Last 14 Miler Before Great Race

Hoping to minimize chance of injuries before the Chesebro Half Marathon (just two Saturday's away), I figure today will be my last half marathon distance run before it. I would have run over the weekend, but cleaning my home office and helping host a party has a way of zapping time and energy.

So, not having run since accidentally running 10.22 miles on Thursday (seriously, I planned to do only 8), I set out to run 14 miles today with the plan to start slow and finish strong.

On my first (fortunately slow and uphill) mile, I trip and fall...scraping both palms. I use probably an eighth of the water in my bottle to rinse the wound and bleed for the rest of the run, but survive the distance averaging a respectable 8:45/mile.

Definitely started slower and finished stronger than my last 13.45 miler a week ago Sunday, but I had hoped my average pace would have improved.