7 on the 7th

I was scheduled for 75min of running. But I found out about the 7 on the 7th virtual race going on today, and figured I'd do that instead. For the most part, I wanted to see if I could beat my time of 1:08:47. I was pretty nervous just thinking about it. I wasn't sure if I'd be anywhere close to my previous time. For one, I haven't run that distance since August. Two, I was running a lot more, more consistently back then. And let's not forget that I've been running indoors for the past couple of weeks. Oh, and I could have sworn that I felt a lil something going on with my right head of fibula this week. So yeah, I had a whole bunch of reasons to be nervous about beating my time. So I head out to the park. The entrance was blocked off. I went around it and continued into the park. After running for a bit, it became clear why the park was blocked. From what I could tell, the road and path were not shoveled. The clear parts were melted by the sun. Don't get me wrong, most of it was clear. But the parts that weren't, I almost busted my ass on. I spent the first mile detouring from the path, through the snow covered grass, to the road, over some icy, slushy patches. I was surprised that the first mile was as fast as it was given those conditions. I forgot to mention that I stopped in the first mile for a potty break. It didn't make sense because I peed three times before I headed out. I guess hydration wasn't an issue. Who knew that Yerba Mate chai and a grapefruit would have me running back and forth to the bathroom. Okay, so I would love to give the breakdown of miles 2, 3 and 4. But honestly, I don't remember them. They went by quickly. And for the most part, I told myself not to worry about negative splits, but to just concentrate on beating my time. I was hoping for a 9:40 pace. Once I began heading into mile 5, it was clear that I'd beat my time even if I decided to slow down a bit. Hey, as long as I didn't walk, it was gonna be Kool and the Gang. I was so proud of myself, smiling and greeting everyone I saw (runners and walkers). I even had a brief conversation with a fellow runner when I had 2.3mi to go. Yeah, I checked Garmin at that point, because he asked how far I was running. He asked if I ever raced. No, but I plan to. He wished me a good run, or somesuch. He was cooling down while I was running away, so I'm not sure of all he said. But it was positive. It was cool. I've never socialized with another runner in the flesh yet. I need to work on that. Okay, so 2mi to go. I can pick up the pace for 2mi, right? I looked down and saw that mile 6 took 9:17. Then I thought, no way can I keep that up. Mile 7 definitely will not be a negative split. Maybe I can try to hover around 9:00. We'll see. And it was clear to me that I would finish up the run on the slippery, icy, slushy part. Damn, that's going to slow me down. So I thought. Well, let me just say that it surprised the heck out of me to wrap up the last mile in 8:54. What in the world? Oh, and my time was 1:06:08. So yes, a PR it is. GO ME!! Activity Route: Park Run Elev. Avg: 24 ft Location: Willingboro, NJ Elev. Gain: -30 ft Date: 02/07/09 Up/Downhill: [+229/-259] Time: 01:06 PM Difficulty: 2.4 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 52 F temp; 42% humidity 52 F heat index; winds S 8 Performance Distance: 7.00 miles Time: 1:06:08 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 27 /mi Heart Rate: 178 bpm (Avg) Calories: 797 193 bpm (Peak) Notes Cool Down = .90mi Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 180 - 200 0h 41m 61% 4.37 mi Zone 4 160 - 180 0h 24m 36% 2.53 mi Zone 3 140 - 160 0h 04m 6% 0.36 mi Zone 2 120 - 140 0h 02m 3% 0.12 mi Zone 1 100 - 120 0h 00m 0% 0.03 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0% 0.02 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 37 +0' 10 6.2 -0.1 153 -36 ft 2 9' 43 +0' 16 6.2 -0.2 176 +17 ft 3 9' 38 +0' 11 6.2 -0.1 178 +10 ft 4 9' 25 -0' 02 6.4 +0.0 182 0 ft 5 9' 33 +0' 06 6.3 -0.1 183 -10 ft 6 9' 17 -0' 10 6.5 +0.1 185 -10 ft 7 8' 54 -0' 33 6.7 +0.4 190 0 ft Versus average of 9' 27 min/mile

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