I went out at 3 pm with training partner Sarah for our run. She was thinking 5 miles and I was secretly thinking more. Sarah had to finish in an hour to leave for an appt, so 2 miles in we talked about turning back at 2 1/2 miles. But I was feeling really good and really strong and told her I wasn't sure I would turn back at 2 1/2 miles. So Sarah decided to not cut her time too close for when she needed to finish and headed back a little early, about 2.2 miles into the run.
I continued on the trail we had just started running the other day - they had finally built a bridge across the creek from my neighborhood so we could access this trail. So much of this trail was new to me. My miles continued to roll by well. I didn't have that usual first few miles of uncomfortability. I was able to just get into the mechanical turnover of my feet at the pace I actually wanted and just kept at that. I turned around at the trail end, which I found out was right at 3.5 miles into the run - what can I say? As a mathematician, I just gotta love those nice round numbers.
At 4.5 miles in, I tried to take my GU and managed to choke badly on a gulp of water. I obviously need to continue practicing this as running through water stations and energy gel breaks is a new technique for me. :-) I walked for probably about a minute as I struggled to stop coughing and finish my GU with more water. I ran hard the rest of that mile, in my hopes for good even splits, and managed to finish that mile only 8 seconds slower than the others!
I marked a lap on my Garmin when I got to 6.2 miles so I could check later if it was a PR. Which it was! I then wanted to continue what I had been doing my last two runs, of trying to speed up the last half-mile to a mile in the run for a good strong finish.
But at 6.6 miles in, a woman and her sons were walking a big standard Beagle. They were crossing the residential street on the sidewalks and I came along beside but out past the curb, keeping some distance. I had seen as I'd approached that the woman even saw me approaching! Yet just as I'm about to pass, the woman let the retractable leash loose and the beagle whipped over in front of me, stretching the leash as far as it can go. It's so sudden that I screamed as I struggled to stop super short and then yell "JEEZ!!!" with a giant scowl as the woman grabs the leash to tighten it. I was so tired and so focused on getting a good time that as she yelled "Sorry", I just kept going. Plus I was so angry at that moment because I really was within a fraction of a second where I would have somersaulted over that dog in the concrete street there and possibly hurt myself. Another two tenths of a mile, and I felt bad for not having the time or the energy to tell her that I was sorry I screamed and didn't acknowledge her apology but if she'd been running hard for an hour and twenty minutes, she'd probably understand. So I kinda hope I run (hmmm, not literally) into her and her family at another time that I'm not in the rush to apologize!
Still managed to finish out the last 0.8 mile with a pace of 10:59 versus my average consistent pace over the whole run of 11:25!
In the end, perfect splits and a 10K PR, even with the choking incident and dog run-in! And note that I do recognize that some people do not count Personal Records unless it is managed in a race of that particular distance, but I think, if you did it and you know it, and especially if the Garmin Forerunner GPS knows it, I don't care if it's in the middle of a training run versus anything else. It still happened :-) and I think it's a little harder to do in a training run without the adrenaline of a race day!
Previous 10K PR: 1:11:41
New 10K PR: 1:11:04
Splits:
Mile 1: 11:27
Mile 2: 11:26
Mile 3: 11:25
Mile 4: 11:28
Mile 5: 11:34
Mile 6: 11:28
Next 0.2 miles to bring it to a 10K distance: 11:28 pace
Last 0.8 miles after that: 10:59 pace
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