8.85 miles in 1:16:14 – cool and misty morning – seems to helped my outdoor speed a bit

A comfortably cool morning with some mist and a few places where my running path was muddy and slippery but otherwise a great morning for a run.

To get my miles in today I decided on a couple laps around the neighborhood and since it was a bit cooler I would try the first one at a faster pace than I have been doing outside to do a bit of a sanity check.

I have been averaging at around 40 minutes for these laps lately – mostly because I haven’t been pushing and just enjoying the run but also because of the heat. I did the first lap this morning in 36:40 which is right around my half marathon PR pace and I definitely could have gone faster but my hamstring kept firing warning shots so I didn’t push my luck.

For the second lap I just settled in and ran an easy pace while I enjoyed the light rain – just under 40 minutes for that lap (right around average) giving me 1:16:14 for 8.85 miles. I still felt great after the run and could very easily have kept going but decided to just stay on schedule and shut it down for the day.

4 weeks tomorrow until my first race of the fall – the Fort Garry Rotary Club Half Marathon. It will be my second time running it and it will be my 13th half marathon race. My wife is planning on running this one as well so it should be an interesting morning. That race will also be the last race chance for a faster time to submit to runDisney for coral placement for the Dopey Challenge in January!