Another 4 miles

I hit the snooze once or twice this morning, and was a little late getting out of bed. I had laid out my clothes the night before, but decided that I needed a hat, too. I rummaged through my closet and drawers as quietly as possible, but came up empty-handed. I made a bowl of oatmeal, and ate just a few bites, and drank about 2 sips of OJ. I took my car key off the key ring, put my sunglasses on my head so I'd have them for the drive home, and headed to the car. Once in the car, no key. I ran back into the house and searched for it - no key. Back to the car. It had to be in there somewhere. I finally found it in my gym bag. I had given the bag the once-over in search of the missing hat, and must have dropped the key in.

So finally, I was off. When I got to Dick Woods, there were already cars lining the side of Miller School Road back to the guardrail. I cruised past the gravel parking area to find that indeed, there was enough room for me to squeeze in! I hopped out with just enough time to say a quick hello to Jim and Sadie before we broke out into pace groups.

There's a big glom of us slow half-marathoners, and I was a little cranky listening to all the chatter as we started out. I ran a very slow first mile up the hills, and between the hills, the gravel, the chatter, my discovery of my sunglasses still on my head, and my general discombobulation, I just couldn't get into a rhythm. I walked a little bit in mile 2, just enough to get behind some of the groups and have a little quiet. I caught back up with them at the water stop at Plank, but most of them must have been doing 5 or more, because I was by myself when I turned around.

As I headed back, there was a dog in the middle of the road, a friendly-looking black lab mix with a white paw. It ran beside me for maybe a quarter of a mile or so.

Also on the way back, I passed Pamela heading out - she shouted something about being late because she had to get bread out of her breadmaker.

Mile 3 I picked it up and did in 10:30. I like that the shorter runs give me the luxury of picking it up a little bit and not worrying about having reserves for later. The only way I will ever learn to run faster is to run faster! I had a hard time keeping up the pace in mile 4 - while it's mostly downhill, it's very rolling, plus the gravel road has a lot of large, loose stones. I was constantly worried about twisting my ankle, and my gaze was right down in front of my feet instead of up ahead. Even with some walking, I still did it in about 11:00. I averaged 11:30 for the run. A little slower than I'd like, but I'm happy with my 10:30 on mile 3. My head just wasn't in it today.

I did get my plan from coach Mark this week. My weekday mileage is very low, which is perfect. I do get some very long Saturday runs - 14 miles in September. That makes me think that if I could definitely do Richmond in November, if I felt like it. I could run another 3 after the Buck Mountain half, for 16 that day, do another long run in 2 weeks, and then have 2 weeks to taper for Richmond. I should just commit to it, but I can't, not this early. I'd burn out by August.