Toronto Running

Well I'm back. 10 days gone, and only 1 run. Sigh. I did play paintball one day, so maybe that counts for something.

I ran long on a beautiful day in Toronto. Started out at home and ran towards Edwards Gardens, where there is a beautiful running path. I kind of got lost a bit, and I actually had to use the map feature of my Garmin. It's only come in handy a few times, but it's worth it for those times. My cell phone is too expensive to use in Canada, so I would have been really stranded out there.


10.09 miles in 1:34:41. A 9:23 pace.

On the way back, I took the bus. I was so far that I had to ride to the train station, take the train for 2 stops, and then take another bus. I could even have taken a third bus, but I walked the last 15 minutes instead.


My return trip was 7.91 miles in 1:05:00 for an 8:13 pace.

Happy Passover!

No time for posting lately. Been doing slightly more running, but not enough. One more session at the track though. Also another 4M race at 7:27 pace. Whatever....

Anyway, I'm heading up to the folks for Passover, so I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Passover. (If you're not celebrating, just have me in mind when you're eating your delicious bread....)

Oh, and I signed up for the NYC Marathon. Better get back into shape...

Scotland Run

I ran another 10K on Sunday. Another cold one. The day was nice, but at race time the temperature was 37 degrees. As Sara pointed out, we've been running races since December, and they've all been at the same temperature!

It was unbelievably crowded. 6,928 finishers! It's no wonder they'll be starting a corral system soon.

As I've mentioned recently, I haven't been feeling too fast. Workouts have been tough. When the race started I didn't try and weave too much as I wasn't too worried about my time. I ended up running the first mile in 8:12, which was faster than it felt.

By the second mile, some space had opened up. I hit the 2nd mile marker in 7:28. I was surprised. Right about then I realized that I had - of course - forgotten to check my PR before the race that morning. (Why do I always do that!) So I had no idea if that was good, or if I had a chance to set a new PR.

I kept up the pace for the next mile, and finished it in 7:26. I was really hurting, and my mind was trying all sorts of rationalizations to get me to stop and slow down. I refused to give in and just kept pushing. I felt really beat and couldn't speed up as I've done in previous races, but I refused to slow down.

I finished the 4th mile in 7:45. A little slower, but it didn't feel it. Maybe there was a hill there, or the mile marker was off, because I was hanging in there. In any case, I guess it spurred me on to pick it up. The next mile went by in 7:30. I was really wiped, but I knew there was just over 1 mile to go, so I picked up the pace. I hit the 6th mile marker in 7:11. Nice! At this point, I sprinted for the last 0.2 miles. It was really killer, but I pushed through. My watch said 1:27 for these last 0.2 miles, which is a 7:15 pace, but that makes no sense. It was definitely faster.

In any case, my final time was 47:00 on the button, for a 7:34 pace. Turns out, that's a 23 second PR! I know I can do better, but I'll take it for now.