Leaf Peeper

I ran the Leaf Peeper half marathon on Sunday, and it was a beautiful day for a race. It was peak season for the leaves, blue sky and temps in the high-50s/low-60's. Perfect for running. It must've been because I ran faster for a longer distance than I ever have.

Here are the splits:
Mile 1 6:54
Mile 2 7:03
Mile 3 7:20
Mile 4 7:20
Mile 5 7:18
Mile 6 7:25
Mile 7 7:13
Mile 8 7:14
Mile 9 7:33
Mile 10 7:24
Mile 11 7:20
Mile 12 7:18
Mile 13.1 7:13
Total 1:35:27, 7:17 pace

I was fortunate in that I fell in behind three strong women separately at various points in the race. Two of them pulled me for parts of the first half, and one warrior pulled me in over the last 6 miles. This chick was strong. I never caught her, but also would not have performed as well without her consistent pace. Linking up with someone with a similar stride and pace worked well for me in the CCM last year, too. I guess there's something about slogging through it together with another runner that keeps me going.

My training schedule called for a 20 miler on Sunday, but I'll take my race experience workout as a step in the right direction. I have my second 20 miler scheduled for the weekend and a friend lined up to share most of the distance.

Between the race and today, I played hockey on Tuesday at lunch. (BTW, running does not get one in shape for hockey. Almost puked.) I got in a quick run of around 25 minutes at lunch today. I'm finding it harder to motivate to run with the darker mornings. As much as I am enjoying the training, I'm looking forward to a change of pace after CCM.