New Milestone: Longest Run Ever

As of last night, I've set a new personal record for myself: longest distance/time ever run. Technically, it was more of a run/walk but I'll take it.

The previous "record", set just over two years ago, was about 45 minutes long. It was a memorable run because I pulled my infamous hip flexor muscle (the injury that has defined my running failures ever since). I followed up that injury (which immediately left me limping) by running a 5k that weekend and walking around San Antonio for three days the next week. Note to reader: don't do that. I could hardly walk at the end, and the muscle STILL plagues me today.

Last night's run, however, went significantly better. We ran/walked for over 60 minutes (not including warm up and cool down), at an average per mile pace of about 13:00. I tapped previously unknown resources to finish the last mile. My hip was definitely nagging me, but not painful. I stretched extensively post run and took a cool shower. Today, I'm trying to stretch it lots and give it a bit of a rest.

We covered, in total, about 4.6 miles. The splits, as far as I can figure, looked like this:

• Mile 1: (just under) 10:00min/mi.
• Mile 2: 12:30min/mi
• Mile 3: 14:50min/mi (lots and lots of hills here)
• Miles 4/5: average of 11:20

So, that's pretty spectacular. We definitely went out a little fast, which probably set us up for the big lull at Mile 3. I'm proud of our strong finish, however. I'm even MORE proud that I can walk today.

(The run itself got delayed from Saturday to Sunday because I spent all Saturday on my feet working at an antique blacksmith forge... needless to say, I was SUPER BEAT and had no interested in running 5 miles in that condition)

This puts another week in the books, which means we've raised the thermometer again: