Distance: 12 miles, yo
Time: 2:47:25
Pace: 13:47
Avg Heart Rate: 168
Max Heart Rate: 184
Location: Memorial - Heights - and back. Click here for a map of the route.

Finally, after all that worrying and nervousness, the 12 miles are behind me. yay. I wanted to write a post-run report, before I [painfully] shuffle off to bed for a quick nap. In summary, the two main comments I have are:

1. Running for 9 minutes, then walking for 1 minute over 12 miles is MUCH, MUCH harder than I thought.
2. I am sooo, glad I got through this run. And despite the two blisters on my feet, my painful arches, and my stiff knees, I feel great. It’s the good kinda pain.

- Arrived at the park, and met up with two women who were running 9/1 (9 minutes running, 1 minute walking). Perfect. I had met them before, but never ran with them - though, strangely, they’d end up finishing the runs before me, even though I would run without stopping.

- The first few 9/1 cycles felt great - in fact, I wondered if the run wouldn’t be challenging because of the 1-minute walk breaks. Boy, was I wrong. By mile 6, it was definitely feeling like a good workout, and starting at mile 8 or 9 I was really pushing. At the beginning of the run, 9 minutes felt so short and 1 minute felt so long…..it’s amazing how frustratingly loooooooong 9 minutes felt by the end of the run. Those 9 minutes would feel like 30….and the one minute walk breaks didn’t feel long enough.

- At mile 9, my right knee started acting up. It’s the first time I’ve had knee problems, so it became a distraction. I’ve taken some Aleve, and just hope for the best. Maybe it’s the running on the concrete.

- The run started at 5:30am. The weather felt fine….until the sun came up. After that, it felt like it was 2,498 degrees and 400% humidity. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but I sweated today like I’ve never sweated before. I could wring sweat out of my shirt, and my shorts were dripping wet. Yuck. It wasn’t pretty, or comfortable. Someone send a cold front our way.

- I like running 9/1s. This was one helluva workout. I’m going to try it again next week.

Ok, I’m crawling off to bed.

Later today:
- Lunch and NLP with JPP, AO and TBus
- Cross Country Relay Race with my fellow Houston Striders. Yay!