Winter Hacienda

This weekend I was able to spend some time with my very good friends and have a winter version of our summer Hacienda trip. I also got the chance to see the first baby born into the Hacienda group—and he is a little sweetheart. Although we didn’t have a pizza roll eating contest, much shenanigans were had, and we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. We even played a little Nintendo Wii, very fun.

Saturday was a 7M pace run, and I’m happy to say I nailed it. Although I did crank out another fast first mile, I didn’t swear or offend any local residents because of it. I also stayed strong throughout the run and finished with a time of 49:01. Nice.

Sunday I started my 10M run in Indiana and proceeded north for five miles, crossing into Michigan at one point. What is neat about my run is that it was the first time in my life that I started a casual run in one state, then crossed into another state, only to return to the starting state (note: the Flying Pig marathon went from Ohio to Kentucky and back, but that was a race). It’s little, but I thought it was cool. I’m sure people who live along the boarders of states are thinking—so what. Oh well, I liked it.

The run itself was extremely windy, as if Michigan itself was telling me not to enter her frozen lands; but the wicked wind blowing across open fields only made the run back that much faster and easier. Every mile on the way back was faster than my fastest mile on the way out—it was that windy. Goal pace, 8:05 to 8:30 per mile. Average 7:33/M. It seems my long run pace goal might be too slow. Or I’m a fool for running too fast during my slow recovery runs.