No Half Marathon....

Yesterday, I decided not to pick up my registration for the National (Half) Marathon.  Things were pretty busy at work and at home, plus, last night was busy for Cub Scouts.  Since there was so much going on, plus since this race wasn't one I was really training for, I decided to back out.. So, races this year: 0. :)

I did run at Burke Lake this morning.  I had intended to run 13.5 miles, but ended up running only 9.  However, I ran the first 'lap' in my Vibram shoes, and the second lap in my normal shoes. Boy, quite the contrast.  First of all, I felt every rock on the path, and some are quite large.  I also realized that I paid very close attention to where I was landing my feet in my Vibram shoes because a root or a large rock hurt my feet.  Even the small gravel made an impact, so to speak.  However, my average for the first lap was.. (get this): 8:48.  My body seems to gravitate to this number, as I had two runs last week (6.8 and 12) with the exact same pace.

On the second lap, since I decided way early that it was going to be my last lap, I decided to fartlek, or tempo, or something on the course to shake things up (also helped justify losing a lap). As a result, my pace was an 8:12 for 4.5 miles (after running an initial 4.5 miles).  So I was happy with that.  I wasn't too tired at the end, so that's good as well :)  Just to be complete, mile 3 (or mile 8.5) was a 7:43 mile.

Have a good run!