While thousands in Nashville were running the Country Music Half Marathon, I was doing my own 13.1-mile run this morning. There was not a group run today, so did a solo-run starting off at the Chickering Rd entrance of Percy Warner Park and then running to Radnor Lake and back. While I did have one stretch from miles 7 to 10 where I felt good, the majority of this run was brutal. I made the mistake of not carrying fluid with me, and the temperatures got up into the mid-70s before I finished. I was also dealing with a lot of soreness and fatigue from my hard track workout on Thursday.
I really struggled with the fatigue and soreness on the way out, and several times I thought about just cutting it short. However, the payoff in the middle was awesome getting to run for a little bit by the beautiful Radnor Lake. I was also finally able to get some fluids (and take a GU) at the Nature Center.
Once I started back, my legs came alive for a few miles, and I got into a nice little groove. This lasted until I was about halfway through mile-11, and the heat started getting to me. I still kept a decent pace, but couldn’t wait for the run to be over.
Even though this was clearly not one of my better runs, I still did all but 3-miles under 9:00 pace (I was not trying to push it). Hopefully there will be cooler conditions for the Indy Mini Marathon next weekend.
Beast Mode….ON!