It's a Chrismakkuh Mircale!

I am not a fast runner. And I hate tempo runs. The only explanation I have for what happened today is a Chrismakkuh miracle!

I set out for my tempo run on the lovely FLAT streets of Flo-town, anticipating a four mile run at 10:15 pace. It was warm (yay!), though quite windy (boo!), and my legs were a bit weary from yesterday's drive (double-boo!). But Tim said to push myself and to run at a challenging pace that I could mantain. As I ran past things that are rare sights during my Atlanta runs (horses, pick-up trucks and W bumper stickers) and noted the various people that have lived in neighborhood houses over the years (among them about a dozen Facebook friends), I thought I was maintaining a 10:00 minute pace. Fast forward to Wedgefield Road, when I knew I was close to three miles into my run. My stopwatch was just past 25 minutes. How was it possible?

As I hit Arundel Drive, I was around 34 minutes and was determined to finish in under 36 minutes, making the run around 9:00 pace. So, imagine my surprise when I went back to the computer to map my run, and the distance was 4.3 miles, meaning I had averaged 8:20 pace! Now, for the Mike Sklar's and Amy Fingerhut's of this world, that pace is pretty normal. But considering even my fastest 10K was run at about 10:00/min pace, this run was HUGE! Probably my best ever, in terms of short distances. Granted, the Flo is extremely flat, so that probably helped my pace, but wow--I actually feel like a sub 55 minute 10K is within my reach.

Hooray for small miracles!