Seven days until race day. I’m smack in the middle of a two-week taper, and I’m feeling strong. I’m feeling healthy. I’m feeling ready. Every time I think about it, I get excited. Race day is right around the corner.
Training for this half marathon began weeks ago. June 11th to be exact. When I think of the journey I’ve been on this summer, I can’t help but feel emotion (blame breast-feeding hormones? life hormones?). In my post, Training Day #1, I finally shed the post baby running label. Training day #1 marked the beginning of my journey back to just running.
Today I tackled an eight mile run. I ran the first 3 miles with my training buddy before we went our own ways to continue to define our own individual levels of strong (She had her own amazing run – and much more inspiring – read it here). While I’m trying to ignore time expectations, I do know that if all the pieces of the puzzle come together perfectly, I can run a sub 2:15 half marathon (a HUGE new PR for me). If I maintain a 10:15 min/mile pace for the race, this will happen. As I set off to run the last five miles on my own, I wanted to see if I could run a 10:15 min/mile by feel. Ignoring my watch, I just ran. I ran what I thought was a 10:15 minute mile. I wanted to feel like I was running strong.
The outcome of my experiment:
Mile 4: 9:56
Mile 5: 1o:04
Mile 6: 9:45
Mile 7: 9:59
Mile 8: 9:49
Good News? Bad News? The good: what I perceived to be a 10:15 output was actually a sub 10 output. The bad: I have no idea what a 10:15 minute mile feels like. The few miles I will be running this week, I will be trying to run a 10:15 pace (paying a little closer attention to my watch) because I’d love to carry that pace for 13.1 miles.
Did I mention my run was gorgeous today!!! We picked a new route and ran along the bay into the state park. (warning: tons of photos below)
Seven more days!!!! and I think it is safe to say I’m just running again! and I survived summer training!
Kristy Maute 
We totally survived summer running! The race will be fabulous.
You’re very inspirational. I don’t know what it is but running is so hard for me. I hike a lot and can go hours on treadmill or stairmaster at a good clip but the second I start to run, I’m done. I ran 1 mile the other night. I’d love to do more since it is so easy to get a workout in but I have to figure out what my issue is.