First for everything

Pre-workout fuel: Slice of whole-wheat toast with peanut butter and Dunkin Donuts brewed Mocha Mint coffee
Workout: Ran 7.2 miles in 1 hour flat; average pace, 8:20.

You always remember the first time.

The first time you ran a race ... the first time you went sub-1o:00 on a mile ... the first time you kissed the boy you love.

But today. Oh, today. It was the mother of all firsts. Mark actually asked ME to slow down. Yep. The 1:34 half-marathoner wanted pokey ole me to take it down a notch.

A moment of silence, please.

Mark thought today's run would be like any other Sunday. He was going to hang with me for 5 miles and I had hoped to do 7. In the back of my head, though, I thought I might take the run up to tempo to help maintain the gains I made in the F4F training cycle.

I was feeling good on our walking warm-up so I decided to go for my plan. I set out at a pretty good clip, aided by the boundless energy of Denali. I kept going, holding on for 1.5 miles until my shoe came untied. A stop had to be made. And this is when one of the best moments in my running life came.

"Did you get bit by the speed bullet today?" Mark asked. "I'd like to slow it down a bit if you could."

I was happy to oblige his request and settled into a slower pace but one that would still be considered tempo. I am fairly certain that I beat my 5K PR (25:36) or came close to it if that gives you any indication of the effort.

Mark left me just after 4.5 miles, and I had to decide for myself whether to keep pushing or slow it down. It seemed to waiver between both as fatigue set in but I did my best. And that's all I ever ask of myself.

Splits: 8:48, 8:21, 8:05, 8:12, 8:18, 8:29, 8:08, 1:37 (8:04/mi pace)