I Give It a Ten, a Ten!

The Stats: 3/17 - 3/23
3/21: 10.0 mi; 1:24'34"; 8'27" avg. pace

This half marathon training has called for progressively longer runs every weekend. Last week, I spied the weather patterns and decided that Friday evening presented the best temperatures for a long jaunt. That meant having to get mentally psyched for it after a day of work. It also meant missing an hour of first round NCAA tournament basketball (No!), but I went forward with the idea anyway.
I stretched out and hit the road with a good pace, about 8 minutes, before dialing it back through the fourth mile. I wore out the flat surfaces of Kanawha City, all the way to 57th Street before turning back for the downtown portion of the run. It was a lovely evening with temperatures in the upper 60s. This showed in the number of fellow runners and bikers moving around. And the car traffic had me jumping off road quite a bit. This is why I like to run toward oncoming traffic, I don't trust drivers to give me a lot of room, but I know I can always hop into someone's yard for a second while they pass me. And despite what race organizers would lead you to believe, I can hear my surrounding environment just fine with headphones on and music playing.
The 35th Street Bridge was as windy as ever. I hugged the fence as a girl passed me on her bike, made it across the river, and giggled my way down the loopty-loop descent. The bridge slowed down my sixth mile to nearly 9 minutes, but on the Boulevard I increased the pace back near 8'30" and held it fairly steady. I had a funny encounter between miles seven and eight as a car honked into the void. Instinctively, I raised a hand to wave at the oncoming mini-van. Inside was a nice looking Muslim family, the women having their heads wrapped in Hijabs. I put my hand down and looked onward to see a girl in a similar garment walking towards me. I audibly chuckled and told her, "I think that was for you."
After that moment of levity, I crossed the Boulevard and ran down Hale Street. Then, I ran over the South Side Bridge taking in the river from above one last time. By mile eight I had noticed a pain in my right calf. Nothing seemed pulled or injured, but it was sore every step of the way from there on out. Despite this, I was determined to make my last mile the fastest mile, per my recent trend in long runs. So I must have looked rather awkward, dragging my sore legs down MacCorkle at a quick pace. Nevertheless, mile 10 was my fastest on this day. Huzzah!

Now that I have caught up with Ashley and Jessica in terms of distance, I will increase my long run by 0.5 miles each week until race day. I am a little nervous about what will happen when the Harmon siblings travel to Peru in a couple weeks. But maybe the high altitude will give my lungs an element of training. Wishful thinking? Yeah, probably. All the same, Pittsburgh is shaping up to be a great event.