Luke - 8.75

8.75mi, 56:56 (6:30)

Fox Hollow, no Zack. Felt pretty good as I walked to the corner where I start my runs, so I decided to give it a good effort. Last time I tried to PR on this run I think I went out too fast, and ended up dying on the way back, so I tried to go out conservatively fast today. Just over 7-minute pace for the first mile and a half (10:39) and then tried to average around 1:40 quarters until the base of the hill. Managed 6:32 pace for that stretch without going into the well, so I figured breaking an hour was a definite possibility, although I knew I'd have to see how I felt after the hill. Hit the uphill hard, as usual, and figured I would be up in about 8:45...for some reason I was thinking my PR up the hill was 8:13, when in reality it is 7:13. So at the halfway point I was at 3:55 and was like "Damn, I'm gonna kill my old PR!" Managed 7:32 for a total of 30:27 for the first half of the run. I knew my split there the day I PRed was 30:30, so I was feeling good about the run (especially since I thought I'd PRed up the hill by 41 seconds). The downhill took 6:46, and then the hard part of the run started--trying to average better than 6-minute pace the entire way back. Started hitting right on 90-second quarters, and managed to pick it up to 88, 87, and 88 the last .75mi of Rexius. With a mile and a half to go I was just under 48:30, so I knew even at 6-minute pace I wouldn't get under 57 minutes, and I knew my PR was 56:xx. I hit an 83-second quarter on Amazon and am pretty sure my last mile was under 5:30, maybe even under 5:20, though I don't know where the exact mile marker is so I can't be sure. At any rate, 8:29 for the last 1.5 miles (that split was 8:41 on my PR of this run) and managed to break 57. Felt like I had just a little bit left at the end, so it may in fact be possible to break 56 someday.