And the winner is...

...the race!  (Didn't want to make you wait the entire post to hear what I'd decided LOL)

So I am planning on running in the 5K race on Sunday, unless I wake up Sunday morning in pain or something.  I did my weekend long run this morning--up at 5:15 AM to run 10 miles.  The advice of my FB running friends was to take it as easy as I could, so that is what I attempted to do.  Overall, I have to say that I did pretty well!  The morning was just gorgeous.  Temp was only 52 (crazy-low for July in Ohio!), and while the humidity was still ever-present, the dewpoint was low, and it felt amazing out there.  The sun came up about 45-50 minutes into my run, so I made sure I stuck to the well-lit streets in my city as it was pretty dark out this morning.  I actually missed a turn on my planned route and had to ad-lib a bit, but it worked out in the end.  I was surprised by how few runners I actually passed (only 3), but it was a weekday, so perhaps that was the reason.

 

I was obviously not going to win any speed records for this run... in fact, the first mile was probably one of my slowest-ever miles.  However, the goal was to expend as little effort as possible.  As you can see, my ability to negative split continues to show up in my runs.  I made sure I ran relaxed, and honestly, when I finished the final mile, I was not even out of breath (I almost always finish my runs hard, so this is rare for me).  

 Thumbs up for my awesome BondiBand!

In fact, I feel that I would have been fine to run another 10 miles, and I am not exaggerating.  Now that it's been several hours, my legs are complaining just like they usually do, but after the run itself, things felt good.  I am anxious to see how I feel in the morning, and as the day goes on tomorrow. 

I had thought about doing some cross-training today (it is my normal day for cross-training), but I am just not feeling it.  I think I am just tired (sleepy) from my early wake-up calls for the past 3 days.  Hoping to sleep in a bit tomorrow morning!