When I got up to run this morning, the sun was shining. Flowers were blooming. Pollen in the air was making my throat itch.

And it was 35 degrees.

Well, at least it looked like spring. And it did start to warm up while we were out there. I lost the gloves and earband early on, and tied my jacket around my waist after the halfway point.

Today I ran six of my miles for the Hooray Spring 6 Miler virtual race, hosted by RunningLaur.

My total distance was 10 miles, in 1:45:34. That’s about 10:30 pace — and I’m very happy with that for a training run. Actually, I just checked my stats. My last 10-mile race (last April) was 1:45:11. So it was a very good run today!

And I suppose it was really a bit better. While I did pause my watch for a water break for my running buddy (I always bring my own!), I kept it running the few times we had to wait for traffic and the one time we waited at the bottom of the bridge for the rest of our group to cross. (We needed to see how long they’d be sticking with us. There were three people running three miles, two running six, and two running the full 10.)

I stopped my iPod/Nike+ when it said I had run six miles (well, I caught it at 6.09), and my time was 1:00:59. However, I’ve found that while it paces me correctly when I’m running 10-minute miles or faster, it’s always off when I’m running slower. That’s why I run with a Garmin as well. Or maybe it’s just because I’m that big of a dork.

My Garmin was only at 5.72 miles at that one-hour mark. It hit six miles at 1:03:24. This will be my official race time, since I’m pretty sure it was closer to the actual mileage.

Certainly no speed record for me for a six-miler … but I felt great today!

Oh, and I tried a new-to-me Gu flavor during the run — Tri-Berry. It tasted mostly like raspberry, which I found delicious. I’ll be adding this flavor to my usual rotation of Vanilla Bean and Chocolate Outrage!

A good friend and running buddy of mine is the race director of a marathon/half marathon that’s coming up in a couple weeks.

She was looking for some volunteers to distribute flyers to homes along the race route, letting the residents know about road closures and delays on race day.

Another friend decided we could help out while getting in our long run for the week. We wanted to run about 12 miles, so we took some neighborhoods farthest from our meeting point.

It wasn’t particularly a fast run as we had a few stops off the trail into neighborhoods where we walked from house to house leaving our notes, but we certainly covered a lot of distance!

Once we got to the end of our route I ran the rest of the way back. One of the ladies in our little group was having some hamstring trouble, and the other two decided to walk back with her rather than run with me. I’m a little faster than they are. I would have slowed to their pace to have company, but they still chose to walk.

Despite being alone without headphones, it was a nice day and I enjoyed my run!

Here is where I’ll add yet another task to my list. USJogger declared a virtual 5K this weekend for Non-Runner Nancy – a blogger and virtual race director who has learned some problems she’s been having may force her to stop running all together.

I’m going to dedicate 3.16 of my later miles to the Freakishly Flexible 5K.

During my last mile, I happened to pause my Garmin after already waiting a little while at a particularly long stoplight. I’ve got the ForeRunner 201. I set it to lap every mile, but it resets to a new lap any time I pause. The partial mile was a good thing, though. I would up with .16 from the light to my car, so I added that to the last three full miles to finish out my 5K.

Mile 1: 10:30
Mile 2: 10:19
Mile 3: 10:27
.16: 1:40

Total: 32:56

While it’s well below my average 5K pace, it’s not bad for the tail end of a 12-mile run!

A couple weeks ago, Reid at Life Strides announced a virtual 1-mile race. This would go along with his attempt to run a mile under five minutes. The “race” could be done any time between September 1 and 7, and at any speed. Which is good, because I’m nowhere near a five-minute mile!

He’s been training and had already made several attempts, and he knew he was getting close. I don’t want to give his results away — so read his report here!

The fastest mile I ever ran was for a one-mile track race a few years ago, 7:57. I haven’t been doing any speed work lately, but I figured I’d try to break eight minutes again.

Only, I new it wasn’t going to happen pretty early on.

First off, I didn’t run until after 2:30 pm today. It would have been cooler in the morning, but I had a late night and wanted to sleep in!

I’ve also had some stiffness in my knee for a couple weeks. Last week’s 1/2 marathon didn’t help. It doesn’t hurt to run, but it doesn’t feel right. I should probably get it checked out.

And then I decided to eat a couple cookies before heading out the door since I was a little hungry.

I ran to a track that is about a 1/2 mile from my house, and continued to run around the track until my iPod announced I had completed one mile.

At that point, I started my Garmin and picked up the pace.

I don’t know my splits, but I’m pretty sure I had a gradual decline for each lap. I tried to pick it up once the iPod told me I only had 100 meters left.

Once I hit my mile mark (announced by iPod, confirmed by Garmin beep), I stopped my watch. I’m glad they decided to agree today!

Nope, not even close, 8:35. But still considerably quicker than my normal pace!

I walked around the track to recover, and once the feeling that I could possibly lose those cookies passed, I ran home. Might as well get a little more mileage in!

No new personal record, but I had a good run, anyway!

Non-Runner Nancy hosts virtual races from time to time. I’m a fairly new reader of her site, so I haven’t participated until now.

For the latest race, we were to run eight miles sometime around August 8th. As late as the 10th was fine, which was perfect for me. I had a long run planned!

Actually, I did a little extra credit … 10 on the 10th!

It was a great morning, sunny and not too hot. Though, the humidity was pretty bad. I started my run a little after 7 a.m.

I took several water stops, including one that took a little extra time to get the rock out of my shoe. I just kept my watch running anyway.

Here’s the breakdown:
Mile 1: 10:07
Mile 2: 10:20
Mile 3: 10:22
Mile 4: 12:34 (water stop!)
Mile 5: 10:37
Mile 6: 13:32 (water/turnaround point/shoe rock)
Mile 7: 12:28 (running out of steam?)
Mile 8: 12:00

I felt really strong during the last couple miles there, so I’m not sure why I slowed down so much. Well, there was the ID checkpoint (Naval Academy), and one last stop to fill my water bottle …

My time at 8 miles was 1:32:03

Mile 9: 11:25
Mile 10: 9:52 (excited to be finished?)

Time for all 10: 1:53:21

Now … if I were to select just my best eight miles …

Mile 1: 10:07
Mile 2: 10:20
Mile 3: 10:22
Mile 4 (12:34) swaps with Mile 9: 11:25
Mile 5: 10:37
Mile 6 (13:32) swaps with Mile 10: 9:52
Mile 7: 12:28
Mile 8: 12:00

Best Time for 8: 1:27:15

Thanks, Nancy!

Sure, I had a training run and would have been out there anyway … but it was fun to share!