Outside the Boston Expo in my favorite "No Meat Athlete" t-shirtHello readers! Blair and I are back from Bawh-ston although I'm pretty sure I left my quads there. Can you say "OW" with me?

I'll post a full race report tomorrow but here are a few quick tidbits to tide you over:

THE STATS:

• Chip time of 3:41:47, a new PR (personal record)
• Overall pace = 8:28/mile
• 46.8% in field placement (all runners)
• 30.7% gender placement
• 42.4% group placement (female runners ages 18-39)

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Good news! In case this writing career doesn't pan out, I suspect I have a strong future in 1-900 phone sex lines as every day I get better and better at this heavy breathing thing.

Yes, today was a running day. 

In fact, today's run was one of the longest tempo runs of the FURMAN FIRST program: a one mile warm-up followed by 10 miles at marathon pace, or 8:23/mile for me. Here is what I learned from today's run:

• Overdressing is a bad thing
• I must remember to pack sunglasses for Boston
• Starting out too fast will always come back to bite me in the end
• I sound (and possibly look) like an asthmatic walrus the first four miles of any run
• There is a lot of guano on the Greenway

I struggled to hold pace today. Which makes no sense as Barefoot Josh and I ran a faster pace than this for the same distance two weeks ago. But as several of my running friends point out, there's just no telling who's going to show up on any given day for a run. Some days are just better than others.

However, if I needed a reminder that so much of this running business is mental, I had it today. 

I pushed myself through the last two miles, taking several walk breaks, then hauling a** the last half mile to make sure I made pace. Once the official run was over, I took a deep breath, relaxed, and went into a slow and easy cool-down run for a mile. The difference was immense. No strain, no heavy breathing, just a nice easy pace. No worries...

I looked at my watch at the end of my cool-down mile and guess what? I ran it at race pace - an 8:23. But since I didn't HAVE to run that fast and wasn't worrying about pace, it all came easy. 

MENTAL. I just have to get my head in the game. 

My legs ache. 

I don't mind. It's the kind of ache that comes from using them.

I had some long, fast runs this week. On Thursday, Barefoot Josh was kind enough to agree to drive to Greensboro with me for a 10-mile tempo. (Side note: What kind of training plan takes you from a 4-mile tempo run one week to a 10-mile tempo the next? Those Furman people are sadists.) Our run turned out a little different than planned when, less than one mile in, I realized I'd locked my keys in my car. Luckily, Josh had his cell phone. Josh called his wife, who looked up the # for AAA, relayed the number to us, and we got a rep on the phone.

"I'll send someone out right away," said the rep.

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So I'm trotting along on my 18-mile long run yesterday. Run, run, happy, happy. It's the first time I've done a long run outside (with some large unidentifiable yellow orb in the sky) in over a month. I'm thrilled to be back. 

Chatting with friends, I mentally make note of a light twinge behind my right kneecap. It's not pain. More like a warning that there could be pain. Big deal. It's not a run unless something hurts. 

Since most people I run with aren't training for a marathon (or they are but are considerably faster than  me), they drift off after mile 10. I keep running. At mile 12, I stop for a water break. Throwing down the water bottle, I stand back up, hit the "Start" button on my watch... and almost hit the ground as my right knee buckles beneath me. 

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