Another record Saturday

OK, so last week I ran with Ken and he really pushed me. We ran about 5.65 miles and I maintained an average 9:18/mile pace. That was a big push for me, but good.

This week was Colonial run, one of my least favorites. I just think it's a bit boring as we run it so often (about every 5 weeks). But I also noticed today just how hilly it is. Not big hills, but lots of little ones---so many little road overpasses and underpasses and river bridges. As we were getting started, Ken was there again and he hung back and we started off together. We started strong and passed the rest of the group before the first big bridge out of the trees. As we were winding through Lincoln Park, we caught up with Mike, an occasional runner with the group. Mike is tall and runs at a fairly good clip. He slowed a bit and the three of us ran the route together.

They really do run faster than my comfort level, but again this is a good thing. It keeps me going and pushing myself. At one point I was really struggling to keep up and told the two guys to go ahead. They said no, that wasn't what it was about, and agreed to slow a bit for me. Well, they did....for a bit, then I think we were right back up there.

As we were nearing back to Colonial, I realized that we hadn't been passed. Although we didn't run up the final hill at the 3 mile mark, we had run nearly the whole route and not even the faster runners had passed us. This is a unique thing for me as the faster runners always pass by me at some point. We pushed it all the way to the end.

We ran 5.63 miles in 50:56 minutes. I knew that was a pretty good time, but couldn't do the math to figure out my pace. I just knew I felt exhausted. As we chatted, a few members of the group commented on how fast I was running and how strong I looked (well, at least I looked strong on the outside...amazing how looks can be so deceiving!). Melissa asked my pace and I just showed her the time and told her I didn't know the pace. With the click of a button (I still haven't played enough with the new Forerunner to figure out the features), she showed me my pace screen.

9:02/mile pace!!!!!!!!!!! What!!!???!?!?!?!?! That can't be right. Oh my God. I ran a 9:02 mile average pace for over 5.5 miles. That's amazing. Then, of course, my natural competitive spirit came out and I was upset that I didn't run a hair faster so that my pace was under 9:00/mile. Funny how I was just exhausted and knew I had run "too fast", then once I knew the number, I felt I should have run faster. This Forerunner really helps my competitive spirit as I'm now able to track it all.

It was really neat to have people like Jodie and Melissa commenting on how fast I was running and how solid my run looked. Maybe someday I can catch up to them and actually join them on a run!

So, the end all was 5.63 mile in 50:56 (9:02/mile pace). What a run!