2:32:44, ave 14:01, best 9:17, Laps- 14:16, 13:38, 13:50, 11:57, 13:09, 13:53, 13:36, 13:47, 14:20, 14:54, 16:13 OK- this is a distance PR and a mental one too. I tried to talk myself into this run all morning. I am very disheartened by the weather and am having a hard time staying focused on my goals. I keep going to the "just run 5 miles a day through the winter and that is good enough." I really want Painters to go well, but I am a little afraid. Enough of that! The first three miles of today's run were pretty blah. As you can see by my mile four split, my guardian angels swooped in to give me the little nudge I needed to keep going to the half way mark. I ended up running into a runner at the corner by Peteetneet and asked him how the roads were. He said that my street was pretty good all the way to Salem, so I went for it. I have ridden my bike on it before, but never run it. It was nice. Once I hit a dead end in Salem, I went up a block and was on the Salem Canal Road, which was clear and wonderful. There were even signs posted to watch for joggers. Pretty soon I was to the Woodland Hills Road and needed another mile so I headed up to Woodland Hills. No sooner had I committed to this than I saw the BIG hill ahead and decided to veer to the right of 10,000 South for the rest of my mile. At the 5.5 mark I stopped to stretch near some scrub oak and startled a flock of really big somethings. They flew off behind the bush so I couldn't get a good look at them. They seemed to be the size of wild turkeys, but they also flew, so really big pheasants? As a note of interest, my lower back started to twinge about mile 4.5 and is pretty upset with me. I have never had that before and I am hoping it is some fluke! I hope y'all got out and had a nice run today. It was really hard to do this one alone and I am going to be ever so glad I did it! I just read this article from runners world about illness and running. I really liked what it had to say. http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-241-286--9082-0,00.html
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