Keeping the faith

A done run is always a good run. So I'll think of today's run in that manner. I met up with the Philly Runners crowd again this morning. I set out with Mike and Holly who were, according to Mike, going to run a 9 minute pace. Perfect, I could hang with that. Turns out, the first two miles were closer to an 8:30 pace and I wasn't feeling like I could hang with that. Mike stopped somewhere after the second mile to stretch. Holly joined him. Knowing me, if I stop, I won't start again, so I kept plugging along, but kept my pace slow, hoping that they'd catch up with me. After about a half mile, there was no sign of them, so I picked it back up again. I'm pretty sure I was keeping around an 8:45 pace. Once on the other side of Falls Bridge, I had one mile that came in at 8:26 and another that was just under 8:40. And just like last week, I hit the wall shortly after mile 6. I don't know what it is.... loss of fitness, fatigue from other stressors going on for me right now, or maybe I was tired from either running or working out in some capacity every day this week. I don't know. I was hoping to feel better this week than I did last week, but I honestly don't think I did. Those last two miles hurt - just like last week. I'm keeping the faith though and am looking forward to feeling better next week... or the week after that.

8.5 miles, 72.5 minutes.