Rainy Day,

You are really rockin' with those times. 13.1 mm is SUPERB!!! You are running circles around me.

You'll have to join the "whippersnapper" support group if you keep that up.

I am so glad the wedding was successful. It is good to have you back.

Donna,

Good runs. I bet that Chicago race was something else. I went to school at Northwestern and had

some good times in Chicago.

Today was quite unusual. Got up at 5:30 am (yes, even on a Saturday). As I was warming up, I felt horrible. I usually run/walk 1 mile to warm-up.

After warming up, I stretched for a long time. Little by little I felt better. Finally, I started my long run. I had planned to run an additional 5 miles.

All of the sudden, I felt great! First three miles had a good pace and sprinted into mile 3.1. Took walk breaks at each mile mark. Mile 5 was rough.

I was afraid I had pushed too much early on. My hamstrings were getting sore. I had to slowdown to my warm-up pace.

Did a sprint into mile 5.2.

While I was walking, I thought-why not run one more?

I had already run 6.2 miles counting the warm-up. At that point, I had been running 1:22. So, what the hey!

I ran one more mile and sprinted into mile 7.2. 1 mile for warm-up and 6.2 miles. This was the longest run I have ever attempted.

I spent 2:02 hours of actual run/walk time. The most I walked was 2 minutes at the mile 5 & mile 6.

I didn't hit Jenny's speed but I ran the first 3.2 miles at 15:50 perfect Penquin pace. My total pace was 16:58.

Those last three miles were a bit slower. But even slow miles count!

Sorry for the delay in communicating folks.  Between Active being "inactive" and my limited access to the Internet while on the road, I am only now getting back to you with commentary.

Michael- I really like how you stretched your simple, early morning run into a great one that was 2 hours long.  And at an excellent penguin pace.  It will be a while before I get far.  My longest so far is 4 miles.

Smashville- Congrats on your  race! You are doing about the same pace I was at with so little C25K under my belt.

Donna- I'm visiting my mom in CA, and I'm just putting in the mileage to improve my times, since I can run one hour already.  In fact, I did 3.5 miles in 60:18 on Sat, then improved my time on the same route by one minute today.  I used to live here before 1999, and 20 yrs ago, when I used to be a young penguin runner and triathlete, I used to run and bike all over the place here.  Its kind of nostalgic to be back here again.

pam- You are doing exactly what you need to do to ease into C25K capability to remain injury free. We'll all be rooting for you.