7 on the 8th

I'm a DNF in the 8 on the 8th race. But not because I didn't try. I just ran out of time.

I dropped off Sophie at her Girl Scouts meeting at 12:30, then was going to take Luke to the gym's kids center while I ran (it was 40* and raining and I wasn't in the mood for a cold, wet run so ran on the treadmill). But DH decided he'd finished with his work and would keep Luke. So I dropped him off with Dad at the office and I headed to the gym. This was a good thing because Luke needed a nap, but it set me back time wise.

I got to the gym at 1 p.m. Sophie's meeting was over at 2:30, and I was a 10 minute drive from her. That left me 80 minutes to run 8 miles. I am not a 10 minute mile runner, so I knew I'd be short. But I ran my heart out for 7 miles. I finished in 77 minutes and hit my race pace target of 11 min mile average.

The first 2 miles I felt really strong and didn't take a walk break at all, and held a 10:30 pace. I listened to the Dave Matthews Band Concert in Central Park CD's, an awesome soundtrack for this indoor run. The first song got me through an entire mile.

At 2 miles I took a water/walk break for about a minute, then cranked it back up to 10:30 per mile and ran another mile and a half. Then another break and another mile at 10:30. At 4.5 miles I started feeling tired and thought I was probably running too fast, but instead of slowing down, I kicked it up to a 10:00 pace. I figured I'd run as hard as I could while I still had some life in me, and it worked. I ran mile 4.5 - 5.5 in 10 minutes.

After a final water/walk break, I had to slow down for the last 1.5 miles. I probably walked a half mile total and ran the rest mostly at an 11:00 pace.

I hurried out of there to get Sophie and felt pleased I'd run more than I ever have before (my previous long run was 6.3 miles) but bummed I didn't get to finish the full 8. I'd thought about running 1 mile at home outside, but I was shaky and exhausted and it was really raining, so I just skipped it.

So it was 7 on the 8th for me. I'm still really glad I signed up and would probably not have run at all today if it hadn't been for the race. And now I have a new long run distance I can brag about.