10 (+8) on 10/10/10!

Today was a good run.  I woke up early but waited for the sun to come up before I headed out.  I had 18 miles to go so I didn't want to start too late so I left right at 8:00am and figured it would take me a little under 3 hours to finish.  Well ... I should have left a little earlier.  The temperature went way up while I was running and I was struggling with the heat the last 2 miles.  But other than that, everything went really well with the run.  Here are some things I did right (and I need to remember these for the race):

• Took some Naproxin about an hour before I ran.
• Put on blister Band-aids.
• Wore the right socks.
• Ate a good breakfast before leaving.
• Drank some Gatorade Prime about 15 minutes before I left.
• Drank some 5-Hour Energy about half-way through the run.
• Ran at a comfortable pace.

I'm starting to feel pretty confident that I can run White Rock at Boston qualifying pace.  I was only off by about 16 seconds/mile today and I wasn't trying to run it fast.  I am really only worried about 2 things now: the hills at the end of the race (last year they were at miles 18-21 and it looks like the proposed new course has them moved to miles 20-23) which makes my second worry even greater - miles 20-26.  Those are simply killer miles and add in that half of them are uphill and I'm a little nervous.  Here's the proposed new course map.  It's starting and ending in Fair Park this year so that's totally different.  (Last year it was at the AA Center).  The hills start right after you get around the lake.

Here are today's splits (very happy with them!).  Can't complain about a 9:01 pace on a long training run.

It was actually a pretty uneventful run.  I started out through the neighborhoods that I run every morning.  There's this one car that I pass every morning and about a year ago, I started touching the drivers' side mirror for a good run and now it's just tradition to touch it as I pass it.  I have no idea whose car it is.  But I know on the rare mornings that it isn't there, I don't like it!

I cross the railroad tracks at about mile 3 and that's the part of my Sunday runs that I like because it's out in the country.  That RR Crossing stands for "Running Robyn Crossing."  LOL!

And then I headed out into "The Big Square" but since today's run was so much further than the usual 9 mile run I do out that way, I had to find a new course.  So I ran out past a lot of cows and the back under the highway.  I remember passing a pretty cool cemetery that I had never seen before and then I looked at my iPhone to make sure I wasn't too lost.  And all was fine.  But I was in Venus!  Not much out there.  I loved the barn with the Texas flag on it.

And then I headed back to civilization.  Well sort of ... there was a highway but then more country roads.  This picture was taken at mile 9 (my midway point).  Don't jump Robyn!!  Just a few more miles to go!  :P

Then I headed back to The Big Square and ran it twice.  I'm wondering ... at what point does the city decide to stop repairing the road and just re-pave it?!  This road cracks me up!  It's almost worse than the gravel road I had to run at miles 4-5.

Then I headed back home.  That last mile really was pretty awful.  I started getting the cold sweat goosebumps and probably should have slowed down a little but by that point I just wanted to get home and get a big ol' drink of Gatorade.  The bottle said it was 4 servings.  Yeah right ... I drank that thing in about 1 minute.

Tomorrow is my rest day and the kids are out of school so maybe I'll sleep in.  Or maybe I'll dye my hair.  Ahhh ... old age!  I moved up an age category so my Boston qualifying time went down but now I gotta deal with all the effects of being a 40-year-old.  :)