I trotted another 6 miles closer to my yearly goal today. Just 12.5 miles to go. Barring any bizarre injury over the next few days, I should be able to make it.
Today’s run was 1.6 miles to my friend’s house (then 1.6 on the way back). My friend’s brother is visiting from the Marine Corps. The brother joined us on our run this morning. Together we ran 2.91 miles at an 8:25 pace. That is very fast for me. We had three helpings of testosterone going this morning. None of us wanted to slow down for the other. That is one second faster than my fastest 5K PR pace.
My times have been consistently dropping over the last month or so. An easy run used to be 10:30 to 11:00 per mile. Now normal runs are sub 9:30. I am pleased to see the pace drop.
My friend wants to hit a pace of 8:00 per mile. As much as I would like to do that too, I was thinking it would take us a while to get there. Maybe I was wrong.
The biggest concern I have is that my friend is a new runner. New runner + Fast pace = Injuries. I feel like he may be pushing a bit too hard just to reach a goal. I am trying to reign him back so that he does not hurt himself. On the other hand, his innocence is really causing me to think that I have been holding myself back too much.