After my Jingle Bell 5K experience with hills, I decided to enter the Little Rock Half Marathon instead of the marathon. With that adjustment, I decided to incorporate some hills into my training regiment and see what happens. So far so good.

Today was an 8 mile run. It’s not the longest run I’ve ever done (that would be 12) but it is pretty far and still a little intimidating. There was 10 mile an hour winds that seemed to be blowing in my face. It didn’t matter which direction I was running, the wind seemed to adjust to be blowing RIGHT IN MY FACE. It was hard enough that I felt it was slowing me down. My short goal is to manage to jog up this hill without stopping to walk. It’s pretty steep. I didn’t make it this time. Maybe next time.

No one tried to run me off the road.

I did however meet another runner which surprised me. There doesn’t seem to be that many bona fide runners around here.

So when it was all said and done. (according to the Nike + iPod)

8 miles
1:40:31
average pace 12:33 minute/mile

My favorite song for this run was “When I Grow Up” by the Pussycat Dolls.