13.1 Miles - (Mile 3 was at it again)

It was a chilly 38 degrees at 7:00 this morning. After buying some outdoor play sets and checking out the other yard sales at our community yard sale (in which we did not participate, even though we really needed to) and going to the dump, I finally headed out at noon for my 13.1 mile run. The temperature was finally up to 76 degrees. I drank a cup of coffee early in the morning, ate a couple of waffles between 9 and 10:00, and washed them down with a swig of Dr. Pepper. The I ate 2 pieces of bread and drank 16 oz of PowerAde right before heading out the door. I didn't know if this would be enough fuel for 13 miles. I also carried some gummy Star Burst that I began eating on after the half-way point. I'm making note of it, because I felt pretty good during the run. Of course, I was running on empty toward the end - no matter what I ate, I would be slowing down at the end. I was worried about my ITB, since it has been bothering me for awhile. During the first couple of miles, a sharp pain ran through it a few times. Since overuse is one of the causes of ITBS, I was afraid that I would not be able to complete the entire run, but the problem went away.

As usual Mile 3 was my slowest mile until Mile 12 - both were 9:17. The times per mile were as follows:

1. 8:43
2. 8:45
3. 9:17
4. 8:59
5. 8:38
6. 8:48
7. 8:48
8. 8:38
9. 8:38
10. 8:45
11. 9:03
12. 9:17
13. 10:07
last 0.1 miles 0:47

I seemed to have hit a groove on Miles 5 through 10, before losing stamina. My overall time was 1:57:11 for a pace of 8:57 per mile. This is my fastest pace of anything 9 miles or more. The pace was 1 second faster than I ran the Oxford Half Marathon and 4 seconds better than Clarksville Half last year. I will be happy if I can repeat this pace in 2 weeks!