8.5 Miler

8.5 miles in 1:43:22, a 12:10 mile pace. The temp was about 88 degrees. When I finished the camel was dry (camel back hydration pack), and I was soaked. I drank a sports drink and ate an energy bar before I left around 9 a.m., plus a bottle of water and a cup of coffee. (Click on the photo and you'll see I was dripping!) My exercising friends will appreciate the next statement; I neither puked my guts out nor pooped my drawers.

I did have help...at the 5.5 mile mark I called my friend Nelson, "Hey, buddy, this is an SOS, 2.5 miles to go and I'm hot and tired. If you get this message, call me back and pray for me." He did! And I had encouragement from a college students just as I was left home as well.

The 5K I've been training for is Saturday, a week from today, so training is now over and next week is a recovery week. Based on the stats to date, I'll call it a good race if I manage a 10 minute mile pace. I am disappointed by that, but when I mentioned that to the college women I met this morning, they said they couldn't even run 3 miles.

And they were shocked that I thought that I'd be able to do 10 miles in under two hours by the end of October. So that encouraged me. If I had maintained this morning's pace for one and a more half miles, I'd have been just over two hours, so I just need to knock off one minute to make two hours. Drop anything more and I'll be under two, and I have most of September and October to work on that. And it will be cooler then also, which should help.

Perspective and focus...the goal for Saturday's race is to calm me, and help me center and focus for my daughter's wedding and granddaughter's birthday party. That's my main purpose, and a slow time won't hinder that goal. I also have a target race time, but that's secondary to finishing and finishing well and getting myself centered and calm. My sister AND Nelson both reminded me of that this week. It's so easy to forget the main thing and to get side tracked and disillusioned by things of lesser importance. Good friends, however, get us back on track.

God is good; sometimes we see it, the rest of the time we live by faith.