FAST

Just a quick hello.

I wanted to report that I am now FAST. Yep, it's true!

OK, maybe not your fast, but definitely my fast.

On Saturday, after a week's delay due to snowy and super cold weather, the new session of No Boundaries running group started again. Hooray! It was a little windy, but not very cold and just a little slush left over here and there from the previous week's storm. My group, 3.0, did our time trial, which is the measure they use to place us in pace groups.

To be honest, I wasn't feeling very peppy and I really didn't feel like I was going to run anything resembling fast, time trial or no. I just figured, well, I'll do my best and get it done. I'll end up in the slowest pace group anyway. No big deal. We did about a half mile warm up, slow run, and then were instructed to run two miles as fast as we possibly could. What happens is they take your average pace from that run and add on a minute or two to place you in the right pace group – the aim is to slow you down a bit so that you can focus on distance and endurance.

Well, anyway, there I was feeling crappy after the warm up. Oh no. Blegh.

It turns out that my first mile was in the 12 minute range (don't have an exact figure, but that is what I was told by the mentors running with me and those manning the route). What?!?

Me? Running a 12-some minute mile? I am still shaking my head in disbelief and thinking that surely there was some mistake.

Long story short, I ran the two miles in 26:16. That means my average pace was 13:08!!! Please, just call me Flash.

I have not run this fast ever as an adult. I'm pretty sure I ran about that fast when I was on the cross country team for one season in high school, if not a little faster.

This was also after not having run for two weeks.

I am still training for a half marathon, though if you look at my training log, you'd never know it. Oops. Well, I have one more crazy week of frantically painting and getting ready for my next art exhibition. Once that's over, I'm putting it into high gear and getting serious about the training.

How about the eating? Meh. Not great, not terrible. Still in the low-mid 270s. Still OK with it.

I'm tired and wired after a long day of painting, which means I should hop into bed and try to get a good night's sleep for my big day back to my job tomorrow. *snore*