Hills are my Friends: A big PR!

This weekend was the second of three of my "back-to-back" long run weekends. 

Saturday morning I ran 8 miles at a pretty decent pace with a training group. And then Sunday morning, I ran the Road Race Series 10-miler at Shelby Forest. 

Mary and me before the race.

I ran the same race in 2010 and finished in 1:43:31. I know I've improved since then, but I was still a little anxious because the course is uber hard. Like absolutely ridiculous hills, switchbacks, etc. 

Check out that elevation chart. For Memphis, that is HILL-Y, folks. 

Not to mention as soon as I got to the race, I realized I didn't have my Garmin. Fail. But, I planned to run with a friend, and luckily she had hers, so I was in good shape.

Awesome running partner

Let me say that Shelby Forest is a great place for hill training. Steep downhills followed by steep uphills. It's no joke. I asked my friend for our pace about 4 different times throughout the race, but other than that, I/we went by feel. My goal was to run straight 9-minute miles, but I wasn't sure even that was possible, considering the course. But we stayed on pace, actually below pace, and we both ended up finishing in 1:29:40!

Stats:

10 miles in 1:29:40

Average pace: 8:58/mile
Age group: 12/45
Overall: 189/692

Splits:
9:07
8:51
8:53
8:48
8:51
8:58
9:43 (BIG hill!)
9:02
8:46
9:22 (switchbacks!)

Take that, hills!

This definitely gave me a huge confidence boost for the half marathon I'm running next weekend. Here's to (finally) going sub-2 hours on half marathon #6.