It is so much fun watching the little ones run. They start off so fast, but then tire and walk. Some of the good ones can keep going. You can sure tell who runs regularly. The Parkland High School teams volunteered for the youth run. Some dressed in costumes and stuff. The coolest thing was what their best runner did. She just placed 2nd at the Allen Invitational 1600 meter run yesterday with a time of 5:10. Today, she was encouraging runner after runner and ran into the finish with a bunch of them that were walking or just struggling.After all of the fun of today, it was time for business. I wanted to get some mileage in, so I decided that I would run 10 miles. I opted to start near the stadium in Allentown and run a lot of the St. Luke's course through the Parkway and then back out.
It was a beautiful spring day. I ran along the cherry blossoms that are in full bloom. That is such an awesome site. It will be great for the race tomorrow. I then went through Cedar Beach and it was buzzing with activity. I couldn't believe how crowded it was.
Originally, I had thought about getting up early and really trying to push myself with a hard run with the BCR. Instead, I just decided to take it easy. After standing all day, I wasn't sure what my body had. Running easy was actually pretty fast today. With the rest day yesterday, my legs felt so fresh. Usually my first mile is the slowest, so when I opened with an 8:03 mile, I impressed myself. This is typically around my easy run pace for a run like this.
I couldn't believe how good I felt as I soldiered on. I managed to cross Hamilton Blvd with no trouble. That was quite the feat and I did it twice during this run. This section was tough because there is some uphill. It isn't too significant and I just battled through it. I was on to busy MLK Blvd. next. The 2nd mile was an impressive 7:42.
I continued on and everything felt great. It was all so easy. It was just one of those days. I headed in to the lovely setting of the Parkway. Really the only issue of the run was that I was wearing my GoPro camera on my head, on top of a hat. That made me very sweaty.
Normally, I look at my watch a lot when I run alone. That is especially the case on long runs. For whatever reason, I just soaked in the beauty of the day today. I ran along feeling great and loving the activity of everyone in the Parkway. I did get strange looks everywhere I went. I must've been quite the sight. I had on a lime green shirt, white calf compression sleeves and then a camera on my head. I originally thought that I would run the whole Parkway loop, but as I got to the covered bridge, I was already over 4 miles into the run. I decided at that point, that I would just run the rest of the course and add mileage at the end. The 3rd and 4th miles were 7:33 and 7:51, respectively.
Around this point, I did start to feel a little fatigued. Still, it is far better than I usually feel at this point in a long run. I continued up and down the hills of the Parkway. I was amazed that my pace stayed under 7:50. I wasn't putting in that much effort. This is normally the effort I would put in for an 8:05 pace. Maybe I am really getting faster or perhaps I was just having a good day.
I cruised back out of the Parkway and on to MLK again. I ran back up the hill at St. Elmo's. That must be tough at the end of the race, even though it isn't that steep. When I arrived back in Cedar Beach, I wasn't too far over 8 miles.
I decided to run through the Rose Garden. I've never been through there that I can recall. It is another outstanding setting with brick pavers, water and lots of trees. Plenty of people were walking through there or just hanging out. I ran out to 8.75 miles and turned around. Miles 6, 7 and 8 were all 7:50 or below.
I was tiring a little, but still feeling good. The run finally did start to get to me in the last mile. I headed into Cedar Beach again. Some little girl yelled, "you're not that fast." I had to just laugh as I was run under an 8 minute mile at that point. I finished going uphill near the stadium. The final mile was again an 8:02. Only my first and last miles were even over 8 minutes. I wonder what I could've run if I pushed it.
This was such a great run. I hope it continues. I feel like if I was running this run hard, I could've reeled off mile after mile under 7 minutes. That would be excellent if I am in that kind of shape. I hope to PR (1:33) in my half next month. I was thinking that I'd love to break 1:30. I don't know if that is realistic, but after today's run, I'm a lot more confident that that can happen. I still have a few weeks of training to get faster too. The tough thing is that the field will be small, so I'm not sure I'll have much competition.
This has been a great week, capped off by a great run. I'm now up to 47 miles this week and I'm feeling good. I've been a little beat up, but taking it relatively easy since the winter has been a huge plus. As I mentioned, tomorrow will be spent running around taking photos. I did that last year and it was quite the workout. It's almost as hard as a run. I sprinted all over the course. That said, I am in much, much better shape than last year. There is an outside chance that I'll try to do a long run. More likely, I'll hold off on the long run until Monday. With some rest, maybe I can run strong. One of these weeks, I'd like to run a shorter, but faster long run. At least I want to run some fast segments anyway.
10 miles - 1:18:23 (7:50 pace)
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