Start time: 3/4/10, 6:45pm
Location: Custis Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Average pace: 9:33min/mile
Total Miles For March: 8 miles
Total Miles For 2010: 127 miles

Wow, that sucked.

It’s been ages since I ran on the Custis Trail. I hadn’t planned on doing so—I was aiming to run on the W&OD Trail after work—but I got out of the office much later than I thought and it was fairly dark. Since the Custis Trail is lit (unlike most of W&OD unfortunately) I thought I’d do the responsible thing and run there instead. Only problem is that Custis Trail is one of the hilliest running courses in the area. Lots of straight up and down hills that kick my ass every time I run them. When I used to run with Pacers, on Tuesdays I’d run in Old Town and Thursdays I’d run in Clarendon on Custis (or was it the other way around?) and it was always a huge time difference with Custis.

Anyway, it clearly had been too long since I’d done some serious hill work; on the second mile there was one hill that kicked my ass so thoroughly that I actually ended up walking for about 10 seconds just to get to the top. Bleah. On the bright side, yesterday my right foot had been a tiny bit sore and I figured out the reason today, with the heel lift in my right shoe having slid out of position. (It’s there to help my right calf from getting strained.) Soon as I put it back, problem solved. Now if only the hills were that easy to slay! I guess I know what I need to do more of… unfortunately…

(8:49, 10:03, 9:59, 9:22)