Another Run Down...In More Ways Than One

Yesterday morning, I headed out early for my long run. Thankfully, the weather cooled off a bit overnight so the air actually felt cool instead of the typical hot & muggy weather we'd been experiencing. The plan was to run 15 mi total; 9 mi by myself and then swing by Todd's apartment to pick him up for another 6 mi. Since Todd's run was supposed to be at a slower pace, I wanted to push it a bit for my 9 mi. I went out a little fast with my first mile in 7:50 followed by my second mile in 7:41. I knew I wouldn't be able to hang on to that pace the whole run, especially with another 6 mi to go with Todd, so I slowed down just a touch. I honestly didn't realize how fast I was going, I just felt good yesterday. I was trying to run all my mile splits under 8:00 min pace and I succeeded on all but the last mile. I ended up running my 9 mi in 1:11:22 (7:56 pace), which I was super pumped about.

Todd was waiting for my in his apartment parking lot so after a quick sip of Glacier Freeze Gatorade (my fave flavor) and a couple sports beans, we headed out for 6 mi. Todd's goal pace was 9:30 min/mi, although we both figured he'd be able to go a little bit faster. Since this was his longest run in a few months, I let him control the pace. My legs started to feel a little tired with a couple miles to go. If you remember what happened to me last year when I broke my hand running, it should come as no surprise what happened next. I think I was running to close to the edge of the sidewalk and grass and I ended up tripping & sliding, half in the grass and half on the sidewalk. My first thought was, I hope I didn't break my hand again and my second thought was, did anyone else besides Todd see that happen? I scraped up my knee, forearm, and hand but luckily didn't break anything! The worst part was when I fell, I got the wind knocked out of me so I felt like I couldn't catch my breath when I stood up and my throat was closing up. It scared me but I'm glad Todd was there to calm me down.

The rest of the run was uneventful, aside from the blood dripping down my leg, and we finished the 6 mi in 53:27 (8:55), well under the planned 9:30 pace. My total mileage for the day was 15 mi in 2:04:49 (8:19 pace).

The damage from my fall after cleaning it up; it didn't end up being as bad as I expected