no rest for the weary.

i went running with my friend, dave, from church. the last time i ran with dave was in july, when i first ran 10 miles. it was a difficult run for me, and we finished in 1:45, which is a 10:18 pace. we only ran 8 miles today, but his watch charted us at a 9:07 pace, with our fastest mile at 8:40 (mile 7) and the slowest at 9:28. our last two miles were 8:40 and 8:45 pace.

it's funny because we agreed beforehand to go slow. i thought we were going closer to 10:00, but it felt fine, so we stuck with it. i don't think i'll go that fast for the race. but it seems increasingly realistic to beat a 10:00 pace. dave is hoping to beat 4 hours, which is close to 9:00 per mile. (9:00 works out to 3:55:48.) if i run at my 20 mile pace, i'll finish in 4:17:28.

my left arch is a little sore, but i'm going to ice it for the rest of the morning. (and by that, i mean i'll alternate 20 minutes ice, 20 minutes without. i will not be all ice, all the time for another hour.) i took last thursday off to give it rest. now that i know it's a real issue, hopefully all i need to do is ice it, and it won't be a problem for the race.

8 more days. i'm starting to get restless. i can really feel the difference in the decreased mileage the last two weeks. i have a lot of extra energy, and i'm getting very motivated for the race. i'm going to be a little ball of energy next week. we're going to msu v. osu in east lansing, so in addition to the game excitement, i'll be completely coiled for the race, too.

8 more days. 8 more miles.

robb.