Start time: 7/3/10, 6:30am
Location: Wilson Blvd, Washington Blvd, W&OD Trail, Bluemont Trail, Arlington Blvd Trail
Distance: 10 miles
Average pace: 9:24min/mile
Total Miles For July: 10 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 342 miles

The rest of my group this weekend is either out of town or otherwise booked up, so I was left to my own devices for a change. Decided to run my old 8-mile loop, with the idea in the back of my head that if I wanted I could tack on two extra miles at the end and make it 10. As I wasn’t entirely sure how fast the temperature would rise I decided to play it safe and ran it backwards, meaning that there was a water fountain at mile 5 instead of mile 3; that way if I was running low and thought I was going to go for 10, I could fill up there.

On the one down side, some of the steepest hills on this run are a lovely downhill if I run it the other direction, and those climbs during mile 4 along Washington Blvd were tougher than I’d thought. Ended up taking a tiny slow down on them, so that I didn’t regret it later. It worked fairly well. On the plus side, I ran into Teresa right before I got to the Bluemont Trail, so that was a pleasant surprise. She looked totally fully of energy (while me, not so much), and it gave me enough of a moral boost that I tacked on the two extra miles at the end. That ninth mile felt great, the tenth… well… you can’t win them all.

Not my fastest time, but certainly not my slowest either. I do wish the temperature and humidity were able to stay low for one more day, but it’s still a lot better today that it will be tomorrow. No complaints!

(9:08, 9:20, 9:32, 9:59, 9:06, 9:35, 9:21, 9:03, 8:55, 9:54)