the picture perfect day

What a gorgeous day for a run! I didn't get started until late today - I was up until midnight. Fortunately the humidity that was around for last weekend was gone. It was a bright, sunny day with not a single cloud in the sky - beautiful. It made it all worth the extra effort to get out the door for my run today. I did a different route, or at least a slight deviation from my more usual route. I ran in the neighborhood for the majority of my run, out to the front entrance and towards the state park. It reminded me of the marathon and the training runs, so it helped to keep me inspired while I ran, plus the change in scenery helped too. I wound my way to the park and ran towards the back, turned around and headed home. I had a 9 mile course mapped out in my head, and my GPS confirmed this, but it was way off on my pace/time. I am not sure what happened, but at one point I ran a mile in under 4 minutes (my fastest pace was 114.7 mph). I am pretty sure I wasn't transformed into a Kenyan for a mile, but who knows? Maybe there was some portal I went through...I love my gadgets (at least when I don't obsess over my results), but I am once again reminded that they aren't any more perfect than I am. From my best guess though I ran a solid 9:00 mile pace average. I had slowed down around mile 6, but I still had energy at the end to kick it up to finish as strong as I started. I certainly was not as drenched as I was on my last long run, and not as wiped out either. I finished off my run with a nice cool down, stretching and did some cross-training - a.k.a. mowing the lawn. As I have mentioned before I find zen in mowing my lawn. I treat it like a blank canvas each time and methodically plan my "pattern". I love the look of a finely manicured lawn, though mine is far from that, but I try to give it the appearance of one. I should own my own golf course or baseball field - I'd have fun with taking care of those lawns... A busy week of work coming up again - round 2. I am once again swamped due to inheriting a job I know very little about. Long story short, I was helping out and the project architect had a family emergency, I am now in charge of coordinating it...I have to learn all about the project for Monday as I am getting three people to help me out. The drawings are supposed to be complete by the following Monday, so it will be interesting...hopefully I can still squeeze in a few runs to keep my sanity...or maybe I'll just mow the lawn again...