And sometimes it gets so good....

I have often equated running to golf.

I haven't played a lot of golf and I don't play well, but when I do, I usually end up having that one shot that is so spectacular that it ensures I'll be out again when asked

The same goes for running.

Not every run is great:

Some really suck!
  
But this past week, I was able to kick through three awesome runs which allowed me to build up my confidence and set my mind once again to the goal for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon.

The first was a 5am Wednesday treadmill run at my gym. I decided to go old school, or running room style and run 10 minutes warm up, 20 minutes tempo and the rest easy. I struggled just a bit with the 20 minutes of tempo at 4:46/km pace (7:41/mi) but after about 4 minutes at easy pace, and just reaching 4 out of the 5 total miles I wanted to run that day (8km total), I couldn't take the easy any longer so I kicked another half mile at tempo pace. I felt strong and proud!

The next day was supposed to be a rest day with my run on Friday AM, however I had planned an early coffee date with my former colleague instead so I decided to go for a rare evening run. This was really nice as I got to see the route I normally run in complete darkness. I was having a really pleasant run, just easing along but decided to try to kick out the 9th and final KM as fast as possible. I was rewarded with a 4:22 KM (7:03/mi). I felt amazing!

Finally, on Saturday, Sam and I got together for our long run which was supposed to be 20km with 10k at half race pace (for the target half - STWM as mentioned above). We decided to run the Milton Half Marathon route again and did 3km warm up, 10km at half race pace (aiming for 5:04/km or 8:10/mi) at the slowest and the rest easy. It was difficult to continue to keep up the pace and I would likely have split the 10k if I had been on my own, but with Sam there, I persevered and managed to run the 10k in 51:03 total. Not bad at all and a true confidence booster for this coming weekend when I'll run the Milton Half Marathon and for October 20, which is the A-goal race.

GUILTY!!!

#notthepacer

I was excited today to get an email from the Pace Panther organizer at the Milton Half Marathon today. I read through the note, which told us about required time of arrival to get our signs and the like and then ran down the list of "Pace Panthers"

My name was beside 2:15.

I immediately emailed the organizer back and told her that she had asked me to pace the continuous 2hr group and that 2:15 was just too slow.

I didn't even think about it.

I've never run a race that slowly and I was not going to be responsible for leading a pack of people wrong.

I know this is the right choice because yesterday I had a hard enough time keeping within 5:41/km pace (the 2hr pace).

I was hopeful that I'd get an email back telling me that there was a typo or mistake and of course I was in for 2hrs or that they'd change the 2hr run-walk pacer to 2:15, but instead I just got a response saying, "Sorry about that. We'll find someone else."

So now, I'm stuck.

I don't want to make this my goal race (my head is not ready); Sam and I have agreed that we're both holding off until Scotia to try together (we are both running other half marathon's before). So I have to take the next few days to re-evaluate and then on September 15th, I will toe the line in my town and run my race.

Whatever that ends up being.

August Recap!

August ended up being an epic month for me. I paced my first race and hit my highest monthly mileage. I had some serious stomach troubles during my runs at the start of the month, but those seem to have cleared up now (thank goodness). I ended the month a bit unsure if I'll be able to hit my goal during the half marathon on October 20th, but I have a good few weeks left of training to build the confidence required.

# of runs: 20! Considering how much distance I got in, I'm very surprised to see how many days I took off.

# of runs started before 5am: 11. I hope I can keep this up through the winter.

Races: 1 Pacing the Midsummer Night's Run, 30k three-hour group

Highlight run of the month: The midsummer run of course!

I had a lot of not-so-good runs as well, including an attempt to run 28k before work which resulted in a huge stomach upset and only 12k run:

I didn't give up on getting some distance in that weekend. Even though we were in Ottawa visiting family, I went out on Sunday morning (with my husband's blessing) for a short 10k run which turned into 10 miles on the Trans-Canada Trail. I did this run with only 8oz of water and was perfectly fine. I could have run another 10k, I'm sure.

I continued to run my long runs with Sam and basically chased her through tempo portions of the long runs per the Daniel's running formula. Thank goodness I have someone crazy enough to join this challenge with me. The weather this month was difficult. At the top of the month, it cooled off and I was loving my perfect running temperatures of about 12c. Then, it got humid. And sticky. And hot. And humid. It was gross. Even in a gym with A/C

Total KM Run: 256.64k

Total Time Spent Running: 24h59m15s

Average Pace per KM: 0:05:51

Not too bad for 11 days off, stomach troubles and HUMIDITY! September brings another pacer race (Milton Half Marathon on September 15th - 2hr continuous) and the build of confidence.

I need to get some swagger back into these bones. I'm hoping the next few weeks brings that in spades.