A long run, a short race, and a surprise visit

Yesterday was the day I planned to do my longer run of the week since I'd be working at the running store today.

I'm not training for anything at the moment (I need to figure that out!!!), but I've been doing a longer run of 10-12 miles on the weekends anyway. Yesterday was the Haddon Heart Run 5k, which I've run the past 2 years. It's just over 2 miles from my house, so I figured I'd run there, run the race, and then run the longer way home. I'd get about 10 miles, maybe 11, done. Good plan!

I spent Friday nite finishing my Christmas shopping, and got up early Saturday. It was a cold morning, so I was playing around with what I wanted to wear -- something warm enough to keep me comfortable on the longer time out there, but wearable for a 5k. As I was deciding, my phone rang. My dad woke up early and decided to grab a coffee and drive up to watch my race. He lives just over an hour away, but he was a marathoner and refers to himself as my coach, so this surprise visit didn't really surprise me...

He stopped by my house to make sure he knew where the race start was, reassured me that he knew I was doing my LR around the race and that he wouldn't get in the way of that, wished me luck and headed to the start. I ran there, and met up with him just in time to peel off one of my layers and point out a local Olympian who was running the race as well.

I wasn't planning on running all-out and shooting for a PR -- I haven't been doing any speedwork lately -- but I knew I wasn't going to take it too easy, either. The race started and I settled into a comfortable pace.

When I hit the first mile, I saw that I was running about an 8mpm pace. I did a check of my legs and breathing and decided this was fine to hold onto. Didn't really need to slow down, didn't need to speed up. Just right for today.

So I made my way to the finish -- 24:30ish -- and found my dad and my sister (who would've run the race were it not for an allergy attack!) and chatted with them for a couple minutes. Dad quickly pointed out I didn't want to get cool, so I should be on my way. He was going to run some errands and he'd meet me at my house in about an hour.

Off I went. Ran 4.5, then one more, then added one more mile home. In total, I ran just over 12 miles. A few moments later, Dad arrived. He helped me with some house stuff and then headed home.

Great way to get 12 miles done :)