I DISCOVERED I'M NOT SLOW

Everyone taking a picture of the map before heading out on the run to collect raffle tickets.

Despite not getting in the amount of speedwork I would have liked over the last few weeks, I was able to get it in this, my final real week of training. Monday was done easy at 9:08/mile, which was good, because I was still a little worn down from my quick 14-miler the day before.

Wednesday it was pouring rain outside but I was determined to get a marathon pace run in. I even convinced Alejandro to do it with me the day after he did track (muhahaha). It ended up being a little quicker than planned at 7:47/mile but it felt really good. Even maintained conversation for most of the five miles. Gave me some hope I can maintain 7:55-8:00 miles during the marathon... for the first twenty miles at least.

My route with ticket locations marked. I'd like
to think my local knowledge helped me create a
slightly more efficient route.

Yesterday I went to the Discovery Run put on by Road Runner Sports in Tualatin. I meant to do this all last summer but kept having conflicts. Basically they reveal a map to you showing the location of various businesses around the area that are handing out raffle tickets. The further away a store is, the more tickets it is worth. You try to hit as many as you can within one hour, then return to the store where they raffle off a bunch of prizes.

It takes place in my hometown of Tualatin, so I know those streets quite well. My was goal to hit it hard and quick (#) so I could visit as many of the locations as possible. I ended up going to all but two or three of them. My goal pace was "tempo" and I was able to hit that despite some hills. Overall I averaged 7:19/mile and my last mile was 6:57!

By the time I got back to the store I had run 6.25 miles in 45:40. My 10k record is 45:00. I wasn't even racing this thing and would describe my pace as comfortably hard. If I was truly going for it, I would have been below 45 minutes for sure, if not 44. So that was a huge boost of confidence. I didn't really even realize that until I got home and was uploading the run. I ran near PR speed without even thinking about it. So maybe Shamrock wasn't a fluke!

The goal now is to rest up! Ten miles on Sunday and then two easy runs next week. That's it before the marathon. Eek!