Start time: 08/28/05, 7:00am
Location: American University
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:30min/mile

Vroom! Another Sunday of speedwork, and more enjoyment ensuing. It was another small group, but it went well; Mark, Tod, and I all knocked out 10 miles, and Julie smashed her scheduled 8 miles into the dust. This was definitely the first one where I was struggling a bit towards the end, but not in an “I can’t go on” sort of way, more of a, “This really sucks, I am running out of energy, must push forward” feeling.

It helped that I knew I was stopping at ten miles, so when things started to feel like they were shifting into reverse during that last mile, I just started counting the laps of the track. “Only three and a half more to go… only three more to go… only two and seven-eighths to go…” Ok, I didn’t really get that specific, it was really just whole laps that I counted. Although on the last lap, Mark was practically breaking it down that much. I think he was just as happy to end as I was.

This was followed by a fantastic lunch at Guapo’s in Tenleytown, and then I bought my new running shoes (finally!) that I’ll break in this week, hopefully Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon. I’ve definitely put that off long enough.

Music in my head this time: Queen – Don’t Stop Me Now, Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head, Faith No More – Easy, something else that I’ve thankfully blocked out already
Mile times: 9:34, 9:24, 9:30, 9:30, 9:28, 9:28, 9:25, 9:24, 9:32, 9:18