17.5 miles - 2:04

I almost made it to the start of the run in time this week and met up with the group about 1/4 mile into the run. Bill, Nick, Mike, John and another guy I didn't know was there. Sam caught up with us at the first water stop. The first 10 miles or so were all between 7:00 - 7:30 pace with us gradually picking up the pace. We dropped down below 7:00 pace about mile 11 and I stayed under there the rest of the run. We hit the water stop about mile 12.5 on Crestwood and most of the guys headed back towards the base. I decided to run an extra lap at the park and then head back to get to 17.5 miles because I knew it could be tough to add on miles at the end if everybody else stopped at the base. I dropped down into the low 6:40's for a couple of miles and then came back up to around 6:50 pace for the last couple of miles. The last 5 miles were definitely harder running by myself than with the group, but the last 5 were my fastest 5 miles of the run. My legs were pretty tired he rest of the day afterwards, but the workout went pretty well overall.