Pacing...

This year's Christie Clinic Illinois Half Marathon is on May 1st. That is exactly 3 weeks from this morning. This means that today and next Saturday are my longest training runs before the big day. Today was absolutely PERFECT. It was about 42 degrees when I left my house and closer to 50 when we actually started running. This may sound cold to some of you, but the sun was shining brightly and it warmed up as we ran. All the trees and flowers are in bloom, and the birds are out singing and playing. No better way to start the weekend.

My fastest half marathon time is currently 2:41:23. This is an average pace of 12:19 per mile. My goal for this race is to finish in 2:30:00. This would be a pace of 11:27 per mile.

This said, I am very excited to report that on today's 11 mile run I kept an average pace of 11:22 per mile. If I can keep this pace on race day, I will come in at 2:28:54!!! This is soo exciting. :) And I've still got 3 weeks to improve!

I wasn't the only one kicking a$$ this morning. The ladies were all on top of their game this morning, but Randy was on FIRE! He has a torn meniscus and I was chasing him for half of my 11 miles. Incredible. Thank you to my group of amazing runner friends for always inspiring me!

P.S. Breakfast at Panera was awesome :) If you've never tried their lowfat black cherry smoothie, go do it NOW! Yum. :)