Another Personal Best!

I had another GREAT run today. I went out early because I needed to be done the run, stretched out and over to a friends to watch the GOLD MEDAL HOCKEY GAME by 12:15. So I started at 8:35 which was a little bit later than I had hoped. I pushed the pace a bit right from the start, keeping it under 5 minutes per KM. I wanted to maintain that for as long as I could – creating a “cushion” for the return trip in case I slowed down.

I managed to maintain the pace all through the first half arriving at the halfway point 4 1/2 minutes faster than expected. I turned around and set back, hoping to keep my pace around the 5 minute mark. To my surprise I continued a pace of about 4:45 per km, sometimes going as low as 4:30. A few times I slowed a bit but always managed to get the pace back I had decided at the halfway mark I would aim for a total time of 2 hours 40 minutes (7 minutes faster than my previous 32KM time). As I got close to the end I realized that it was going to be more like 10 minutes faster.

Realizing I was ahead of my pace spurred me on even more and in the end I finished 32.14KM in 2 hours and 36 minutes – a full 11 minutes faster than my previous time! And my average pace was 4:51 per km which is the fastest per km pace I’ve ever set on a long run.

Not bad for a morning of running! Being a good Canadian girl I have to wonder if the pace was my way of making sure that I wouldn’t miss the puck drop. But really I think it had more to do with the fantastic Friday run pace – after that running 4:45 kms didn’t seem that fast anymore.

So Canada wins GOLD in hockey and I had a fantastic long run. Not a bad day.