Another 9... with much less dying

I set out for another 9 miles tonight. Last time was a bit painful, so I had a couple goals for this one: start slower and have negative splits and finish strong. Check and check!
Instead of weaving through our neighborhood for 9 miles, we drove to Portland and parked under the east end of the Hawthorne Bridge. We first crossed the bridge and ran through Waterfront Park and the Eastbank Esplanade - just under 3 miles. Then we headed down the Springwater Corridor for another 3 miles before turning around at Oaks Park.

The route was flat and mostly shady, a big bonus since it was actually sunny and warm today! There was a fair amount of other runners and lots of bike commuters, but it wasn't so crowded that it affected our run. Construction closed a small section of trail around OMSI, but the detour was well marked, and two workers even pointed us in the right direction.

Oh, and the sun was setting behind the West Hills... gorgeous!
My training plan called for running 20 minutes and walking 1 minute until I reached 9 miles. Negative splits: 10:26, 10:24, 10:22, 10:14 and 9:57!! I averaged, including walk breaks, 10:32.

Last time, I did it in 1:36:42. Today was 1:34:49. I also finished strong, feeling pretty good all the way to the end.

But I did have one big problem: chaffing. I've never had any trouble with chaffing before, but I sure did tonight. The inside of my right thigh was rubbing on the seam of my shorts. And both arms rubbed on the tank top. And I have a large blister on one of my little toes. Ouch!

I hope it was just a fluke, maybe because of Saturday's very soggy Mud Run. I guess we'll see.

:)