Bitter Sweet!

Was anxious to run my ten miler on Thursday. Weather good but windy. Instead of walking the first half mile like I usually do I cut the grass and counted that as my walk. I stretched my hips and started the run with my usual 12 minute pace. At the end of mile one, and subsequent miles, up to mile 6 I was feeling super and found a nice rhythm even though I was walking a minute at the end of each mile. I was cruising along in the low 11:00 pace to low 10:00 and even looked at my watch and found that was was comfortable even though my watch showed my pace at 8:30-8:45 at times. After topping a very long steep hill at about a quarter mile into mile six, I hooked up with two other runners, one male and on female. I would say they were in their 30s and they looked like better than average runners. I was going to run with them but they suddenly slowed down to the point where I felt they were going slower than I was comfortable with. I started to slowly pass them when the female spit out a big swig of water she had just taken from her water bottle. The sputum nailed me right in the chest due to the wind velocity and direction. She apologized and I picked up the pace to complete my pass. I suppose they interpreted that as a challange and picked up their pace. I increased my pace as they increased theirs, etc. etc. etc.

Well, the race was on and I'm proud to say that when I made my left hand turn I was ahead and they continued going straight. I felt so good at the pace that I continuted to the next mile point and beyond. I finished mile six in 7:28 and mile seven in 8:10. Mile eight is when the wheels started falling off.

My hips started to feel very tight at around the beginning of mile eight and I struggled through at about an 11:00 to 11:30 mile pace. When I hit the beginning of mile 9 I was done! I called Chris to come and get me. I could have walked home but had to be somewhere and didn't have time to walk home.

Sometimes I just don't have the patience to slowly work my way through injuries. I seem to alway want to rush things and end of paying for it. I will try my ten miler again on Wednesday and this time I'll do what has been working! I'll begin with my walk and and walk a minute to a minute and a half at the end of each mile. We'll see what happens. If I have the same hip problem again I'll have to rethink my training........Mike