~8 miles @ ~9.4 min/mi

The rising sun blinds me as Cara Marie Manlandro and I head toward it along Gude Drive, following the Rockville Millennium Trail. "Don't blame me!" I warn, "You're leading!" The pace on my GPS fall below 9:45 min/mi, and CM pleads guilty. She's running on less than 4 hours of rest after a family emergency kept her up into the wee hours of the morning. "Lack of sleep is an advantage!" I tell her, but she disagrees. We fist-bump salute each other for joining the Sub-4 Club with recent marathon PRs, and compare notes on how the races felt. I'm wearing B&A Marathon windbreaker pants over lime-green shorts discovered at the Value Village thrift store recently. New York City Marathon ladies shorts I bought there are a gift this morning to CM, who ran NYC a few years ago.

After ~3.5 miles we reach Rockville Pike and agree to cut short the loop and take a more direct route back to her home. When CM tells me there are only ~2 miles to go I request permission to run on ahead. "You promise you won't hate me?" With her blessing I accelerate up the Pike into the chilly wind and finish with a couple of fast splits in spite of a slightly uphill grade. The GPS trackfile records 9:48 ⇒ 9:37 ⇒ 9:39 ⇒ 10:15 ⇒ 9:49 ⇒ 9:39 ⇒ 8:09 ⇒ 8:04 min/mi plus a cooldown fraction. CM finishes shortly behind me.

^z - 2012-03-20