I know I planned to do my 7.5 mile loop, but, well, I changed plans in mid-run, and instead took the 7-mile loop, which is a huge disappointment to myself, but there it is. It’s not that much difference, especially because I did a longer run last night than I had originally planned. But, also, because I misremembered the finish line, I ended up only doing about 6.6 miles total, which brings my total for the week to 21.59, which is still more than I had last week so I’m happy about that.
I stopped three times for water, which is included in my overall time, which also makes me feel good, as you’ll see. When I punched the stop button at what I thought was the finish line for 7 miles, it read 1:08:32.8. Sixty-eight minutes? Did I really do a sub-10:00 pace for 7 miles? I kept going over it in my head as I walked back home. It seemed too good to be true, especially considering all the walk-breaks I took during the run. Could I possibly have been going really really fast when I ran, which averaged out the walking? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I must have stopped early. But even if I’d stopped a half-mile early, that was still better time than I thought I’d have. I figured I’d turn in a 12:00 pace. Ugh.
So, it’s a pleasant surprise to me that my final average pace, water and walk breaks included, was 10:23. Not too shabby for being old and out-of-shape for most of my life.