June 21 - 7.6 miles

After returning from a 12-day European vacation on Wednesday evening I was invited to travel to Beaufort, SC for the weekend. My initial reaction: sounds like fun but I have to get an early-morning distance run in since I'd missed the last two with the girls. So after a late dinner out on Saturday, we got up at 6 a.m. and headed out the door shortly thereafter. I ran and he biked (a true trooper!) since I wasn't familiar with the area. It was warm but mostly shaded and the sun hid behind clouds until near the end. The first mile was hard, and around mile three it got much easier and I upped the pace to around a 10-minute mile. At mile 5.5 a deer darted across the road out of nowhere and startled me. My left IT band began feeling stiff and at 6.75 it threw in the towel. I jogged to the car to hit 7 miles, stretched really well, and then decided it'd be smart to walk for a few - rounding out the distance at 7.6 miles. I knew I should do 10 but since I was easing back into it after 2 weeks I told myself to do at least 6. So I was happy with 7. And even happier with the yummy coffee I had after and the delicious breakfast of real corned beef hash, egg, and grits!