Can I put this one in a bottle??

ORN: 10.3 miles, 1:34:57, 9:12/mile

Running in the midwest in the winter is often a game with the weather, to catch something a little nicer. Today I caught a flyer. The forecast called for mid 40s by mid day. I waited till noon to go out and it was a full 50 when I headed out the door. Shorts, two light layers of polyester, a baseball cap and sunglasses; wow, felt like April!

I'm trying to run my long runs at my marathon pace in preparation for St Louis. There, I'm hoping to do 9:50 miles through 20 miles and then see what happens after The Wall. I forgot to set my Forerunner 201 in training assistant mode today, so I just watched the pace as I ran.

And the whole run I was pulling on the reins, trying to hold back. I did and still turned the 10 miles in 9:12s. I wish I could understand this phenomenon...the time also included three walk breaks for a swig of Gatorade that I dropped off at my usual places.

Was it the sunshine? Running with out tights or more layers on top? A relatively light week of running ahead of it? I don't know. But it sure was great.

And this run gave me more hope than I have had to date of actually achieving my other goal for the year of running a sub 2 hour half marathon (a 9:09 pace).

My splits today:

9 01
9 33
9 23
9 05
9 18
9 04
9 23
9 13
9 25
8 50
2 38 (8 26 pace)

There's lots of cold weather left in this winter but what a great way to run on January 7!