Notes
Pretty solid run today in 60% humidity. I knew going into it that it wasn't an A race and since I just signed up three days ago, I went out looking to put in a good hard effort without going too crazy. I wanted to run hard and keep a good pace but I didn't set any time goals or pace goals other than averaging under 6:30s. I only had 14 miles with 6 moderate miles today so I figured this would have been plenty. If it weren't so humid, I could have put in a really good time too.
I started off running with Brian for the first mile and I knew that after that, I would let him go since I didn't really have any plans of staying with them. Mile two was tougher as the ground was slippery and mile three had the big climb out of the park. Once I got out though, I started to settle in and found four guys to run with. I stayed with them and really didn't look at my watch at this point. We stayed relatively close for the next three miles climbing and I ran a good pace there (one guy dropped out). I felt really good about this section because I wasn't pushing it and didn't really have a time goal but I knew I was giving a good effort and this was great for my training. After finishing the 6th mile, we took the steep downhill back into the park and I lost time there as I didn't really feel comfortable pushing it on that gradient and it wasn't worth the injury. After losing 10 seconds in a quarter mile, I caught and passed one guy and another guy found another gear and I didn't see him again. At this point, it was just me and the Run N Fun guy. We both struggled on mile 8 (there are just a lot of short, steep climbs that seem to stop you in your tracks and I really struggle there). I did try to drop him on Mile 9 and I did. It wasn't my fastest mile but I pushed it and he couldn't keep up.
Overall, a pretty good effort. 6:19/mi (6:22 per my watch) was solid considering all I wanted to do was put out a good effort. I definitely did that today. This was a good training run.