a half-marathon this morning. Saturday was hot (by northwest standards… 80-ish), but this morning the weather was cool… a little humid but overall pleasant.

My right leg has been bothering me (the now-chronic hip flexor pain, a mild case of plantar faciitis, and a stiff hamstring after Monday’s back-to-back soccer games… have to look into aftermarket and get a new one!), so wanted to just take it easy. Started with a group that looked like they would run around a 9-min pace. Only at mile 4, when someone mentioned the clock, realized that they were more like an 8-min pace group… oops! But at that point felt all right, and decided to just keep that pace.

It was a nice course, mostly rolling, and especially on the way back, it went through trails next to a lake. The only problem: they had two very steep uphill/downhill sections, one in the middle (fine!), but whoever designs a steep uphill in the last mile, deserves a little, umm, “criticism” (which wasn’t always expressed in clean language). Ended up walking a couple of hundred yards of the last hill… finished with an average pace of 8:00. It was only seconds slower than my PR, although this was a harder course, and I also wasted some time taking pictures while running (again, it was supposed to be an easy touristy run!).