New Year's Eve at the Allens' house is usually pretty tame, and last night was no exception. We watched TV, switching back and forth between the networks to see Times Square through various eyes. As midnight approached, we broke out the fizzy grape juice and went to bed shortly after. I wanted to run today, but decided to just let my body decide how much sleep it needed.
I woke up about 7, then again at 8:45, and finally got up at 9:15. It was too late to get in a morning run because I knew I would be really hungry before I got very far. So I made chai, peeled a grapefruit, and fixed my bagel and neufchatel cheese and sat down to have a quiet, leisurely morning. I really figured that a run was out but that was OK.
Well, after reading some blogs, seeing on Facebook that several friends were getting in their first run of 2009, and then reading a couple of articles in Runner's World, I couldn't stand it. I had to get out. It was chilly (32°) but the sun was out so I decided that my normal 32° weather clothes were too heavy and changed. Good decision. The wind was blowing and it was pretty cool, but I wasn't uncomfortable at all.
I felt like I was running at about a 8:30 mpm pace. However, at the end of what I thought was 3 miles, my watch hit 24 minutes on the nose. Hmmm, I thought, it doesn't feel that fast. I was running a slightly different route than I had ever run so even at the end, when my watch said the total run was 1:02:27, I figured that, at best, I had finished at a pace of about 8:05. After cooling down and getting a shower, I plotted the run and it was 8.0234 miles (according to Gmaps Pedometer). That made it a pace of 7:47 mpm.
I'll take that for a first run of the new year.
Happy New Year and run well, y'all,
Bob
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