Kenyan Way Long Run

Days run in May: 15
Days left to run in May: 16
Days left to a 5 day weekend (AND the SATC movie premiere!) 12

5:10am
70 deg
98% humidity
74 deg dewpoint

We had A LOT of rain last night, so the email came through late last night that the route was going to be changed...the bayou was just going to be too much of a mess...the only good thing about the change in route was that now it was going to be flat, flat, flat.  I wasnt looking forward to another hilly run this weekend!

I started with mileage before the group start of 6am since the route today was only 7.25 miles and I needed 13 miles.  And yeah, I could run them after the route, but that is so much harder.  The bad part about running before and then stopping to wait till group start is that sometimes its a bit harder for me to get going again.

With several of my tried and true compadres not there today, one of two things was going to happen.  1) I would run slower and that would be ok or 2) I would start out slower (which we never do it seems) and then be able to really bring it home as it should be.

What happened you ask?

I killed it!  I ran 5 miles before the start, making the decision to do the extra mile to put me with less time in between that and the start with the group.  We heard that more thunderstorms were on the way, so Erin, Megan and I took off without waiting for our group to start.  I went ahead of them within the first mile, as conversation pace was not something I really wanted this morning.  I wanted to fall in with the 4 hour group and see how long I could hang on.  I held on quite nicely thank you VERY much.  Training pace for the 4 hour group goes up to like 10:15 pace I think it is...and my average pace came in at 9:52.  This my friends is faster than any 1/2 marathon (and of course every marathon) I have ever run.  With my PR in  Dallas at the half, my average pace was 10:01 (unfortunately) so if this had been a 1/2 this morning I would have PR'd big time!  Whooop!

And yeah, right now, hours later, I am feeling the effects, but I havent pushed myself like that.  I figure it wont always be like that, so I have to take advantage of the long run days when I feel especially good and put some oomph in there ... everyone was complaining about how humid it was, but um...yeah, its Houston, and its ALWAYS going to be like that here...it was just a bit worse with the ickiness of last night storms and the impending ones that were on the way.  Otherwise it was PERFECT weather for us this time of year.  At least the sun wasnt beating down on us!

So I got my 13 miles in...I ran with a group I have never ran with before, and I feel damn good about that!  I dont know what next weekend will bring.  14 miles next weekend.  And I havent even STARTED official Chicago training yet! Ha!  I am hoping for another stellar run next weekend!

Its thunderstorming now...and I am kinda happy about that...makes it easier to be a slug the rest of the day :)  Hoping for better weather tomorrow as I really want to get a few miles in on the bike before my itty bitty 1 mile run :)

Happy running!!!