Notes
Wasnt sure how the shins were going to hold out so instead of an out and back course I did a double loop of 7 miles where I was never really more than 2 miles from my house and several times ti passed within 1/2 mile just to be safe - mostly flat with one big hill that I hit twice at mile 1 and 8. I think the hill was my downfall at the start. The up wasnt bad but on the down hill right at mile 1 my shins both started to tighten up. It wasnt too bad, just uncomfortable. Knowing that at mile 3.5 I would be passing close to my house I decided to stick it out till then and see how they were. They were tight from miles 1 through just about 3.5 and loosened up slowly through that time. By the time I hit the spot where I could easily go home they were pretty good and a half mile later they were fine.
Through most of this first loop I was going pretty slow - probably closer to 9:00s than 8:30s but after the first loop I picked it up and brought my pace up to around 8:20s or so and the last 3.4 miles I picked it up again to about 7:30s or maybe even a little faster. Still felt good for that last bit, though I was tired.
Post run summary: The second half of the run felt great, but now my whole lower legs feel realy stiff - not painful, just stiff. Need to go do some stretching and ice up the shins now.