute tempo run. I've learned to love intervals, but I'm still warming up to tempo runs. We had 5 of my regular group show up - 3 fast people (no, I'm not in that group), myself, and our leader, Kendra, who is doing the full marathon Saturday. She and I talked before we took off and since she was scheduled for an easy 3, we decided to do a regular 3 mile route and she would run with me. I didn't know if I should be offended that an easy 3 for her would be my tempo, but I didn't want to run by myself, so I went with it. The first mile I knew was fast and she looked at her watch, made a noise, and I said I didn't want to know. "Don't tell me!" I wheezed. The air was so cold, my throat and lungs began to hurt around mile 2. I slowed somewhat. I know that ruins the tempo run effect, but I also knew I couldn't maintain the current pace for much longer. About mile 2.5, my hernia began to hurt, causing my midsection and core to seize up. I was hurting some last night from it, but a short fast walk and some long, deep breaths calmed it somewhat. I was determined to finish strong, so I picked it back up. Kendra admitted that this was not an easy 3 miles for her, making me feel much better. When the beep sounded indicating 3 miles, I finally looked at my Garmin. 3.01 miles at 9:49 pace. Whoo hooo! It was so good to see a single digit for my pace. So, watch me run. Go Speed Racer, Go!!