12 Mile Run...Almost

I can't believe it's already Tuesday!  Time flies...

Sunday morning a group of us met at PowerHouse Gym for an easy 12 miler.  Haha!  There's nothing easy about running 12 miles.  But I went into it with the mindset that pace didn't matter and I just wanted to complete the distance.  I even said this to Colleen several times.  HOWEVER, Don showed up.  Don is an awesome pacer because he is so consistent.  Every time I've run with him, he helps me to naturally keep the same pace.

So we took off with Don and I running together and Colleen and Michelle running together.  We stayed pretty close together for the first couple of miles.  We ran a modified version of the half marathon route.  I felt really good for the first few miles.  Don and I kept the pace right around 10 minutes per mile.  Of course I want to run faster than that for the race but for a long run, I was pleased with that pace.  I think it was about 5 miles in when Don decided that he needed to go...of course I had expected this...he is MUCH faster than me.  I really appreciated the fact that he stayed with me for so long.  Once Don took off, I struggled to keep a steady pace.  I still felt good but my pace was all over the place.  I really need to figure out how to stay at a consistent pace on my own!

The bridge into Assateague falls at the 12 mile mark of the half marathon.  After 12 miles of flat running, this is an intimidating sight...

In our modified course, it fell at about 9 miles into our run.  At this point, I decided that I would take the opportunity to use the visitor center's bathrooms.  It was a much needed break, although it had a really bad effect on my run.  As I started to run again, my lower back and my leg muscles all seized up.  I continued to run until I hit the 10 mile mark, at which point I decided that it was not worth risking injury in order to continue.  I was about a mile from the spot where we were meeting Keith who was so nice to volunteer to pick us up and take us back to our cars.  So I walked the mile back to the parking lot.

I really wanted to complete the 12 miles, but I think I made the right decision.  Had I kept going, who knows what kind of damage I could have been doing to my body.  The half is less than 3 weeks away and I'd rather not finish a 12 mile training run than not finish the 13.1 mile race!