Friday, February 8, 2013

Excellent Eight

This afternoon I had an eight miler on the calendar. On the way to work I heard that it is supposed to rain, but NOT ONLY RAIN, it was supposed to HAIL! I was crossing my fingers all day that there would be a break in the weather so I could get my run in outdoor (and not on the dreadmill).

Thankfully there WAS a break in the weather right around the time I was getting off work. I changed into my running gear and headed out. I quickly realized that although there was a break in the precipitation, there was NOT a break in the wind. There was a 25mph crosswind the WHOLE run. It made me run a lot 'heavier' while I was hugging the guard rail because I was slightly worried I was going to blow into the road. But hey, at least it wasn't blowing directly info my face in either of the directions :).

I forgot to look at the weather when I finished my run, so this is about an hour after back at home - wind still strong but not as bad as it was on the coast about an hour before.


During the run there were some spurts of sideways rain, not to mention I was getting pelted by sand, sticks, and other particles the whole run. By the end of my run it looked like the rain was going to start again so I hurried home.



But enough about the weather. Let's chat about the run. I went out shooting for a 8 mile run between 72 and 80 minutes (9 to 10 minute mile pace). The first two miles I noticed I was running sub 9 minute miles so I thought I would shoot for closer to the 72 minute mark. Because it was in the 50*s I was wearing a running jacket, so wasn't watching my time throughout the run since my sleeves were covering my Garmin, but felt like I would be able to finish around 72 minutes.



I DID it by 37 seconds! Not too shabby, especially because I felt like I was really having to work extra hard to run in a straight line and not get blown over. This was a pretty excellent 8 miles. It definitely gave me the confidence that I could do another half marathon under 2 hours!



My shoes weren't as soggy as I thought they might be when I heard the forecast, but they were a little tired from kicking so much butt!




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