18.07 mi, 2:28:51, 8:14 avg
Today's run called for 8 miles easy, 6-8 miles marathon pace, 2 miles easy. Run was supposed to be on rolling hills but I didn't want to try this in Westlake and didn't want to drive to Brooksville and figured I've been doing extra rolling hills on most of my runs. Weather was just a little bit cooler, start temps in the low 70's. Stashed my cooler a few miles into the run, drove back to the start and got going.
Started from Longleaf, running up Starkey Blvd bike path for 4 miles and then 4 miles into Starkey Park. Passed by Tom and waved to him while I was starting out and he was coming back from his run. First 8 miles went ok, slow starting mile at 10:04, then was running about in the 8:40's. As I approached the turnaround and the start of the marathon pace miles I was afraid it was feeling harder than it should have. Decided not to let it get in my head.
Hit the turnaround and was able to step on the gas and run next mile in7:35, one down seven to go. Left the park and started heading south down Starkey Blvd. Got to where my cooler was and refreshed my drink bottle, 2.4 miles left to go. Able to keep it below 7:30 after that and finished that last mile at 7:16.
MP miles were: 7:35, 7:27, 7:30,7:35, 7:28, 7:25, 7:27, 7:16
Crossed the street back into Longleaf and ran 2 more easy miles to finish off the run.
So, this was the first run in a while with marathon pace miles where I didn't have to cut it short. Back in mid-August I had 4x3 miles @MP which I did manage to finish. I had initially tried that run on Friday, scrapped it and retried on Sunday which was lucky since I ran into my friends that were starting out with 1.5 miles @7:40 pace so I had some help getting onto pace that day.
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