Confidence Building in Santa Cruz (18mi)

What a gorgeous morning running along the coast in Santa Cruz! Sun was splitting the rocks. Beautiful.

And my thanks to Rich Hahn, because I wasn't going to run that fast this morning. But Rich is a great running partner, a bit faster than me, and fortunately he started a little later than me so he caught up with me at ~ mile 4. Perfect. I'd run four slow miles to start and was nicely warmed-up. With Rich I picked-up the pace, but even more importantly, something Rich is very good at, we ran negative splits bringing in the last 3mi all under 8min pace!

That's a great confidence-builder for me. I now know I can cover a long distance (18mi) and yet have the strength to run fast at the end. This is critical because in last autumn's marathon I ran out of juice and had no strength left at the end. This season I've learned how to start steadily, manage my pace, and finish strong!