Had a gorgeous, glorious, wonderful 8 mile run yesterday. Yay!

Left work at four, and was supposed to meet Kristina at the park at 4:30 so that I could do one lap before she met me, then we could do two together, and then I’d only have one more lap plus a mile to do. First lap went well, then we did a lap together. As Kristina hasn’t run in aaages, she was only up to doing one lap, so after that lap, she got my radio for me and I soldiered on…

It was a gorgeous afternoon, 55 degrees, a slight breeze, no clouds whatsoever. Just beautiful. The run was so easy, and not really all that slow for me. (The entire run took me 1:44, which if I had done exactly eight miles, works out to a 13:00 pace, almost exactly. But I estimate I did at least 8.1 miles, which would make my pace something like 12:45. And I did stop a few times: to get water, and put my radio on, stretch a bit, etc. I never walked, though.

I really hope the weather (well, at least the temperature) is like that in London. I never got hot, in fact, the breeze kept me nicely chilled. My biggest problem with endurance is generally to do with heat (I suppose I’m not unique in that!) so chilly weather would be fantastic. It was the heat that kept me from running the entire Mardi Gras half marathon. Overcast is good, too.

All in all, I felt really confident after today’s run. I was nervous about the fact that I’m going to have to do 8 mile runs in the middle the next 5 weeks or so (plus the two 5 milers and the long run, of course) but now I’m not. It’s not the long run on the weekend that makes me nervous anymore, it’s the mid-week longish run. Weird, eh? I guess because I’m under more of a time constraint (me versus the encroaching darkness) whereas on the weekends, I can take my sweet time.

So, next run is on Saturday, 16 miles with Chris. Or whatever he can run. I’m doing 16 miles though. Hope it doesn’t rain!