So, exactly 14 weeks ago at this time I was sitting by the pool at the Beaches Resort in Curacao, Dutch Antilles (near Venezuela) with a double Scotch with one ice cube, ice under the back of my right leg, and a pair of crutches at my side. Having just severely ruptured my right hamstring muscles, there was no way I could walk, let alone run.
14 weeks later, I just had another excellent run from home into Lucan and back.
It was a tempo run, so the goal was to go a bit slower than marathon pace for the first half, and then a bit faster than marathon pace for the second half. But since I have no idea what my current "marathon pace" is (it changes as my hamstring gets stronger), I just went into town a bit slower than I thought I could go back.
I was targeting 8:20 per mile for the first 5 miles, a five minute break for a Coke at Clarke's Variety, and then 8:00 per mile (or better) for the 5 miles home. Here are my splits:
8:27
8:18
8:15
8:19
8:14
(5 minute break)
7:58
7:53
7:51
7:51
7:54
My overall time was 1:20:56 and the average pace was 8:06 per mile. Compare that to my tempo run last week (same route, although the Westerly wind was a factor) with a time of 1:26:34 (8:39 average pace) and it is actually mind boggling the difference in performance in just a week.
There are less than 8 weeks left until Boston. And I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, as it were. But if things keep improving this well, there is a _chance_ that I can have a respectible finish time. All I can do is keep training and we'll see what the prognosis is on race day!
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