Another CR Goes Down

Tuesday, I was motivated to get a long run in as the sun was shining and there was a lot less humidity.  My body was still sore from my race on Sunday - coupled with beach volleyball, and tennis yesterday with my coworker.  At noontime, the skies darkened, it got freakishly windy, and I was scrambling to check the radar and the updated weather reports.  I decided to run the 9 mile course in Ryan Park, as it looked like it was going to rain again, and I would never be more than two miles from my car on this run. 
I started off in the fields rather slow and let my body loosen up.  I was noticing how many types of wildflowers were blooming and thought about bringing my camera next time to document them.  After a lackluster two miles, I entered the woods and check my time.  I was surprised at how fast  I was going based on my effort.  I think this is due to the speedy workouts I've been doing lately and the lack of heat.  After three miles, my time wasn't that far off of my pace from 10 days prior when I set a new record on the 7 mile loop.  What was interesting to me was that I wasn't working nearly as hard as I was that day.  I kept it up and checked my watch again before re-entering the fields.  I check here to gauge what my time would be if I only ran 7 miles, instead of going 9.  My time was 47:02 - again still slightly slower than the 7 mile record.  I was running fast, but not hurting.  I completed the final two miles as fast as I could and finished up in 59:45!  My previous best was 61:57 done the week prior to the Lil' Rhody Runaround race last year.  I call it the course record because it's been run so many times by me and a few other coworkers.  This run helped my confidence after the disappointing Rhody 5K.