On the road again: 10 miles

You may not be able to read the sign this time, but stick figures reappeared!

Let’s just say after the previous week’s 9-mile run debacle/rainstorm/insanity, one of the only things that got me out of bed and ready for a 10-mile run this past Saturday was the belief that it couldn’t be as bad as the last week.

And for the most part, that was true.

Saturday was a busy day. Alisha and I were running 10 miles and at 1 p.m., girls were coming over to my house for our bimonthly brunch. (Yes, so we’ve only done it one time before and this time it was officially a lunch, but brunch just sounds more fun.) So basically, I knew we had to run and not take forever, then I had to get home, take a shower, make myself look presentable and get some food on the table. Knowing all of this, I’d spent my happening Friday night cleaning house. I’d gotten up early on Saturday to vacuum and set up the makeshift dinner table in the living room before Alisha arrived at 8:30 a.m. (I live in a townhouse with an eat-in kitchen. If all 6 of us could eat in there, it would be REALLY crowded—plus my table only seats 2. So when large groups come over, I set up a table in the living room and use the couch as seating for one side and random chairs from around the house for the other. It’s not perfect, but it works!)

To make things even more interesting, Alisha and her husband were having issues with one of their cars, meaning Alisha needed a ride back to her house after the run, meaning thing really could get kind of complicated. I just didn’t want to be wandering around in a bathrobe when people started arriving at my house expecting a make-you-own-burrito extravaganza! (I walked in my house at noon. People arrived at 1 p.m. I was dressed and my parts of the meal were ready! MIRACLE!)

This is how I do a make-your-own-burrito girls brunch/lunch!

But we headed out to Crockett Park for our 10 mile run, mostly because the trails are really nice and go on forever. Plus, they offer some hills and you don’t have to dodge traffic. For the most part, the run was fine. We set out to do 6 and 2 intervals (running six minutes, walking 2 minutes) and pretty much stuck to that for the entirety of the run. I really never felt terrible, but my running partner did. She kept saying she hurt, which led to me asking a bazillion questions trying to figure out what exactly was

hurting. (The answer “everything” wasn’t all that helpful, Alisha! 🙂

So maybe the run wasn’t as fast as I would have liked, but we did cover the distance. And sometimes, in training for a half marathon, that’s the most important thing. We know that no matter what, we can finish 10 miles. And if we can finish 10 miles, we can finish a half marathon!

So here’s Week 7’s run by the numbers:

Distance: 10 miles Location: Crockett Park and trails Time: 2:00:21 Average pace: 11’51″ (A bit faster than Week 6’s rain dance run.) If you want to see it on GPS, go here:http://nikerunning.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikeplus/en_US/plus/#//runs/gps/1625581486/355031401/

(I’m particularly proud of mile 10 which was our fastest mile at a pace of 10’41”!)As I train for the half marathon, you’ll see more posts like this. I’m planning to document each long run, so you’ll get to come alongside me for every mile, every irrational I-hate-running-and-why-did-I-sign-up-for-this moment, and every completely random adventure that happens along the way.

#beginningrunner #running #training #halfmarathon #10miles #exercise