What an incredibly fantastic morning for a 20 mile run! I felt absolute joy as I watched the shooting stars, saw the sun rise over Snow Canyon, listened to the rhythm of my own footsteps, and shared in the energy of other runners. On days like today, I’m elated to be a runner.
We met up with a group from the Saint George Running Center at 4:30 AM to run the marathon course. I took it pretty easy, since I'm in the middle of a cluster cycle and wanted to avoid having to run with a headache. So I never really picked up the pace, even on the downhills. I took all of my walk breaks, every 6 minutes, and concentrated on keeping my heart rate down. I successfully made it to mile 19.8 before the headache started! The next 2.5 hours were pretty harsh, but the joy of the run made it all worthwhile!
I was excited to finish the run in 3:07:46, since I knowingly kept it slow and I still look good for a 4 hour marathon! Maybe, just MAYBE, I can pull the 3:50 I need to qualify for Bosten...although I'm not going to focus on that right now. | 