Start time: 07/25/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:24min/mile

With the heat not where it was a week ago, it was time for another after-work run with the Pacers group in Clarendon. And of course that means… hills!

So the first three times on this route, it kicked my butt in varying degrees (9:57min/mile; 10:17min/mile; 10:36min/mile). So today I headed out with Darrell, along with two new runners (Kate and Pam). It was nice to talk with Darrell for a bit, and the new runners down at the slow part of our spectrum did pretty well too. I just kept pushing, and while that final climb felt it was killing me (and Darrell pulled ahead a bit), I felt I was moving at a good clip. So then I pulled up my splits and… wahey! 9:14, 9:29, 9:28, 9:38, and for the fraction of the last mile an average of 8:52. I’m thrilled with this; not only because of a really good average for a really tough course, but how consistent my splits were. I’m utterly delighted. Yay!