Trees A Crowd

I did 10.78 miles today in 91:26, an 8:28 pace.  It was 56 degrees.  I wore shorts and a long sleeve tech shirt, short sleeves would have sufficed.  The run felt sluggish, especially toward the end.  I was about to turn into my block after an hour and twenty when I realized I still had ten more minutes left.  Annoying.

I was talking to my buddy, "Anonymous", this evening about our upcoming half marathon, the Stratton Faxon in Fairfield, Connecticut.  This will be her first half marathon.  She was feeling a little discouraged because her eight miler today was a tough one.  It was her longest distance run to date.  I reassured her that everyone has off days.  Her run last week felt great.  I also told her how her diet the day before can sometimes help or hinder the performance.  I'm pretty sure  I didn't eat enough yesterday and I felt the consequences today.  You're going to do great, A!

I took a look at my full marathon site.  There is a video of the course filmed by a guy riding his bike.  The whole video is 30 minutes long.  I have to say it was quite boring.  Eighteen miles are run on a bike path in a park.  It looked kind of lonely.  Lots o' trees.  If I was bored during the video, I wonder what's going to happen during almost four hours of running it.  I have nothing against trees, by the way.  I really like them.  For eighteen miles, though?  Running?  Um, maybe I should have watched the video before I signed up.   I'm going to have to run it lightning speed so I don't go bat shit.  Great motivation.  Seriously, it's a beautiful course.  I'm so used to running on busy streets, this will be a welcome change....I hope.