Hot eight miles in under 10 min mile pace

As my morning wore on I felt the heat rising hotter and hotter. The humidity joined in and I started to doubt my resolve to run. But my resolve won out and as soon as I finished a batch of work I had to do and Comcast paid us a visit to replace the box that we just had replaced (they gave us the wrong one) I was off. 78 degrees and about the same humidity (higher inside the canyon with the proximity to water), it was brutal. But I was firm with myself about getting moving.

When I first walked out of my office after gathering all my gear my stomach rumbled. I realized I was pretty hungry. I decided to pospone leaving until I could gobble a half of a clif bar. It was the perfect amount of food to hold me over and keep my stomach from rumbling. I also filled up my water bottle full thinking that the extra weight (I have been only bringing a half full bottle as of late) that was nagging me would eventually go away. I could have actually used a refill but I portioned my bottle out and drained it about a half mile from the end.

I started out only wanting to do a short run, but after a couple miles my pace was strong and I felt like I could top that 10 min mile mark. This inspired me to keep going and add on miles. I decided on my eight mile route and through the canyon I was still 90 seconds ahead of a 10 min mile pace. The heat and humidity in the canyon really sapped me, but I pushed on. My last mile and a half were quite a bit slower and I really started to drag. I even walked for a short distance twice which I rarely do, but it helped me quite a bit especially on the big hill out of reed.

Several times during the run I pushed myt pace a bit. Not too hard as I didn’t want to completely fade at the end (which more or less happened anyway). But I really wanted to break the 10 min mile pace barrier. And I did. 9:52 for 7.75 miles. I am pretty happy with that.

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