Flashback

Man was it hard getting out of bed this morning! Again, I did the bargaining ... could I run later? But then I remembered the rain storms moving in later in the day that are supposed to hang around through tomorrow.

I laced up and hit the road - did the Delco Acme loop. Grr... I've been trying to map it through the map link on USATF.org because it has an elevation feature, but I keep getting error messages... so I give up. Suffice it to say that there are some mild to moderate hills on this route - enough so that it is a challenge for me and lets me think that I'm getting some helpful hill training in for Allentown.



This will be my third time running the Allentown race and what I remember most from last year is that the last two or three miles were pretty tough for me to get through. The steeper hills of this race are more like in mile 8, but there are some more gradual hills in those last two miles that just burn me (after I'm already toast). I vividly remember how much I wanted to stop and walk during mile 11 or 12 last year. I could also hear the 2hour pace group on my heels and I desperately wanted to stay ahead of them, so stopping was definitely not an option. It was an awful feeling and I cursed myself for not having run more hills.

I'm hoping my hill efforts (which have been kind of lame, admittedly) will not be too little, too late. If nothing else, psychologically I'll go into Allentown knowing that I did more hill training this year than I had done last year - and that's got to be worth something!

I felt really good during today's run. All systems were working well and I felt like I could have kept going... assuming the terrain was flat.

5.22 in 44:44. A number which I know will please Amy!