20 miles - a new distance PR and a new running location

I followed my Dad's advice and ran the 15k Kensington Challenge... twice. Melissa ran the 5k too, so it was a fun morning. We left at 7am and I started running at 7:30 so that I could get a little over 10 miles in before the 9:15 start time. Besides getting the longest run of the training out of the way, I'm really happy about finding out how nice Kensington is for running. I knew these kinds of parks didn't only exist in Oregon, I just never looked for them before.

I have been very unconcerned with pace over the last month, but today I wanted to push myself a little to see how I felt. I'm still trying to decide if 4 hours is a good goal for the marathon. OMG, the marathon is 3 weeks away. Anyway, 9 minutes was easy for the first 10 miles. I got a little excited when the race started and ran the first half of the 15k in 8:20s. I paid for that a bit in miles 7-9, but I still was running in the low to mid 9s for the last 3 miles. I guess I feel ok about 4 hrs, but I really don't know if I care. I felt so happy with just finishing 20 miles today, it would suck to let the clock determine my mood for the marathon.

My feet are a little sore and my hip has been a little sore lately, but everything is going according to Hal's plan. I'm just going to try and eat well and get some rest over the next couple weeks. I've noticed that a lot of the blogers have stopped writting as much. I think that this is the time of year with the big races coming up that you do a gut check and see if the race is in you. It's not an easy time to explain or blog about. That's how I feel anyway.