Back to Double Digits

After stressing all week about how I probably wouldn't get a long run in this week, I did!  Because of the cold and snow, I was on the treadmill all week and wasn't really getting myself to go over 4 miles. So doing 10 miles on the treadmill right now seems like a huge stretch.  But luckily, temperatures got into the 30s and the snow was melted from the sidewalks (for the most part) by yesterday morning.

I had plans to go out for the Dayton basketball game for a 10am game Saturday morning, but also really wanted to get my long run in that morning.  So I woke up at 6:30am, yet still laid in bed until about 7:15 when I finally talked myself into getting up since I wasn't falling back asleep anyways.

My goal was to do 8-10, but I really wanted to get up to 10 to get into the double digits.  I need to have AT LEAST one double-digit run every week for marathon training, hopefully up to the point where I have 2 every week.

Unfortunately, I'm at my parents' house right now and left my Garmin at my apartment so I can't tell you my exact splits...which I'm really upset about.  But they were all between 7:26 and 8:33 if I remember correctly.  From what I remember, the first few were about 8:10-8:30, then picked it up more to right at 8:00.  The 7:26 mile was a fluke...I'm pretty sure I had a 7:47, 7:55, and 7:59, but other than that, nothing crazy fast.  It ended up being 10.05 (I am an awesome route planner to not make myself do any more than necessary) at an average of 8:06...slightly over 1:21 total time.

Some things of note on the run:

There were a surprising number of people out running!

I ran mostly on the city sidewalks.  About 2.5 miles in, I was on the sidewalk of Wacker Drive, which is a pretty busy street, just minding my own business and a car drove through a big puddle I guess and BLASTED me with a shower of ice cold water.  My iPod now surely has water damage...but it still works.  Otherwise I would probably have to somehow hunt down that person and make them pay for me to get a new iPod.

After that incident, I was quite wet/cold for awhile, but it got better eventually.  I did make my way onto the lakefront path for about 2 miles, but then went back to the city streets.  I had heard the polar vortex we had last week caused "ice balls" in Lake Michigan and I was really hoping I'd see some, but I did not.

So besides getting drenched in icy water, the run was actually uneventful.  I'm just glad I made it up to 10!  And then I got ready as quickly as possible to head straight to the bar for the basketball game...work hard, play hard.

Dayton lost :(  But I got to go out with some UD friends (some who I haven't seen in ages) as well as my cousin Katie.  She goes to SLU, which is who we were playing, but we are very accepting.

On another note...I don't think I've posted many pictures here on the blog lately, but I have dark hair again now.  No more blonde.