Some days I wake up and I am just filled with determination. That must have been today, because even when I left out the door, I was still plotting in my mind what my run this morning was going to represent in my overall training plan.
It was still dark at 6 AM and there were very few cars on the road, as most people had left to make it to work on time. I had a break this morning as I was moving units and had to report to my new company at 9:00. Most people would use the break to sleep in. Here I was still deciding in my mind if I was going to knock out 5 or go for more.
I saw a deer leave the backyards of a few houses and cross the street into the fitness trail. I would see a few more dart into the wood further up the road. The path going up to main post seemed harder to navigate today, and I blame the headlights of people coming down the road and their light flooding the wood line. I didn't fall and I quickly sped back up once on the road by the golf course.
I thought about my form as I was nearing mile 2 and started kicking it into gear. Going up by the higher ranking officers houses, I was still going pretty good when a unit of about 20 Soldiers made the turn in front of me heading the same way. They were going at a pretty good clip, as there was a trail of men falling behind. It took me about a quarter mile to catch up to them and pass, so i know they were hauling. I couldn't slow down, as I didn't want them to catch back up to me, so I continued on very quickly until it was time for my turn.
About 10 minutes later the sun really started to turn the sky light blue. I made mental notes of where I was a 40, 50 and 60 minutes so I could see where I was at different points in the run. I didn't quite get 5 miles in 40 minutes, but I had 7.5 by 60. I had a brief self pity talk around mile 6.5 and "Cowboy'd" up to "Get 'r done!"
Just past mile 7 is the area where I find a tonne of golf balls, but today there were way to many and I hadn't brought anything to haul them in. I stopped to grab a yellow one, and moved out.
It was along the trail heading from Main Post to that I hit my 8 miles on 8-8-08. But I'll officially do my Olympic celebration run on the 10th.
Then I was coming back down the main road to my housing area where all the kids were standing by the curb waiting for the bus to Faith Middle School. I gave each group a smile, wave and "Hello". It was like running past a crowd in a race and it was really cool. My girls go to Faith and Dexter, which are only 100 meters apart, so my wife drives them to school before she goes to the gym to kick other people's butts!
I thought today's run went great and I nailed 9.38 miles in 77 minutes, 11 seconds for an average 8:12 pace.
100 Push up Challenge: 30, 22, 22, 20, and 30 with a 120 second rest between sets.
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