Got by (with a little help from my friend)

My goal for this week was to get in an 8 miler as my last long run before the Army 10 miler. In the past I’ve given myself more of a rest before a race like this, but I really needed this run. To make it a little more bearable, I asked my friend Sue to run the last 4 miles with me. I figured by breaking it up and having someone with fresh legs to pace me, it would help get me by.

I set out on my own for the first four miles and was feeling good. I kept a decent pace without overdoing it, and although I was getting warm from wearing a jacket, I was surprised at how good I felt. Sue had an idea of how long it would take me to run by, so she was already standing out on the sidewalk in front of our complex waiting for me…which was awesome…but I had to stop and take off my jacket. I was DYING and it was getting warm really quickly. We stopped into her place so I could take it off, use the bathroom, eat a Goo, and then take off. We might have stopped for 5 minutes or so, but that was all it took.

We headed off for the last 4 miles and I swear, my legs were like bricks. It wasn’t long before I lagged behind, and Sue was about 5-10 seconds ahead of me most of the way. I was completely OK with that, since just having her there pushed me.  We got to a hill that I refused to run (I already ran up a long, crappy hill earlier and was NOT feeling this one) so we power walked up. I am completely OK with this, especially since during my first half marathon I refused to walk until I realized I was getting passed by people power walking up every hill.

It was rough but I made it to the 8.0 mile mark in a time of 1:21:07, averaging a pace of 10:08. Again, given the fact that we walked up a pretty good sized hill and I dragged my butt up another .34 mile hill earlier, I’m OK with this time. Thanks SO MUCH Sue for helping me through this! I would have walked a lot more if it wasn’t for you!!!

In other news, keep an eye out  at A Fete for Food for Jess’s recap of her successful finish of the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco today. She did awesome! I met Jess and  Cat last summer at the Blog Summit in Boston. They are both awesome and I love that all three of us have kept in touch. (I’m on the left, Jess is in the middle and Cat is on the right and there’s a random drunk girl in the background) 

Do you have any races coming up?