Run Forest Run!

This morning I had one thing on my mind and that was sub-7 minute mile for the entire 9.2 course I had planned out. It was a flatter course than what I usually run so I thought it was achievable if I ran hard.

The route started at the high school and took a right on 122. I hate running on main roads, but its mostly flat and well lit. I didn't want to worry about footing (which is a problem on some of Grafton's back roads...at 5 in the am!) so i took off and hit the first of two minor hills. I powered up it and pushed all the way to riverlin st. This street is not so lit and has many rut's from the winter's wrath. I stepped in a small crevasse and tweaked my ankle. It was one of those times where you are like, "I'm done for, I sprained it, its broken" but I ran it off and it was fine.

I finally hit milbury street and knew I had a decent hill ahead of me. I may have slowed a bit knowing it was coming. It felt like three different hills with small reprieves at the top of every one. The pace held and I ended up powering downhill to make up for some lost time.

When I hit the bottom of the hill I made mini-goals for myself. Run hard to the crosby st. Run hard to hudson ave. Run hard to 122. I knew once I made it to 122 it was flat and the end of my run was less than a half mile. I pushed hard all the way to the high school parking lot in came in at 1:03:19 for 6:53 miles. Mission accomplished.

Back in the day (03), I ran a half marathon in 1:32 for 7:03 miles which I thought was an accomplishment at the time. I ran roads solely and trained hard for the race. Granted, today's run was a few miles short of a half, but my pace was right there with my time of 8 years ago. That makes me fell good that I can still hold, or even beat my time of yesteryear. Maybe a half marathon is in the future just to see if I can better my PR. Who knows...and I thought I hated road running?