This morning’s run was my longest long run to date.  For some reason I could not maintain a steady pace.  The Nike+ graph showed I was bouncing all over the place in terms of speed.  I’m not sure why.  I think part of it is because I was drinking mixed water-cranberry juice.  I was too worried about spilling the drink on my clothes for fear it will stain permanently.  On top of that, the drink didn’t help much to quench my thirst; as a matter of fact, it dried up my mouth or lips.  I also dropped the bottle and had to go back a few feet to recover it.

This is the first time I’ve run this particular route.  The bad part about it is that some parts of the route don’t have sidewalks.  I had to run on the dirt a couple of times to avoid oncoming traffic.  I also heard many barking dogs.  I’m always afraid that one of them will run after me.  Of course I’m always thinking that if a dog ever attacked me, the best thing to do is to stand my ground and see if I can scare the dog.  I always thought that if it doesn’t back down, that I’ll have to hurt the dog just to show it not to mess with me; fortunately, I’ve not had any bites.

Mile 7 and 8 were tough.  That’s when I started to feel the tiredness of my gluts and knees.  I remember feeling this when I did the 8+ mile route for the first time.  My gluts were sore, but I concentrated more and more on my stride.  With about 1 mile left, I slowly increased my pace.   Then with about a half mile left, I sped up even more.  I completed the 10.5 mile run in 1 hour and 38 minutes.

I might just have a chance at doing the marathon in less than 4:30:00.