It was the final leg of my flight home. I was about to open my book, when the person next to me started poring over a map, and I could not help but notice that it was the Napa Valley Marathon course map - the same course where I had my best marathon time back in 2005. We got to talking, and spent the whole flight discussing running, and his and his wife's tactical plans for Napa, their second marathon. I was more than a bit jealous. I'll have to check tomorrow after the race and see if Phil, age 46, reached his goal time of four hours.
Today was a beautiful day in the Central Valley. Sunny and 68 degrees in the afternoon. Despite the weather, and physically feeling fine, I still almost didn't make it out today. Everything in me wanted to just be at home, laying on the couch and doing nothing. If I weren't writing this blog, which according to Google stats now has more readers than I could count on all my fingers and toes put together if I were a triple-amputee, I would not have gone out at all.
But once I started and my legs warmed up, I felt great. I kept thinking about Phil and Napa, and psyched myself up for my "two 20-minute intervals" workout. I averaged about a 7:42/mile pace for my first 20-minute interval, and almost a 7:32 pace for the second interval. By the end of the run I had covered a total of 8.5 miles including warm-up and cool-down.
Tomorrow I'm going to pick a first 10k race to target this spring. At this rate, it won't be too long before all the Phils out there better look out...
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