20 miler – 1st 10 in 73 and 2nd 10 in 66
Okay, consider me a major wimp this morning. While my friends were battling the rain and cold at McAlpine, I stayed warm and toasty in my bed. Taking advantage of this opportunity I got some extra shut eye.
When the rain finally did lift and the sun came through the clouds, I pushed out the door for my 20 miler.
My 20 mile route is an out and back course so I only felt the wind once in a while during the first 10 miles. While the first 10 miles didn't feel that hard, it might have been just an illusion assisted by the gentle shove from Mother Nature. 73 minutes was the time which incidentally was about the same time that I had just ran on Friday morning with the CRC group from the Dowd.
Oh, but when I turned around, I suddenly felt the chill from the breeze and the tightening of the legs and the arms. But somehow, I had this thought in my head that I needed to run the back half of this run faster than the first half. Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind that the first half would be run in 73 minutes.
Having a head wind doesn't make it impossible to run the 2nd half faster; it just makes it a little more difficult. I trudged onward. Each mile was tough. The wind only let up when I found the shelter of some trees or a house. Mainly, I just had to take it head on. I hit the 2 hour point with 3 miles run. I can do this. No hill or wind can stop me now unless I let it.
I climbed the last hill and turned into my development. I looked at my Garmin's pace reading for some encouragement and I was running 5:51 pace. The Odometer finally hit 20 miles and I pressed the stop button.
The first 10 had been in a brisk 73 minutes and really faster than I expected. But the 2nd 10 were run in 66 minutes. This was a nice confidence booster considering that I was running into the wind.
All in all, I felt bad for skipping out on the morning run, but just so you guys know, when I finished, I was hurting just as much. I just wasn't soaked by the rain however.
Sharing one thought at time,
The Cool Down Runner
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